Saw IV

Saw IV **

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan

Starring:
Tobin Bell as Jigsaw / John
Costas Mandylor as Hoffman
Scott Patterson as Agent Strahm
Betsy Russell as Jill
Lyriq Bent as Rigg
Athena Karkanis as Agent Perez
Justin Louis as Art
Donnie Wahlberg as Eric Mathews
Shawnee Smith as Amanda

108 Minutes(Rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language. )
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The trailers for "Saw IV" boast "It's Halloween, so it must be SAW!" And that is the truth. This is the fourth year in a row that a "Saw" film has come out on the last weekend of October, and with a fifth film already in the works for next year, its pretty clear and official that the "Saw" franchise is the "Halloween" out this generation. I can see it now-"Saw in Space!" "Son of Saw!" It's all coming sooner or later, and the ratings will just go lower and lower, and the films will get dumber and dumber.

What really does kill me about these movies is that the film makers are clearly trying to try and make all the films lead up to something-trying to tie in everything from the previous films into the next one. There are little winks and slight nods to the past films all throughout this one, and I only caught a couple of them. I'm sure there are more, but I've only seen all the movies once-once a year-and I'm certainly not one of the fans that tries to dissect what is going on to make an epic out of them. At times I honestly didn't think the actors actually knew what they were talking about.

Plot doesn't exactly matter with these movies, but I'll give it a shot. In the last movie, famous serial killer/vigilante Jigsaw-aka John Kramer(played by Tobin Bell, who will be doing these movies for the rest of his life)-was killed along with his sidekick Amanda. In the opening shots we pretty much determine that he is really dead-and he gets cut open in more ways than one-yet inside of his stomach cavity is an audio tape, with him saying "Even though I'm dead, the games have just begun." And then we follow some kind of plot with a cop-named Rigg-going around his apartment building watching people get involved in brutal games of torture-where they can live, but they have to loose a strong amount of blood in the process. A man can escape a device around his head, if he slices his face through eight knives.

The movies are pretty ridiculous, and the seriousness of the first film seems to have disappeared. I laugh my way through these movies, and sometimes wonder if the film makers actually think they are making something truly neat, or if they are just trying to push the limit for the sake of laughs. I actually think the latter, and a scene where the dead Jigsaw is cut open in the beginning is just so over the top that it turns to comedy. I don't feel dirty or grossed out or even creeped out watching these movies anymore-I just watch them for the blood and guts, regardless of plot. Its just a tradition to watch the new "Saw" movie, and every year me and my dad honestly have a good time. But the first two had some kind of plot, some kind of twist, where you can follow. I'm not too big on them trying to incorporate bits from the earlier movies into this one-for example on woman from the second film appears in this for a second, and of course the constant sly references of the infamous Dr. Gordon from the first. I can't say I'm tired of "Saw" because some of the tortures are imaginative, and the movies are just so ludicrous that they are hilarious-not like Eli Roth's "Hostel" films, where he thinks that he's doing something new and different. Another year, another "Saw." They are certainly changing into moneymakers, but they are still good for a few dark laughs.