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In what has become a fall tradition, a new installment of the "Saw" franchise has been released. "Saw IV" is a welcome return to enjoyable horror fare for a series that seemed to have lost its way.

At its essence, the franchise is about the value of life and it explores how far a person will go to stay alive. In the first films, John (Tobin Bell), aka The Jigsaw Killer, overcomes a near-death experience only to find himself in a losing battle against cancer, which ties in with the sixth movie's victim.

He decides to use his remaining months challenging people with the same choice he had — live or die — subjecting them to traps that will kill them if they don't make sacrifices, such as cutting their foot off to escape from a chain.

John dies at the end of "Saw 3," but his surviving apprentice, FBI Det. Hoffman (Costas Mandylor, "The Cursed"), carries on the role of Jigsaw with seemingly less regard for human life, often having death traps with no escape option.

The franchise seemed to be on its last leg after the lackluster "Saw IV" and "Saw V," which ditched some of the established continuity to keep John in the films via very contrived flashbacks. The murder traps were designed to raise the gore factor and lower audience intelligence with bad writing and poorly developed characters.

Like its most recent two installments, "Saw VI" is not for franchise newcomers, as viewers need to have seen the other films to understand all the players and their motivations in this outing.

"Saw VI" picks up from the end of "Saw V," with Hoffman having disposed of a detective hot on his trail. He's now tasked with carrying out John's will. Bell primarily appears through taped messages, which makes a lot more sense as a means to keep him in the franchise.

Screenwriters Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton wisely stray away from having the characters go from one death trap to another and instead focus on one character, William (Peter Outerbridge, "Lucky Number Slevin"), that Hoffman makes jump through his hoops in an abandoned warehouse while Hoffman tries to remain one step ahead of federal investigators. William was John's health insurance provider who denied his coverage request to try an experimental procedure that might have saved his life. Who said horror movies couldn't be topical?

Outerbridge makes William more than the "evil insurance guy," allowing the audience to care as he has to see firsthand who lives or dies by his decisions as Jigsaw forces him to choose which of his employees he spares from death in traps, including a theme-park carousel with a mounted gun that he can only stop from killing two of his six co-workers. The series definitely needed an actor who can convey actual emotion and Outerbridge goes from typical executive to remorseful victim very convincingly. Another trap forces William to decide whether to save an elderly employee with a family or an employee, fresh out of college, who based on William's criteria for insurance coverage would be the more logical option. Jigsaw makes William realize his philosophy isn't as cut and dry as he originally believed.

Director Kevin Gretuert, who has edited each of the first five films, finally gets his chance to helm the action himself. The result is a tighter, intense movie with a stronger focus on the repercussions of the violence and not the gore itself.

Fans of the series should definitely enjoy this new installment and if the quality can remain at this level, I'm looking forward to "Saw VII."

Saw VI

R, Horror, 90 minutes

Director: Kevin Greutert

Cast: Cast: Costas Mandylor, Tobin Bell, Mark Rolston, Betsy Russell, Peter Outerbridge, Tanedra Howard and Shawnee Smith

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars