Another Halloween is around the corner and yet we have another SAW released the Friday before as this is going to become a yearly tradition for another 2 years when SAW VI releases. After the success that SAW’s I & II brought in, the green light was made for SAW III, but yet a shocker was announced weeks before SAW III would be released in theaters. That shocker was that Lionsgate wanted to have 3 more SAW’s to be released each Halloween for the next 3 years. SAW fans and the horror community were at disbelief that one of their favorite franchises would be going down the tubes with this announcement. Many were wondering as to how was this franchise going to continue with the main character Jigsaw having been almost decapitated by Jeff with a circular saw.
Here we have SAW IV in 2007, and the team director Darren Lynn Bousman from screenplay writers Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan decide to bring Jigsaw back in a clever way that would make Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers so jealous that they never received the proper sequel treatment. I have to hand it to the producer of the SAW franchise, he has for the most part kept the directing and writing team intact accept for a few that could carry the vision and story across the sequels. This was and has been the fault of many of our favorite franchise such as Halloween, Friday 13th, etc where every sequel has had a different director/writing team with a different vision.
How do they bring Jigsaw back from the dead and on to the silver screen? Well they don’t bring him back from the dead, but Jigsaw is brought back via flashbacks from his ex-wife Jill recounting their past together and what made John Kramer become the man we know today as Jigsaw. This recounting is so well done that you start to really feel sorry for some of the things that John Kramer the person went through to make him turn into Jigsaw. Finally, we get a better understanding behind Billy the Puppet even though it’s not explained; it is something that is implied with John Kramer’s actions in a few scenes. What we have is a very deep character/story driven sequel in SAW IV that hits home right away.
SAW IV opens with Jigsaw’s body at the morgue, proving plain and simple that he is dead and we are not going to see a Jason Vorhees reawakening. As we learn that Jigsaw is dead, our focus is going to shift over to S.W.A.T. Commander Rigg whose character is the main focus of the next game. Rigg can’t get out of his mind the death of his partner Kerry and the disappearance of Eric Mathews which leads him to obsess over Jigsaw. Rigg reminds me so much of Danny Glover’s character from the original SAW, he won’t stop at nothing to get to the truth due to his obsession.
Rigg is attacked in his own apartment by a character wearing a mask and knocked out. How is this attacker affiliated with Jigsaw? It turns out that Rigg has 90 minutes to save these people that lie in the challenges ahead. Why does Rigg try to save these criminals? What is his motivator or incentive as some of us would believe that is the driving force behind him going all out to save criminals? To answer all these questions, for spoiler purposes I suggest that you check out the movie.
As Rigg is playing his game, we have yet another piece that is ongoing during all this and that is Agents Perez and Strahm working with Detective Hoffman to solve the mystery of Jigsaw. Both agents are on the hot trail to find out why the jigsaw murders are still occurring and trying to piece the clues left behind before anymore innocent and criminal blood is spilled. At this point is that we learn about Jigsaw’s past as John Kramer before he became the madman through the thoughts of his ex-wife Jill via flashbacks. At this point is where SAW IV really dives deep into character development that I wouldn’t have expected with the retelling of John Kramer’s past. Jill is brought in for interrogation as she is believed to be behind the Jigsaw murders. How does Jill fit into this entire puzzle?
The ending will leave you a bit baffled and puzzled due to shock with the participants involved, especially with the return of a character from one of the earlier SAW movies. Even more shocking is what happens at the tail end of the movie, I was more shocked with the way they slammed the door to end this one……………………not in a bad way.
I will stop there with the story of SAW IV as to not spoil it for anyone, but this gives a brief spoiler-free synopsis of the story at hand. SAW IV is the type of movie that you need to pay close attention to or you will easily get lost and this is what has happened with many that have seen this movie already. I believe they didn’t grasp the concept and story the movie was telling that it really made people confused at the end. Personally I was amazed by SAW IV and how it really brought elements from SAW I-III together helping close the door on some questions while raising new ones that will hopefully be answered in SAW V and VI.
I will warn those that are going into this movie thinking that SAW IV is a gore fest, it has its fair share of horrific moments, but the traps play second fiddle this time around to the story. I thank the writing team and director for placing the story in front of all the nonsense gore. In 2007, the torture porn genre has ran it’s course for me and its time franchises like SAW continue to do the right thing and veer towards story which is what they did with SAW IV.
SAW IV did its job very well getting the message across that Jigsaw was a human being before all this and it took a series of events to make him into what he became.
The Bottom Line
If you’re a fan of this series and even the genre I highly recommend going and watching SAW IV, it is the second best film in the series so far right behind the original SAW. Not only do we learn more about our villain Jigsaw’s past, but who else has decided to play the game?
