David Hackl

Absolutely not. Saw V was far and away the worst Saw movie before 3D, and demonstrated a deep misunderstanding of what makes Saw popular. And while I'm no fly on the wall, I'd venture a guess that David Hackl was also largely responsible for Saw 3D being what it was.

Kevin Greutert had barely two weeks to prepare to direct a movie that was already in trouble before he came on. He also had to learn how to make a 3D movie pretty much on the fly, and had to deal with Lionsgate and Twisted's anxiety over making this last film successful and not a fatal blow to a franchise they very much would have liked to keep relevant.

KG was hugely beneficial to the franchise as a whole, and managed to keep it alive after a lethargic Saw V. I'm not even sure the idea of keeping him away from their biggest competition in Paranormal Activity was the sole reason Hackl was fired from 3D.

Greutert did a great job helping VI be a good film, and will do a great job helping Legacy be as good as it can be.

Is he involved with legacy?

Saw V isn't as bad as people say it is, but Hackl is the weakest of the 4 directors to date. 3D is a big mess, but it could've been worse.

I think Saw 3D would have been more visually interesting had Hackl directed, but probably not have been a better film.

Hackl's visual direction in Saw V was perfectly fine (I appreciated that he was a bit slower and more methodical than Bousman had been with the previous film)... it was his handling of the story, and the writing in general that was the issue.

He evidently had been planning how to direct and visually tell the story of Saw 3D for months and months before being booted out at the last minute, and it's obvious that Kevin Greutert didn't have a lot of passion for the project, as it was very dull and lacked in creative visuals compared to his work on the previous film.

I think Hackl probably would have delivered more dynamic work and style with the visuals and image composition, especially to utilize the 3D effects... so it would have looked a bit prettier than what we got. But a lot of the big problems with the film (like the abysmal casting and general idea for the story) were based on his decisions.

I do think Hackl gets a bit too much crap. He's a decent enough visual director. I just don't think he was a good fit for helming a Saw film. Greutert was better for the material (Saw VI is probably the best-directed film in the series), but obviously due to the circumstances, his apathy towards Saw 3D was definitely visible onscreen.

And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point?

Hackl is a Hack l

I'm not sure. Saw V is the 2nd worse in the series for me after 3D.

I think the problem with David Hackl is that he is just a production designer. He is thrust into the director's chair at the loss of Darren Lynn Bousman. He had no idea how to direct. Saw V was the worst iteration to the franchise. Kevin Gruetert, however, had knowledge of how to direct a bit more since he was the editor behind the franchise from the get-go and worked with James Wan and Darren Lynn Bousman. Kevin saved the saga from being terrible. Even though he phoned in his contract for Saw VII, it was still 100x better than anything that David Hackl would have done.

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"But my job's fun too - I mean, tomorrow I don't have to wear a tie." - Chandler