(Long Island, NY)I viewed Saw 4 last night and have no idea what the hell I watched. Honestly. I went on Wikipedia to read the plot recap right when I got home from the theater, hoping it would shed light on the mish-mash of sundry crud the film assaulted me with, and I still couldn’t understand it at all.
Now, I consider myself an intelligent man. Sure, I may not have realized that Bruce Willis was actually dead the whole time in The Sixth Sense, and I may not have picked up that that Tyler Durden and “Jack” were the same guy in Fight Club, but I can at least go back and watch said films a second time and notice where all the little ingenious clues were. But Saw 4…man, I could probably watch it a hundred times and still not have any idea what the happened.
Saws 1-3 weren’t great cinema, mind you, but they were all very solid movies constructed around a unique premise: A maniac, dubbed the Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell), kidnaps people he deems are wasting their lives (Jigsaw himself is dying of an inoperable brain tumor) and places them in elaborate mechanical death-traps that they must escape from in a set amount of time, otherwise…well, I said they’re “death-traps,” what do YOU think happens? Anyway, Jigsaw’s twisted idea is that, when coming so close to death, his victims will truly appreciate the life he himself is doomed to lose so shortly. The problem is that the traps are a big pain in the butt to escape from and usually involve a major degree of self-mutilation to do so, so the vast majority of his subjects end up killing themselves in their bid for freedom. In Jigsaw’s mind, he’s a savior who helps people, but everyone else naturally labels him as a killer (despite the fact that he never actually kills people himself- he simply sets up the circumstances where they have to make their own choice to live or die).
In the climax of Saw 3, ol’ Jigsaw is seemingly killed. Yes, he was basically already dead from brain cancer, and yes, he had just had his neck gouged out with a circular power saw, but an endless stream of Friday the 13th movies have conditioned the viewing public into believing that serial killers never truly die- just when you think they’re down, they always to pop up again for shenanigans. But as if to seemingly address this trend head-on, Saw 4 opens with Jiggy’s naked body on a corner’s slab (I really didn’t need to see Tobin Bell’s penis) being literally cut into pieces during the course of an autopsy. I don’t know about you, but after seeing his brain removed and entire ribcage cracked open and spread, I think I can believe that Jigsaw is finally dead and not coming back.
A clue is unearthed when they discover a wax-coated audio cassette in the Jiggster’s stomach (apparently you can swallow anything as long as it’s coated with wax, even if it’s twice as wide as your esophagus). The tape is played for Detective Forensic Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), where the disembodied voice of Jigsaw informs him that “The games have just begun.” This is actually in reference to a series of events already set in motion involving a certain Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent), an officer obsessed with the fact that several of his colleagues were victims of the Jigsaw killer, colleagues he was unable to save from their grizzly fates. This eats at him day and night, and as a result he has become the first posthumous target of Jigsaw, whose latest scheme is carried out with the help of a mysterious, unknown apprentice. Rigg is forced to deal with a series of traps that place the very lives of strangers in his hands, and…and…I’m sorry, folks, but I have to stop. I’m honestly not sure what more I can write about the plot at this point. I mean, if I didn’t understand it, why should I bother trying to explain it to you? I could try, I suppose, but it’s futile…um…well, here goes- Rigg goes through some “tests,” some FBI agents try to uncover what’s going on, some characters from previous Saw installments (thought long dead) show up, there’s some silly twists, plentiful blood and gore, and a lot of rapid-fire editing and spinning cameras for you epileptics out there…then it draws to a close and you don’t know who did what or why. I vomit, the end.
I’m sorry if my recap of Saw 4 made no sense, but just try actually watching it and you’ll understand. Or maybe you won’t.
Personally, I think the problem lies squarely with the writers. The Saw series was created by producing/writing/directing team of James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Directing duties were turned over to Darren Lynn Bousman for the second film onward, but Wan and Whannell continued to assist with the scripts. However, Saw 4 is the first movie in the series that does not benefit from their talents (it was instead written by the satanic duo of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan), and it shows. Say what you want about the first three Saw flicks, but they were at least understandable. In Saw 4, however, things happen that almost seem impossible at times. Are one point I was wondering if characters were traveling through time. Were they? I don’t know! Plus, Jigsaw’s new follower is eventually unveiled, but his motivations are never even hinted at, let alone explained. He just reveals himself at the end and you have no idea whatsoever why he did what he did. I assume they’re going to delve into this in a sequel, but relying on a future release to tie up your loose ends is just poor filmmaking. Even if a movie is part of a series, it should be able to stand on its own in stead of just catering to fans. Saw 4 depends too much on you being intimately familiar with the previous installments, especially part 3.
However, you certainly can’t fault the acting for how bad Saw 4 is, as the cast was uniformly solid, with a certain actor (who will go unnamed so as not to spoil the surprise of his return) especially turning in a good job. By the way, is it really obvious that I just threw this statement in as an afterthought when I realized that Saw 4’s negatives were far outweighing any positives I was extolling? I hope not- the actors involved deserved better treatment than to be callously glossed over in my otherwise overwhelmingly negative Saw 4 review.
If any film series has officially “Jumped the Shark” and needs to end, it is indeed Saw. The problem, however, is that the Saw movies are A) very popular, and B) made for relatively little money, which makes turning a profit very easy for them. Saw 4’s budget was $10 million, and it cleared in excess of $31 million in its opening weekend alone. And get this- the combined total of the budgets of ALL 4 films is a shocking $15 million, and the series as a whole boasts a current worldwide gross of over…are you ready…$ 415 million! That’s a massive return on a relatively tiny investment, and this guarantees that the Saw series will continue far into the foreseeable future, as evidenced by the fact that Saws 5 & 6 were confirmed before 4 was even released. We can only hope that a real-life Jigsaw killer will kidnap and kill the writers so that someone new can possibly salvage what’s left of this series. There’s plenty of potential, but the latest entry in the Saw franchise almost completely ruins it.
To sum it up, the people being tortured in Saw 4 aren’t the poor souls on the screen, it’s the ones in the audience. Steer clear.
