Saw IV (2007)
Review by Tony DeFrancisco
If it’s October, it must be the World Series.
Oh ya, and time again for the Saw movies.
From the opening minutes of Saw IV, unless if you work in a morgue or you’re Ed Gein, I doubt that you’ve ever seen anything like this before. This so-called “torture-porn” genre sure as hell isn’t scary, but goddamnit, you have to admit that the brilliant make-up work and the blood have to gross you out just a little.
It only feels like yesterday when I put Saw in my DVD player the week it came out on DVD. I knew that this movie would be a hit and I knew that they would span into several sequels. Saw II, though weak on the plot, had some brilliant traps. Saw III, however, didn’t impress me one bit. It made me wish that the series would just end and when Jigsaw died, my prayers had been answered. Or so it seemed. Little that I would know is that Saw IV would be not only the best since the original, but the best “torture-porn” film.
Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead. In the beginning moments, he is getting an autopsy done and what they find is another cassette tape, letting us know that he will continue killing people after his death. We then meet up with Commander Rigg (Lyriq Bent). His life hasn’t been going too well. Everyone he knows has either left him, or has been killed. In the middle of the night, he is kidnapped by someone in a pig mask. He is told by another cassette tape that he has ninety minutes to complete a series of tasks so he can save two of his friends that have been missing for quite sometime.
I said earlier that the gore starts right at the start. We watch the autopsy going on as they take out the brain, the stomach, and the guts. The gore is so strong right here that it is obvious that Bousman wants to make Saw IV as gory as he possibly can. But this Saw, unlike the other ones in the series, is different compared to the other ones. This one doesn’t rely on the story that is going on, but relies on the story that has been going on. These are flashbacks that tell us the tale on how John became Jigsaw, and surprisingly, they are done pretty damn well. Part of the mystery of Saw is that you don’t know jack-shit about Jigsaw’s past.
But it’s how they tell it that tells you how you should analyze it. Back when Saw was originally released, it was obvious to me that something had to happen in Jigsaw’s life that influenced him to let us know that we should be doing something with our lives. Back in Saw, one of the characters have a drug past, and when she returns in the second movie, she goes into a pit of syringe needles. While everyone said “Ew, that’s gross,” I said “HEY! She’s an ex-druggie!” Cue the “Shut the fuck up, Captain-fucking-Obvious!” remarks.
And that’s just it. Jigsaw WANTS to let us know that we should be doing something with our lives. We shouldn’t be obsessing over something that we later become disappointed with ourselves about. NO! We should be going out there and doing our motherfucking job, instead of making us look like a goddamn saint. We fucking BEG for a motivator like Jigsaw these days, don’t we?
Unlike the other films where Jigsaw’s message is hidden, Saw IV displays the message and puts it right in front of your eyes. The first film was all about these two guys just getting out of this room alive, while the second one was getting out of the house alive and a distraught detective finding his son. The third film is just a film where Jigsaw tries to survive. But the twist here is that Saw IV takes place mostly at the same exact time as Saw III. Bousman saves us by not only letting us know that Jigsaw is dead and he’s not coming back, and he isn’t only connecting the pieces to the puzzle either… but he’s letting us know that we don’t have to worry about Jigsaw becoming a zombie and suddenly coming back to life, which I’m sure we are all thankful for, even if we hate the series.
I could see why some people hate the Saw movies. Horror is the easiest genre to pick on. If it doesn’t scare us, we shouldn’t like it and therefore we call it stupid and bad, and some of us will even call it worthless. The so-called “torture-porn” subgenre usually gets the most shit from critics, because they use the fear of blood more than the usual phobia. And even though the same slasher films these days use the same fear of blood, I sense that these directors are trying something new and using other tactics to scare us. There were times in Saw IV that I jumped because I didn’t sense a lot of it coming. That’s living proof because nothing makes me jump out of my seat, unless you are Tyra Banks in a fat suit.
And the acting in this movie? Puh-leeze. Do you think the acting in this film matters? Naww! For Christ and his Mexican brother Quentin Tarantino, it’s a Saw movie, let alone a horror film. Of course the acting sucks, but we don’t care. We’re here to see people get killed!
Saw IV is a surprising horror film, but I know none of you guys are going to listen to me. I can see it now that all you readers are probably saying, “This is the guy that thought 30 Days of Night is boring as hell, but has a huge boner over The Invisible.” And that’s cool. But you can go out and miss the best horror movie that is out in theaters at the moment. Lord knows when we will get another one of these for a while.
And guess what? We can’t blame the bootlegs this time! Ah-HA! In your face, Roth!
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Popularity: 3% [?]
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