Dir. Darren Lynn Bousman, 2005, US, 92 mins
Cast: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyriq Bent, Justin Louis
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Not showing a film to critics prior to release is usually a sign that it will be pronounced dead on arrival; not so with the Saw franchise because it is a marketing behemoth that has produced increasing box office receipts to balance out the decrease in quality of the movies. The Halloween release date guarantees a built in audience that no amount of whinging detractors can deter, and kudos must go to the inventive poster campaigns that have adorned the sides of buses over the last three years. So viewing with a paying audience and shelling out the requisite over-priced amount for a single ticket on opening night makes this reviewer hesitate that he is fuelling the fire for this detestable series of films. With Saw V scheduled for next year and a huge opening weekend on the cards that soon becomes a moot point as the Twisted Pictures logo appears on-screen.
Picking up shortly after the events of Saw III, serial-killer, would-be inventor of the macabre version of the Crystal Maze, Jigsaw (Bell), and his accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are dead. An excruciatingly explicit opening credits autopsy reveals that old gravely voice has left one final message from beyond the grave that will embroil any number of new faces that we simply don’t care about, and some old – Donnie Wahlberg returns to “hang around” and do very little – into his games of life and death.
The major problem with Saw IV is also its most ambitious feat. Attempting to piece together all four films into one comprehensive puzzle results in too many pieces that simply don’t fit; questions of chronology are a major issue as the initially impressive set-up gives way to multiple plot threads that are edited in that annoyingly schizophrenic style that has become the signature visual of Bousman’s films, and they never quite come together in a satisfactory way. Even more depressing is that the deflating ending elicits a similar feeling to that of Scream 2 and reminds you that there is more to come.
On the plus side, Tobin Bell is good as the eloquent prankster, and in a strange twist on the current horror trend to de-mystify the killer it’s actually his flashback based motivation for becoming the monster that provides the movies most interesting hook.
The effects department are working over-time too because both the visuals and more impressively the sound, during the aforementioned autopsy scene, are gut-churningly effective. The kaleidoscope of contraption killings are also highly inventive but made redundant by the fact that you never actually like anybody in the movie enough to care whether they escape.
Anybody “brave” enough to see-Saw IV (sorry) knows what to expect and its without doubt the second best instalment so-far (sigh), but that’s hardly a recommendation.
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