Many people head off to their vacation or weekend away, something like that. But on entering a bar, one of the locals gives an ominous warning. Naturally, being a horror movie cast, these people head towards their cabin anyways and unsurprisingly, spooky stuff starts happening. As it happens this same path was where the Donner Party travelers ended up...
What makes this film effective is the writers avoid spelling out whats happening. Sometimes, knowing is effective - Jigsaw wouldn't be nearly as scary without knowing his motives - but sometimes not knowing is scarier, and towards the climax the writers got a bit heavy-handed. Thankfully they didn't explain everything.
While the characters aren't deep, they're not generic stock archetypes either and at times are entertaining to watch.
What makes this film effective is the writers avoid spelling out whats happening. Sometimes, knowing is effective - Jigsaw wouldn't be nearly as scary without knowing his motives - but sometimes not knowing is scarier, and towards the climax the writers got a bit heavy-handed. Thankfully they didn't explain everything.
While the characters aren't deep, they're not generic stock archetypes either and at times are entertaining to watch.