'Saw IV' makes audiences wish they never saw it
By Lindsay Rice, Staff Writer
November 6, 2007 | 8 a.m.
Those in search of a mindless, 92-minute maze of blood, gore and miscalculated time sequences will find what they're looking for in "Saw IV."
Director Darren Lynn Bousman’s fourth film in the "Saw" horror series contains all the gore and twists that a horror-film enthusiast would expect. This predictability can go both ways, but in this case, it goes the way of a puzzling downward spiral.
The sadistic killer John “Jigsaw” Kramer (Tobin Bell) might be dead, but his work is not. The movie opens with his body in the morgue, and it is apparent that no matter how many times he seems to die, the movie makers behind the "Saw" franchise will stop at nothing -- including reality -- to keep his dead body around. The blood and guts literally commence immediately as his body is dissected. Miraculously, within his stomach, a tape is found, informing the audience, that yet again, “the games have just begun.”
From that point on, "Saw IV" jumps into the first Jigsaw trap, where it is apparent that the writers are running out of ideas for these initially creative set-ups to teach the victims or victimizers a lesson. The fourth installment weakly attempts to humanize Jigsaw through his ex-wife, whom the case’s detectives interrogate. The flashbacks do nothing more than make her appear as an accomplice to murder, as she did not turn her obviously twisted husband in to the police.
The detectives are poorly developed characters who do not elicit sympathy effectively enough to make the audience truly care about their collective fate. Detective Strahm (Scott Patterson of "Gilmore Girls") and Detective Perez (Athena Karkanis) appear on the first crime scene of the movie, where the main trap has been set. The idea that Jigsaw could foresee the reactions of those whom he set up before his death stretches the believability and, in turn, makes the film less frightening than perplexing.
The victims who find themselves in the set-ups have often committed some crime and have the choice of either defacing their own body or the body of another person in order to ultimately live, or simply dying through their idleness. The victims' traps are founded around Jigsaw’s mantra of appreciating life. This is slightly ironic, as we learn that, after his wife’s seven-month miscarriage, he spent his own life plotting the deaths of others instead of spending time with his wife.
Throughout the film are multiple references to the previous "Saw" movies, all of which are confusing to first-time “Saw” viewers. In fact, the references mixed with hard-to-follow time sequences and flashbacks make for more confusion than terror -- even for those that have seen all three prior "Saw" movies.
The most suspenseful parts of the movie lie in the capturing of the victims, while the soundtrack is probably the second most climactic element in the movie. Overall, “Saw IV” provides only one or two jumps, a few eye-hiders and most of all, uncertainty. However, it is certain that there will be more movies in the "Saw" franchise, and if the series' writers continue on their current path, then the films will become continually more confusing.
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Speakeasy Rating: D
Running Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for extreme violence, nudity and language.
Movie Genre: Horror