X
- 2007
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 33 m
- 2007
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 33 m
Summary Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are dead. Upon the news of Detective Kerry's murder, two seasoned FBI profilers, Agent Strahm and Agent Perez, arrive at the depleted police precinct to help veteran Detective Hoffman sift through Jigsaw's latest grisly game of victims, as well as piece together the puzzle. But then SWAT Commander Rigg, t...
Directed By: Darren Lynn Bousman
Written By: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Thomas Fenton
- 2007
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 33 m
- 2007
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 33 m
Saw IV
36
6.4
Where to Watch
Summary Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are dead. Upon the news of Detective Kerry's murder, two seasoned FBI profilers, Agent Strahm and Agent Perez, arrive at the depleted police precinct to help veteran Detective Hoffman sift through Jigsaw's latest grisly game of victims, as well as piece together the puzzle. But then SWAT Commander Rigg, t...
Directed By: Darren Lynn Bousman
Written By: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Thomas Fenton
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
36
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
63% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
38% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
36
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
63% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
38% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Torture, you may recall, used to be an unparsable, unpardonable sin. Now it's porn.
Since the thing is increasingly impatient to jump forward to the next big torture set piece, there isn't any time to establish anyone's character. Butcher shops are bloody, too, but they're not scary.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 230 User Ratings
6.4
43% Positive
99 Ratings
99 Ratings
45% Mixed
103 Ratings
103 Ratings
12% Negative
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 230 User Ratings
6.4
43% Positive
99 Ratings
99 Ratings
45% Mixed
103 Ratings
103 Ratings
12% Negative
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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The last good saw movie. Now most people think that the saw movies are all about the gore. Yes they are a key part, but while saw 5 and 6 were that, the first 4 used gore to increase the impact of the story. The movies also arn't horror, none of them are, they have and always will be thrillers, just because they are incredibly gory they arn't automaticly horror. If you come in expecting horror you will be disapointed. The first 4 movies feel like a constantly unraveling jigsaw puzzle (which is ironic for obvious reasons) that ends with the last piece finally clicking into place on the INCREDIBLE twist that 1-4 possessed. Each sequel feels like you didn't notice half the jigsaw hadn't been finished. Saw 4 should of been the ending for this very reason, it ended feeling like all four pieces of completed puzzle had been fitted together. Saw 5 ended feeling like a uncomplete, which is should never have done, and Saw 6 was the only one you knew from the start how it would end, with disapointing scenes one after the other, eventually feeling like the puzzle being created was actually **** porno.
The reason saw 4 didn't get a 10 like all the previous deserved (remember that I am NOT a gore fan at all) is because the whole movie wasn't nearly up to the standard that saw 1-3 were. While the twist was still the same awesome shock all the movies had, while still making sense.
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Even by the standards of the recent "Saws," which have enjoyed considerably larger budgets than the first pic, the new edition is more frenetically cut (by editors Kevin Greutert and Brett Sullivan), more dimly lit (by lenser David A. Armstrong), sweatier in terms of perfs by the grimly serious cast, more madly packed with micro-incidents and action, and more brazen in requiring suspension of disbelief.
Fans know exactly what they're in for, while everyone else knows to stay far away. Everyone can agree, however, that this is probably the worst date movie ever. For non-sadists, at least.
It's a depressing experience to view something like Saw IV. It's not just the soullessness that's dispiriting, but the lack of invention. When a movie does little more than repeat what its predecessors accomplished with grotesque effectiveness, it's past time to tip this corpse into its grave and bury it.
There is no narrative tension in the film, however, just a variety of grisly crucifixions. And the morality tales are blood-stained window dressing.
Getting to the true root of his evil may necessitate "Saw LX."
I am shocked people hate it so much, This is easily my favorite Saw film. Although I didnt like Lyriq Bent as the lead, Costas Mandylor and Scott Patterson are great and more then make up for what Bent lacks. The rest of the cast is solid. The plot is interesting (a sequel with a prequel built in) and the traps are scary and definently lives up to the Saw name. It may not be the perfect horror film but its close.
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I consider the first two volumes of the series to be successful horror films. Especially the first one. The third one was already mediocre for me and now I've finished the fourth one. Well, I won't beat around the bush. I liked it more than the third one and it was actually not bad, but the quality will never get to the first one, which was original in its idea and although the new parts try to be something new again in the form of more brutality, for example, they don't succeed in my opinion. One had its charm in one location, two was something else. The third one had one location, but it bored me and the fourth one has more locations and I definitely enjoyed it more than the third one, but still not enough to make it worth doing. How can I put this? Saw IV is not a bad movie in my opinion. It has its good moments, like John Kramer's backstory, which improved the film a lot in the finale, but otherwise it doesn't offer much new. The reveal at the end was fine, but it wasn't something that made me sit on my ass. For me, an above average horror film that I would only recommend to fans of the franchise.
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Horror films are like candy corn: familiar, bland, and sickening if consumed in large quantities. They're both ubiquitous at this time of year and there must be a large group of individuals who appreciate their dubious charms because they never go away. I like a good, scary horror film - something that raises the hackles and keeps me on the edge of my seat. It's been a while since I have seen one, however. (Maybe the last one was The Descent.) I have watched all four Saw movies but didn't review installment #2 or #3. I have selected to review this one to show how far this series has fallen since its promising debut.
One of the depressing things about sequels in general and horror sequels in particular is the tendency to fall into a pattern of repetition. An idea that starts out fresh quickly becomes stale through overuse. This is evident in Saw IV, easily the worst and most pointless episode of the gore-saturated quadrology. Not only does Saw IV repeat (with a few variations) what has come before, but it does so without the involvement of the main villain, Jigaw (Tobin Bell), who died at the end of Saw III. To its credit, the movie does not bring him back from the dead, but that leaves a notable vacuum of insanity. There's a bad guy of sorts, but it's not the same.
Saw IV functions as a drawn-out, tedious epilogue to a series that began with an energetic bang three years ago with Saw, then progressively lost momentum, coherence, and intelligence with each successive annual installment. Saw IV is nothing short of a money-grab. Despite a couple of loose ends (that are tied up unsatisfactorily here), Saw III finished the story. Although Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of Saw II and III, is back for IV, screenwriter Leigh Whannell has not returned.
It's hard to disagree that there was a strong streak of sadism in even the first Saw, but the ingeniousness of the situation and the novelty of the approach trumped its gorier and nastier aspects. The balance changed for the sequel, however, where the "intelligence" became an excuse for a growing sense of mean-spiritedness. By the time the series reached Saw IV, questions of "morality" and twisted "choice" have largely been supplanted by gratuitous torture. The macabre has been escalated to a grisly level where all that seems to matter any more is figuring out new ways to eviscerate and slaughter victims. Saw IV has more in common with Hostel II than its progenitor.
Bousman's style is much the same here as it was in Saw II and III. The color is desaturated to an extremity where many of the scenes appear to be almost black-and-white. There are frequent jump cuts and occasional flash repeats of moments. It's all very showy but doesn't do much to enhance the overall experience. At least the action scenes aren't filmed using the shaky cam approach. When someone dies, it's not hard to figure out what has happened. Then again, for a film that revels in the inventiveness of its murders, an epileptic style would defeat the purpose. You need to see the gore in clear detail in order to get the full impact.
Saw IV will likely sate the appetite of long-term, hardcore fans of the franchise, but it offers nothing to anyone who does not fall into that category. The movie's dense plotting and frequent flashbacks demand familiarity with the previous installments to make any sort of sense, and even then there are some sizable gaps. Did I piece everything together? No. Do I care? Not really. There are no human beings in this movie - just blood bags waiting to be popped. It's a depressing experience to view something like Saw IV. It's not just the soullessness that's dispiriting, but the lack of invention. When a movie does little more than repeat what its predecessors accomplished with grotesque effectiveness, it's past time to tip this corpse into its grave and bury it.
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Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
BMI Film & TV Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Empire Awards, UK
• 1 Nomination
