Meanwhile, the police investigate a new series of murders that fit the modus operandi of the eponymous Jigsaw Killer (Bell), who has been dead for almost a decade.
The previous film, released in 2010, was deemed the final installment of the series before Lionsgate commissioned the production of Jigsaw from a pitch by Stolberg and Goldfinger.
Detectives Brad Halloran and Keith Hunt pursue Edgar Munsen, who claims that he must start a "game" in exchange for his own survival.
Five people – Mitch, Anna, Ryan, Carly, and an unconscious man – awaken inside a barn with buckets on their heads and chains around their necks.
Halloran and Hunt investigate the discovery of corpses that appear to be the unconscious man and Carly, whose deaths fit Kramer's modus operandi.
Logan convinces Hunt to let them go after telling him that the bullet which hit Edgar was fired by Halloran, whom he and Eleanor suspect to be the new Jigsaw Killer.
Kramer confronts them and reveals that Anna asphyxiated her baby and framed her husband, who later committed suicide, and Ryan's drunken tomfoolery caused his friends' death in a car accident.
[2][3] After the intended conclusion, Lionsgate ceased making Saw films, while waiting to hear a pitch that they thought made it worthwhile to resurrect the series.
[4] In December 2011, while speaking with CNBC, Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns revealed that a new Saw film was being discussed and would eventually be made.
[7] Jigsaw was conceived when writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, who had spent two years pursuing the opportunity to write a Saw entry, proposed their vision.
[4] Stolberg and Goldfinger, both longtime Saw fans, had been called by their agents that Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate were considering reviving the franchise and if they were interested in pitching an approach.
According to Stolberg, Saw producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules called them months later and hired them to write the film, as unlike other takes they had heard from, their pitch contained one particular element they really liked.
However, that element didn't convince Lionsgate and the duo had to present several different pitches until they settled on the idea of telling the story through a time shift storyline like in previous Saw films, but in a different way.
[10] Clouser described the film as a "reinvention" of the series, opining that "the Spierig brothers can deliver a fresh take on the material that will establish a new story line and new characters that can carry the saga into the future".
Other cast members, Brittany Allen, Callum Keith Rennie, Matt Passmore, Josiah Black, Shaquan Lewis, Michael Boisvert, and James Gomez were also confirmed.
[15] With a production budget of $10 million,[16] principal photography took place from early October into November 2016 in Toronto under the working title, Saw Legacy.
[19] Lionsgate released eight promotional posters featuring "Nurses" Grae Drake, Dan Rockwell, Susanne Bartch, Nyakim Gatwech, Shaun Ross, Mosh, Mykie, and Amanda LePore.
[26] In the United States and Canada, Jigsaw was released alongside Thank You for Your Service and Suburbicon, and was projected to gross around $20 million from 2,941 theaters in its opening weekend.
The website's consensus reads: "Jigsaw definitely won't win many converts to the Saw franchise, but for longtime fans, it should prove a respectably revolting -- if rarely scary -- diversion.
[35] Variety's Owen Gleiberman found the film "garishly rote" saying "For 92 minutes, it more or less succeeds in sawing through your boredom, slicing and dicing with a glum explicitness that raises the occasional tingle of gross-out suspense but no longer carries any kick of true shock value.