Saw IV (2007)

June 27, 2024 1:52 PM

[TRAILER] During the autopsy of serial killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), a cassette tape is discovered in his stomach in which he warns that his gory games will continue. Sure enough, SWAT Lt. Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) is forced to follow a blood-drenched trail of torture, dismemberment and death in order to find two missing colleagues. A pair of FBI profilers follow Riggs, suspecting he might be Jigsaw's accomplice, even as they unlock the puzzle of the killer's origins, seen in gruesome flashbacks.

Also starring Scott Patterson, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Screenplay by Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan (Feast). Story by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Thomas Fenton. Produced by Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules, Mark Burg for Twisted Pictures. Cinematography by David A. Armstrong. Edited by Kevin Greutert, Brett Sullivan. Music by Charlie Clouser.

18% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. (62% audience score.)

Currently streaming in the US on Hulu. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

I watched this yesterday and kept zoning out and having to either rewind or check the Saw Wikia.

On this franchise's very best day, trying to get us to be invested in Jigsaw's fucked up plans is not easy. It's literally villain stuff, so the best they can hope for is a morbid curiosity and a belief that John Kramer may be bent, but he means every word and thinks this will help people. When the movie literally starts with him dead, that's a higher bar to clear than this one can even get close to clearing.

Other scoring notes:
-it's easier to take grim satisfaction in the traps when the people caught in them are rapists and abusers, rather than people who made bad decisions or were depressed
-the one standout trap is the scalping machine. holy shit
-the cop/mystery stuff is turned up another notch and I still don't care
-the twist! action on this one is supposed to carry it, I think; didn't work for me
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:58 PM on June 27 [3 favorites]

DOT, I appreciate you. Why are you doing this to yourself? I ask that because I once watched all the Friday the Thirteenth films, just so that I could authoritatively state that they'll all bad. (Well, OK, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan had some funny gags in it. But otherwise, bad.)

I thought the original Saw had at least a little something to recommend it. The whole "people locked in a room trying to figure out what the hell is going on" vibe. But for the rest (and yeah, yeah, I watched II and III), I found them uninspired.
posted by SPrintF at 2:08 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]

Perhaps DOT awoke to find himself in a sadistic trap, the only way out of which was to watch all of the Saw films.

For some reason I’m imagining a trap that forces a choice between a painful death and having your entire, lifetime browser history published.
posted by jedicus at 2:51 PM on June 27 [5 favorites]