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I wrote this for my website (www.shaunmunro.co.uk) in case it appears on any search engines. Cheers.
I have tolerated, and dare I say, enjoyed the “Saw” series up to this point – with the voluminous amounts of gore, the abject morality, and most of all, the outrageous, preposterous twists, the series served to revive the long-stale horror thriller genre. Unfortunately, by its fourth instalment, Saw has become a dead, flogged horse in of itself – it hasn’t quite become a parody yet, but the final five minutes of Saw IV are so audacious, so complacent in their mockery of the viewer that the eighty solid preceding minutes are almost nullified entirely. Leigh Whannell, writer of the first three Saw films, is absent from this fourth instalment, and it is abundantly, painfully clear.
Following the electrifying finale of the third film (which served as the natural ending to the series), Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are now dead. Jeff (Angus Macfayden), the protagonist of the film, was left trapped, set to play another game in order to save his daughter’s life.
Saw IV’s opening scene (which is also its best) is Jigsaw’s gruesome autopsy (featuring impressive special effects, no less), with returning helmer Darren Lynn Bousman choosing rather interestingly to shoot the scene in monochrome, allowing even greater contrast for Jigsaw’s crimson viscera. It is at this moment that a tape coated in wax is discovered in Jigsaw’s stomach, setting in motion another series of games, but not in any way you could possibly imagine.
As you can expect, an array of fresh faces are thrown into the mix, no doubt serving as protagonists for the fifth and sixth Saw films which, regrettably, have already been greenlit. Whilst they’re largely arbitrary characters, one Agent Strahm (Scott Paterson) is of mild interest, and certainly looks the part as the abrasive, impassioned officer that he is. The film’s one true mystery is postulated very early on – evidence suggests that Jigsaw and Amanda had been grooming another accomplice. It’s a scenario that will intrigue, confuse, and ultimately frustrate many Saw fans, but up until the final moments, Bousman leads us on a welcome deception, merely faltering at the final hurdle.
Fan favourite Sergeant Rigg (Lyriq Bent), who made fleeting appearances in Saw II and Saw III, is now the object of Jigsaw’s virulent life lessons, kidnapped and given ninety minutes to save the life of an old friend. From this point, Saw IV serves to follow Rigg as he trots around a number of grotty locations, intercut with the investigating officers’ attempts to track him down, and uncover who the next apprentice is. Formulaic it may by now be, but it’s enough to keep fans of the series glued to their seats, and that’s exactly what these films are about – fan service.
Perhaps I’m desensitised, yet I simply didn’t find Saw IV to be that vile. Yes, the opening autopsy scene will leave some cinemagoers gasping, yet CG spurts of blood in later scenes are never as terrifying as squibs, and much of the violence is spliced together at such a frenzied, hyperactive pace that you’ll have to wait for the DVD in order to search for those important severed limbs and headless stumps. No doubt, an unrated DVD is on the horizon, yet would it have hurt for the film to have been given an NC-17 rating rather than the comparatively tame R certification? I guess it would have.
As much the “everyman” as Rigg can endeavour to be, and by no fault of actor Lyriq Bent, some of his actions seem rather awkward and uncharacteristic. For instance, at once stage, Rigg could very well save a woman from a precarious situation, yet, as Jigsaw instructs him, leaves her to save herself. Through the logic of the film’s final twist, it would not have been possible for the new accomplice to have been watching Rigg at this stage, and so not only could he have rescued the woman, but also summoned the authorities. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
Ideologically speaking, Jigsaw’s methods appear to be faltering also – his mantra, whilst still ridiculous, at least made some sense in earlier instalments, whilst in this film, a number of poor saps are dealt unfair, unwarranted ends, often with no explanation as to their crimes, and at other times, for no apparent, justifiable reason. That said, in what is one of the more interesting aspects of Saw IV, we learn a great deal more about Jigsaw’s life before his torturous crusade began – we learn what truly drove him to these means, yet it arguably serves to denigrate his integrity. After watching Saw IV, you may think of Jigsaw less as an omnipresent, twisted genius, and more as a depressed psychopath.
The Saw series both relies, and thrives on convergent, all-encompassing finales, and the fourth entry into the series is no different. A number of different angles – some returning characters, our obsessed protagonist, and of course, the elusive accomplice - meet for the “final test”, which begins promisingly, effortlessly laying waste to and otherwise incapacitating half of the characters we’ve been following for the last 80 minutes.
Where the film falls apart is in its closing moments – the Saw films revel in gloriously deceiving the viewer, yet Saw IV doesn’t gloriously deceive as much as it shamelessly swindles. The final test is telegraphed in such a way that it near enough guarantees total annihilation of everyone involved, and worse still, as audaciously as anyone could ever be, the person behind it all along steps out from the shadows, utters “game over”, and saunters off, damning not just the pile of bodies in their wake, but the thoroughly disgusted audience aswell.
The film’s final test was all about patience, but by the end credits, I’d well and truly had it with Saw IV – for all of its logical fallacies and overly-frenetic editing, I could tolerate them in lieu of the film’s insulting ending, which presents an entirely non-sensical individual to continue Jigsaw’s work. It almost feels as though Darren Lynn Bousman is laughing at us, and frankly, I don’t get the joke. Saw IV’s great irony, and simultaneously, Liongate’s smartest marketing ploy, is that the series needs another sequel, if only to rectify this film’s almighty blunder, as well as finally deliver the answers that Bousman promised, and failed to.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer
I have tolerated, and dare I say, enjoyed the “Saw” series up to this point – with the voluminous amounts of gore, the abject morality, and most of all, the outrageous, preposterous twists, the series served to revive the long-stale horror thriller genre. Unfortunately, by its fourth instalment, Saw has become a dead, flogged horse in of itself – it hasn’t quite become a parody yet, but the final five minutes of Saw IV are so audacious, so complacent in their mockery of the viewer that the eighty solid preceding minutes are almost nullified entirely. Leigh Whannell, writer of the first three Saw films, is absent from this fourth instalment, and it is abundantly, painfully clear.
Following the electrifying finale of the third film (which served as the natural ending to the series), Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are now dead. Jeff (Angus Macfayden), the protagonist of the film, was left trapped, set to play another game in order to save his daughter’s life.
Saw IV’s opening scene (which is also its best) is Jigsaw’s gruesome autopsy (featuring impressive special effects, no less), with returning helmer Darren Lynn Bousman choosing rather interestingly to shoot the scene in monochrome, allowing even greater contrast for Jigsaw’s crimson viscera. It is at this moment that a tape coated in wax is discovered in Jigsaw’s stomach, setting in motion another series of games, but not in any way you could possibly imagine.
As you can expect, an array of fresh faces are thrown into the mix, no doubt serving as protagonists for the fifth and sixth Saw films which, regrettably, have already been greenlit. Whilst they’re largely arbitrary characters, one Agent Strahm (Scott Paterson) is of mild interest, and certainly looks the part as the abrasive, impassioned officer that he is. The film’s one true mystery is postulated very early on – evidence suggests that Jigsaw and Amanda had been grooming another accomplice. It’s a scenario that will intrigue, confuse, and ultimately frustrate many Saw fans, but up until the final moments, Bousman leads us on a welcome deception, merely faltering at the final hurdle.
Fan favourite Sergeant Rigg (Lyriq Bent), who made fleeting appearances in Saw II and Saw III, is now the object of Jigsaw’s virulent life lessons, kidnapped and given ninety minutes to save the life of an old friend. From this point, Saw IV serves to follow Rigg as he trots around a number of grotty locations, intercut with the investigating officers’ attempts to track him down, and uncover who the next apprentice is. Formulaic it may by now be, but it’s enough to keep fans of the series glued to their seats, and that’s exactly what these films are about – fan service.
Perhaps I’m desensitised, yet I simply didn’t find Saw IV to be that vile. Yes, the opening autopsy scene will leave some cinemagoers gasping, yet CG spurts of blood in later scenes are never as terrifying as squibs, and much of the violence is spliced together at such a frenzied, hyperactive pace that you’ll have to wait for the DVD in order to search for those important severed limbs and headless stumps. No doubt, an unrated DVD is on the horizon, yet would it have hurt for the film to have been given an NC-17 rating rather than the comparatively tame R certification? I guess it would have.
As much the “everyman” as Rigg can endeavour to be, and by no fault of actor Lyriq Bent, some of his actions seem rather awkward and uncharacteristic. For instance, at once stage, Rigg could very well save a woman from a precarious situation, yet, as Jigsaw instructs him, leaves her to save herself. Through the logic of the film’s final twist, it would not have been possible for the new accomplice to have been watching Rigg at this stage, and so not only could he have rescued the woman, but also summoned the authorities. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
Ideologically speaking, Jigsaw’s methods appear to be faltering also – his mantra, whilst still ridiculous, at least made some sense in earlier instalments, whilst in this film, a number of poor saps are dealt unfair, unwarranted ends, often with no explanation as to their crimes, and at other times, for no apparent, justifiable reason. That said, in what is one of the more interesting aspects of Saw IV, we learn a great deal more about Jigsaw’s life before his torturous crusade began – we learn what truly drove him to these means, yet it arguably serves to denigrate his integrity. After watching Saw IV, you may think of Jigsaw less as an omnipresent, twisted genius, and more as a depressed psychopath.
The Saw series both relies, and thrives on convergent, all-encompassing finales, and the fourth entry into the series is no different. A number of different angles – some returning characters, our obsessed protagonist, and of course, the elusive accomplice - meet for the “final test”, which begins promisingly, effortlessly laying waste to and otherwise incapacitating half of the characters we’ve been following for the last 80 minutes.
Where the film falls apart is in its closing moments – the Saw films revel in gloriously deceiving the viewer, yet Saw IV doesn’t gloriously deceive as much as it shamelessly swindles. The final test is telegraphed in such a way that it near enough guarantees total annihilation of everyone involved, and worse still, as audaciously as anyone could ever be, the person behind it all along steps out from the shadows, utters “game over”, and saunters off, damning not just the pile of bodies in their wake, but the thoroughly disgusted audience aswell.
The film’s final test was all about patience, but by the end credits, I’d well and truly had it with Saw IV – for all of its logical fallacies and overly-frenetic editing, I could tolerate them in lieu of the film’s insulting ending, which presents an entirely non-sensical individual to continue Jigsaw’s work. It almost feels as though Darren Lynn Bousman is laughing at us, and frankly, I don’t get the joke. Saw IV’s great irony, and simultaneously, Liongate’s smartest marketing ploy, is that the series needs another sequel, if only to rectify this film’s almighty blunder, as well as finally deliver the answers that Bousman promised, and failed to.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer
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I wrote this for my website (www.shaunmunro.co.uk) in case it appears on any search engines. Cheers.
I have tolerated, and dare I say, enjoyed the “Saw” series up to this point – with the voluminous amounts of gore, the abject morality, and most of all, the outrageous, preposterous twists, the series served to revive the long-stale horror thriller genre. Unfortunately, by its fourth instalment, Saw has become a dead, flogged horse in of itself – it hasn’t quite become a parody yet, but the final five minutes of Saw IV are so audacious, so complacent in their mockery of the viewer that the eighty solid preceding minutes are almost nullified entirely. Leigh Whannell, writer of the first three Saw films, is absent from this fourth instalment, and it is abundantly, painfully clear.
Following the electrifying finale of the third film (which served as the natural ending to the series), Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are now dead. Jeff (Angus Macfayden), the protagonist of the film, was left trapped, set to play another game in order to save his daughter’s life.
Saw IV’s opening scene (which is also its best) is Jigsaw’s gruesome autopsy (featuring impressive special effects, no less), with returning helmer Darren Lynn Bousman choosing rather interestingly to shoot the scene in monochrome, allowing even greater contrast for Jigsaw’s crimson viscera. It is at this moment that a tape coated in wax is discovered in Jigsaw’s stomach, setting in motion another series of games, but not in any way you could possibly imagine.
As you can expect, an array of fresh faces are thrown into the mix, no doubt serving as protagonists for the fifth and sixth Saw films which, regrettably, have already been greenlit. Whilst they’re largely arbitrary characters, one Agent Strahm (Scott Paterson) is of mild interest, and certainly looks the part as the abrasive, impassioned officer that he is. The film’s one true mystery is postulated very early on – evidence suggests that Jigsaw and Amanda had been grooming another accomplice. It’s a scenario that will intrigue, confuse, and ultimately frustrate many Saw fans, but up until the final moments, Bousman leads us on a welcome deception, merely faltering at the final hurdle.
Fan favourite Sergeant Rigg (Lyriq Bent), who made fleeting appearances in Saw II and Saw III, is now the object of Jigsaw’s virulent life lessons, kidnapped and given ninety minutes to save the life of an old friend. From this point, Saw IV serves to follow Rigg as he trots around a number of grotty locations, intercut with the investigating officers’ attempts to track him down, and uncover who the next apprentice is. Formulaic it may by now be, but it’s enough to keep fans of the series glued to their seats, and that’s exactly what these films are about – fan service.
Perhaps I’m desensitised, yet I simply didn’t find Saw IV to be that vile. Yes, the opening autopsy scene will leave some cinemagoers gasping, yet CG spurts of blood in later scenes are never as terrifying as squibs, and much of the violence is spliced together at such a frenzied, hyperactive pace that you’ll have to wait for the DVD in order to search for those important severed limbs and headless stumps. No doubt, an unrated DVD is on the horizon, yet would it have hurt for the film to have been given an NC-17 rating rather than the comparatively tame R certification? I guess it would have.
As much the “everyman” as Rigg can endeavour to be, and by no fault of actor Lyriq Bent, some of his actions seem rather awkward and uncharacteristic. For instance, at once stage, Rigg could very well save a woman from a precarious situation, yet, as Jigsaw instructs him, leaves her to save herself. Through the logic of the film’s final twist, it would not have been possible for the new accomplice to have been watching Rigg at this stage, and so not only could he have rescued the woman, but also summoned the authorities. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
Ideologically speaking, Jigsaw’s methods appear to be faltering also – his mantra, whilst still ridiculous, at least made some sense in earlier instalments, whilst in this film, a number of poor saps are dealt unfair, unwarranted ends, often with no explanation as to their crimes, and at other times, for no apparent, justifiable reason. That said, in what is one of the more interesting aspects of Saw IV, we learn a great deal more about Jigsaw’s life before his torturous crusade began – we learn what truly drove him to these means, yet it arguably serves to denigrate his integrity. After watching Saw IV, you may think of Jigsaw less as an omnipresent, twisted genius, and more as a depressed psychopath.
The Saw series both relies, and thrives on convergent, all-encompassing finales, and the fourth entry into the series is no different. A number of different angles – some returning characters, our obsessed protagonist, and of course, the elusive accomplice - meet for the “final test”, which begins promisingly, effortlessly laying waste to and otherwise incapacitating half of the characters we’ve been following for the last 80 minutes.
Where the film falls apart is in its closing moments – the Saw films revel in gloriously deceiving the viewer, yet Saw IV doesn’t gloriously deceive as much as it shamelessly swindles. The final test is telegraphed in such a way that it near enough guarantees total annihilation of everyone involved, and worse still, as audaciously as anyone could ever be, the person behind it all along steps out from the shadows, utters “game over”, and saunters off, damning not just the pile of bodies in their wake, but the thoroughly disgusted audience aswell.
The film’s final test was all about patience, but by the end credits, I’d well and truly had it with Saw IV – for all of its logical fallacies and overly-frenetic editing, I could tolerate them in lieu of the film’s insulting ending, which presents an entirely non-sensical individual to continue Jigsaw’s work. It almost feels as though Darren Lynn Bousman is laughing at us, and frankly, I don’t get the joke. Saw IV’s great irony, and simultaneously, Liongate’s smartest marketing ploy, is that the series needs another sequel, if only to rectify this film’s almighty blunder, as well as finally deliver the answers that Bousman promised, and failed to.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer
I have tolerated, and dare I say, enjoyed the “Saw” series up to this point – with the voluminous amounts of gore, the abject morality, and most of all, the outrageous, preposterous twists, the series served to revive the long-stale horror thriller genre. Unfortunately, by its fourth instalment, Saw has become a dead, flogged horse in of itself – it hasn’t quite become a parody yet, but the final five minutes of Saw IV are so audacious, so complacent in their mockery of the viewer that the eighty solid preceding minutes are almost nullified entirely. Leigh Whannell, writer of the first three Saw films, is absent from this fourth instalment, and it is abundantly, painfully clear.
Following the electrifying finale of the third film (which served as the natural ending to the series), Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are now dead. Jeff (Angus Macfayden), the protagonist of the film, was left trapped, set to play another game in order to save his daughter’s life.
Saw IV’s opening scene (which is also its best) is Jigsaw’s gruesome autopsy (featuring impressive special effects, no less), with returning helmer Darren Lynn Bousman choosing rather interestingly to shoot the scene in monochrome, allowing even greater contrast for Jigsaw’s crimson viscera. It is at this moment that a tape coated in wax is discovered in Jigsaw’s stomach, setting in motion another series of games, but not in any way you could possibly imagine.
As you can expect, an array of fresh faces are thrown into the mix, no doubt serving as protagonists for the fifth and sixth Saw films which, regrettably, have already been greenlit. Whilst they’re largely arbitrary characters, one Agent Strahm (Scott Paterson) is of mild interest, and certainly looks the part as the abrasive, impassioned officer that he is. The film’s one true mystery is postulated very early on – evidence suggests that Jigsaw and Amanda had been grooming another accomplice. It’s a scenario that will intrigue, confuse, and ultimately frustrate many Saw fans, but up until the final moments, Bousman leads us on a welcome deception, merely faltering at the final hurdle.
Fan favourite Sergeant Rigg (Lyriq Bent), who made fleeting appearances in Saw II and Saw III, is now the object of Jigsaw’s virulent life lessons, kidnapped and given ninety minutes to save the life of an old friend. From this point, Saw IV serves to follow Rigg as he trots around a number of grotty locations, intercut with the investigating officers’ attempts to track him down, and uncover who the next apprentice is. Formulaic it may by now be, but it’s enough to keep fans of the series glued to their seats, and that’s exactly what these films are about – fan service.
Perhaps I’m desensitised, yet I simply didn’t find Saw IV to be that vile. Yes, the opening autopsy scene will leave some cinemagoers gasping, yet CG spurts of blood in later scenes are never as terrifying as squibs, and much of the violence is spliced together at such a frenzied, hyperactive pace that you’ll have to wait for the DVD in order to search for those important severed limbs and headless stumps. No doubt, an unrated DVD is on the horizon, yet would it have hurt for the film to have been given an NC-17 rating rather than the comparatively tame R certification? I guess it would have.
As much the “everyman” as Rigg can endeavour to be, and by no fault of actor Lyriq Bent, some of his actions seem rather awkward and uncharacteristic. For instance, at once stage, Rigg could very well save a woman from a precarious situation, yet, as Jigsaw instructs him, leaves her to save herself. Through the logic of the film’s final twist, it would not have been possible for the new accomplice to have been watching Rigg at this stage, and so not only could he have rescued the woman, but also summoned the authorities. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
Ideologically speaking, Jigsaw’s methods appear to be faltering also – his mantra, whilst still ridiculous, at least made some sense in earlier instalments, whilst in this film, a number of poor saps are dealt unfair, unwarranted ends, often with no explanation as to their crimes, and at other times, for no apparent, justifiable reason. That said, in what is one of the more interesting aspects of Saw IV, we learn a great deal more about Jigsaw’s life before his torturous crusade began – we learn what truly drove him to these means, yet it arguably serves to denigrate his integrity. After watching Saw IV, you may think of Jigsaw less as an omnipresent, twisted genius, and more as a depressed psychopath.
The Saw series both relies, and thrives on convergent, all-encompassing finales, and the fourth entry into the series is no different. A number of different angles – some returning characters, our obsessed protagonist, and of course, the elusive accomplice - meet for the “final test”, which begins promisingly, effortlessly laying waste to and otherwise incapacitating half of the characters we’ve been following for the last 80 minutes.
Where the film falls apart is in its closing moments – the Saw films revel in gloriously deceiving the viewer, yet Saw IV doesn’t gloriously deceive as much as it shamelessly swindles. The final test is telegraphed in such a way that it near enough guarantees total annihilation of everyone involved, and worse still, as audaciously as anyone could ever be, the person behind it all along steps out from the shadows, utters “game over”, and saunters off, damning not just the pile of bodies in their wake, but the thoroughly disgusted audience aswell.
The film’s final test was all about patience, but by the end credits, I’d well and truly had it with Saw IV – for all of its logical fallacies and overly-frenetic editing, I could tolerate them in lieu of the film’s insulting ending, which presents an entirely non-sensical individual to continue Jigsaw’s work. It almost feels as though Darren Lynn Bousman is laughing at us, and frankly, I don’t get the joke. Saw IV’s great irony, and simultaneously, Liongate’s smartest marketing ploy, is that the series needs another sequel, if only to rectify this film’s almighty blunder, as well as finally deliver the answers that Bousman promised, and failed to.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer