Saw IV movie review - Aussieboyreviews
IS SAW IV THE FIRST ENTRY TO THE SERIES TO MARK AS POINTLESS?
This is the fourth entry to a grisly movie series, and it’s pretty confusing, but it’s not pointless at all. When are the Saw movies gonna start really falling downhill? Fans can continue to expect scenes of torturous violence and extreme gore.
Storyline
Seasoned FBI agents Strahm and Perez begin to assist veteran Detective Hoffman investigate the grisly remains of Jigsaw’s victims and piece together the puzzle that remains. Despite the deaths of Jigsaw and his accomplice, the grisly games continue as SWAT Commander Rigg is abducted and must participate in a game riddled with torture, traps and confrontations in order to save the lives of two colleagues or face the deadly consequences.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Cast: Tobin Bell, Lyriq Bent, Scott Patterson, Athena Karkanis, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Donnie Wahlberg
Writer: Marcus Dunstan, Patrick Melton
Release Date (Australia): 25 October 2007
Runtime: 93 minutes/1h 33m
Genre: Horror, Crime, Mystery
Country: USA, Canada
Language: English
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film features lengthy and explicit scenes of sadistic murder, torture and an autopsy. There are also strong verbal references to, photos and footage of the sexual abuse and rape of women.
The film contains explicit and gory scenes of torture and murder, including depictions of people being impaled, stabbed, shot, scalped and caught in traps set by a sadistic serial killer, featuring large blood sprays, gore and injury detail. The film also includes brief footage of a woman being sexually abused and raped by a man.
The film contains aggressive “f**k” language throughout, in addition to the words “s**t”, “bitch”, “damn” and “hell”.
The film contains verbal references to drug addiction throughout.
There is brief male frontal nudity as a nude man’s corpse is depicted on an autopsy table.
There are crude verbal references to sex and brief footage depicting sexualised violence in the form of a woman being sexually abused and raped.
mpaa rating
R (for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language)
Aussie boy's thoughts
If you’ve seen a lot of films, sequels and big movie franchises, you’ll know that one of the sequels for Saw is doomed to bring it down and the film series will continuously get worse from there. That’s pretty much an overall description for Saw IV, but it’s not a bad movie, it’s just a messy police-detective mystery that breaks the greatness between its famous, trap-invested predecessors.
To start off with the positives, this movie has most of what the everyday-Saw fan would beg for: intense traps, grisly torture and horrific deaths. But in this case, Jigsaw and his accomplice Amanda are both dead, yet there’s still a whole new sadistic game set up for SWAT Commander Rigg, played satisfyingly Lyriq Bent, in which he must participate in to save two colleagues. Meanwhile, two FBI agents assist a detective in investigating the grisly aftermaths and piecing together Jigsaw’s remaining puzzle.
Saw IV is probably the goriest movie of the franchise so far, with lots of extreme and bloodily gory impalement, stabbings, shootings and a crap-ton of pain that you’ll likely wince at the sight of. To be honest, the performances aren’t really that bad, but they’re nothing special and this movie won’t be the source that got this cast a head start in the industry. Alike the previous Saw movies, this film is directed very well by Darren Lynn Bousman, and the picture quality and colours are very distinguishable.
The problem with this sequel isn’t it’s lack of entertainment value compared to its brilliant ancestors, because it’s a very watchable crime-mystery with high levels of shock, stress and tension. But it’s because the film’s using a very convoluted technique to tell the story. You’ll remember nasty traps, grisly gore, an FBI mystery and the best element, which is the flashbacks from when Tobin Bell’s character was still alive, but the results and storytelling come out as so convoluted, that it really knocks down the scores and how good it could be. This concept had undeniable potential, but no writing from Leigh Whannell and the ideas for the franchise being handed to different minds may cause an overall decline in the dignity for the Saw movies.
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