Saw IV is the fourth installment in the Saw series. The film was released in Australia on October 25, 2007, and in the United States on October 26, 2007. The film's North American release date follows the series' tradition that the films be released the Friday before or on Halloween of each year.
This installment continues the story of the Jigsaw Killer, and his obsession with teaching people the value of their own lives. Although Jigsaw died in the last installment (Saw III), this film focuses on his ability to manipulate people into continuing his work.
Saw IV was directed by Saw II and Saw III director Darren Lynn Bousman alongside with co-creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell returning as executive producers. Unlike the previous three films, Saw IV was not written by either Wan or Whannell.
Plot
During the autopsy of the Jigsaw Killer, a wax-coated microcassette is found in his stomach. Lieutenant Mark Hoffman is called in to listen to the tape, which informs Hoffman that he, too, will be tested as he is now "the last man standing." The scene shifts to a mausoleum, where Trevor and Art are chained to a large winch. Trevor's eyelids have been sewn together, as has Art's mouth, making communication between them impossible. When the winch begins pulling them together, Trevor, out of panic, attacks Art, who kills Trevor to retrieve a key from the latter's collar. In a later flashback, Art finds two items waiting for him elsewhere in the mausoleum: a recorded message from Jigsaw and an envelope containing instructions.
It has been six months since the disappearance of Detective Eric Matthews, and four days since Detective Allison Kerry vanished, as noted by Hoffman. The police discover Kerry's corpse, still hanging in the harness of the inescapable trap that killed her in Saw III. After cautioning Lieutenant Daniel Rigg for barging through an unsecured door, Hoffman is introduced to FBI Agents Strahm and Perez, who deduce that Amanda Young, Jigsaw's apprentice, would need assistance with Kerry's trap, indicating that there is another accomplice to the murder.
That evening, Rigg is attacked in his home and Hoffman disappears. When Rigg comes to, a videotape informs him that Matthews is in fact still alive, with ninety minutes to save himself, and that Hoffman's survival is at stake as well. He then undergoes his first test, in which he finds a woman named Brenda. Jigsaw advises Rigg to walk away, and to "see what I see," as written on the wall, but Rigg's natural instinct to help those in need clouds his judgment. When Rigg removes the pig mask covering Brenda's face, he triggers a trap device that begins to slowly tear her scalp from her head. He succeeds in freeing her. To his surprise, she attacks him; Brenda has been told that Rigg is there to arrest her and the only way to stop him is to kill him. He throws her into a mirror and leaves to find the site of his next test. Some time later, Strahm, Perez, and the police enter the apartment and finds Brenda dead.
Rigg arrives at a motel, where he is instructed to "feel what I feel," painted on the door of one room. He must abduct the manager, Ivan, revealed to be a serial rapist. Angered by seeing videos and photos of Ivan's crimes, Rigg forces Ivan into a prearranged trap at gunpoint, which gives him the option between having his eyes gouged out or being savagely dismembered. Rigg hands him two controllers that will drive blades into his eyes, blinding him and saving his life. When Ivan runs out of time after blinding only one eye, his limbs are ripped off his body and thrown across the room.
Rigg's next test, to "save as I save," occurs in a school where Rigg once attacked a man named Rex, whom he suspected of abusing his wife Morgan and daughter Jane. Hoffman had intervened to stave off disciplinary action against Rigg at that time. In one of the classrooms, Rigg discovers that same husband and wife impaled together back to back with several long metal rods. The rods are placed such that they pass through vital circulatory points of his body, but non-vital points of hers. If she has the courage to remove the rods, her abusive husband will bleed to death but she will survive. By the time Rigg finds the couple, she has pulled out all but one rod and gone into shock from blood loss; she suddenly wakes up and Rigg tells her that she has to save herself. He removes the last rod, hands her the key to the harness she and her dead husband are strapped into and sets off a fire alarm to alert emergency services to her position, then leaves.
Strahm and Perez arrive on the scene, having previously realized that they have both become targets in this latest series of games. They determine that all of the victims were defended by Art, who is also the lawyer of Jill Tuck, John Kramer's ex-wife. A gun used to insert the rods into Rex and Morgan fires a spear through a photographer and kills her on the scene. Strahm and Perez find Billy, Jigsaw's puppet, in the office, surrounded by candles. Perez is told via tape recorder that Strahm will "soon take the life of an innocent man" and that her "next step is critical." Ignoring the warning, she takes a closer look at Billy, whose face suddenly explodes and showers her with shrapnel; she is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Furious, Strahm interrogates Jill, who recounts Jigsaw's back-story. She was once pregnant with a boy to be named Gideon (after John's first construction project), but the baby was lost when Cecil robbed the clinic at which she was employed and caused her to suffer a miscarriage. She and her husband grew apart and divorced. After learning that he had cancer and only a short while to live, John kidnapped Cecil and placed him in a trap, the first trap he ever built. Cecil had to push his face against several knives in order to release his wrists and ankles, which were slit into razor blades in the arms and legs of the chair. The chair he was sitting in collapsed and he furiously lunged at John, who was standing in front of him watching. John sidestepped at the last moment, allowing Cecil to fall into a tangle of barbed wire. Strahm makes connections from Jill's story to the Gideon Meat Factory, the scene of Rigg's final test.
Strahm arrives but finds himself lost, accidentally trailing Jeff Reinhart, making the viewers believe that he is looking for his daughter. In reality, however, the events of this film and Saw III are now unfolding at the same time. Rigg, meanwhile, approaches his final test. In the next room are Art, Matthews, and Hoffman; Matthews stands on an ice block with a chain-noose cinched around his neck, while Hoffman is strapped into a chair with an electrode by his feet. They are at opposite ends of a balanced scale, but if Matthews slips off the ice or too much of it melts, he will be hanged and the weight shift will dump the runoff water onto Hoffman's end, electrocuting him. Art is watching over them both with a device strapped to his back that holds a set of pincers against his neck, ready to cut through his spine. Once the ninety-minute timer for Rigg's tests runs out, he can push a button to release himself and the others. If the door is opened before time runs out, Matthews' head will be crushed between two overhead ice blocks and Hoffman will die with him.
Seeing Rigg approaching through the door's grimy window, Matthews attempts to warn him off without success, then shoots him with a gun supplied by Art. Though wounded, Rigg still crashes through the door with one second left on the clock, releasing the overhead ice blocks and killing Matthews. Rigg shoots and wounds Art, believing him to be responsible for the game. Art tries to explain the situation, but Rigg kills him, mistaking the tape recorder in his hand for a gun. The tape tells Rigg that he has failed his final test by not learning that he could not save everyone by himself; had he allowed the time to expire and not barged through the door, he would have passed and the three captives would have all survived. Hoffman releases himself from his chair unharmed, revealing himself to be another apprentice of Jigsaw, and leaves Rigg bleeding on the floor. Meanwhile, Strahm faces off with Jeff in the makeshift sickroom from Saw III. Jeff waves a gun at Strahm, believing him to be involved in the abduction of his daughter; Strahm kills Jeff in self-defense, fulfilling Jigsaw's earlier warning. Before he can react further, Hoffman locks him in the room with the corpses of Jigsaw, Jeff, Amanda and Lynn.
The movie concludes with Jigsaw's autopsy, showing that it took place after the events of this film.
Cast
Production
There were rumors[who?] about who was writing the script for Saw IV, including Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan.[1] On a news article on the same rumor site, an actual writer was revealed,[by whom?] Thomas Fenton.[2] There was also a hunt for the director of Saw IV before it was officially stated that Darren Lynn Bousman would direct the fourth installment, with creators and executive producers, James Wan and Leigh Whannell also returning.[3] Two of the rumored directors were David Moreau and Xavier Palud.[4] It has been stated[who?] that 90% of the crew from the last movie will be back.[5]
On the official Saw fan page, director Bousman says: "Scott Patterson, the first day he shows up, he says, ‘I’m going to do something a little different here.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright.’ We yell ‘action’ and all of a sudden he started improvising and it was gold. It was like the best stuff I’d ever seen and he’s insane."[5]
Production offices opened on February 12, 2007 to begin the pre-production period. The filming of Saw IV began on April 16, 2007[6] and continued for 6 weeks.[7] The filming location for the horror film was Toronto, Ontario,[8] the same place both Saw II[9] and Saw III[10] were filmed. Post-production period began on May 19.[11]
Shooting for the film ended on May 30, 2007,[5] with a budget of approximately $10,000,000.[12] In an interview with Darren Lynn Bousman, he stated that the last work on Saw IV would happen in August to be able to have prints made.[12]
At Comic Con 2007 it was revealed by director Darren Lynn Bousman and producer Mark Burg that the MPAA had given the film an NC-17 rating. They would have to figure out whether or not to cut the film to achieve an R rating or release it as an NC-17 film.[13]
Lionsgate has teamed with the American Red Cross for the annual Saw IV Blood Drive.[14] Since the first Saw blood drive in 2004, Saw film-goers have donated nearly 38,000 pints of blood to help save as many as 112,500 lives. Collection totals have doubled year after year resulting in tens of thousands of lifesaving blood transfusions.
On August 30, 2007, it was announced that the film was officially rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language. This was clarified by the new poster (which can be seen at the top of this page), www.ropeofsilicon.com, and numerous other websites.
On August 31, 2007, the official trailer was placed on Yahoo Movies.[15] On the same date, the official website for Saw IV was launched.
Reaction
Critical reception to Saw IV was generally negative. The film holds a rating of 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 64 reviews.[16] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 36 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.[17] Scott Schueller from the Los Angeles Times called it "a film as edgy as a rubber knife" and said that "if the terrible craft of Bousman's film doesn't turn your stomach, the borderline pornographic violence will. It's disconcerting to imagine anyone enjoying the vile filth splashing the screen."[18] Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter said "the famously inventive torture sequences here seem depleted of imagination", but added that "it hasn't yet jumped the shark like such predecessors as the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies eventually did."[19] Peter Hartlaub from The San Francisco Chronicle called it "the Syriana of slasher films, so complicated and circuitous that your only hope of understanding everything is to eat lots of fish the night before and then watch each of the previous films, in order, right before you enter the theater."[20] James Berardinelli wrote that "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."[21]
Positive reviews came from Scott Weinberg from Fearnet, who said that while it "is almost certainly the weakest of the series where stuff like plot, logic, and chills are concerned... there's still more than enough here to keep the fans intrigued, entertained, and squirming in their seats" and added that the "Saw-makers are to be commended for actually putting forth this sort of effort. I grew up in an era that offered little more than quick-cash, stand-alone horror sequels like Halloween 5 and Friday the 13th Part 7 — so the fact that these producers actually give a damn about narrative continuity (right down to the smallest detail) is fairly impressive."[22] Horror.com said that "with Saw IV, the pieces have all come together and [it's] the best of the lot."[23] Jamie Russell from the BBC called it "deeply unsettling; just like a horror movie should be."[24] Chris Hewitt from St. Paul Pioneer Press claimed that "Saw IV is a fluid film, as neatly constructed as the deadly puzzles Jigsaw creates to snare his victims." Film School Rejects said that "One of the things that is most intriguing to me about the Saw movies is how much I actually have enjoyed them" and claimed that "As far as fourth installments in a series, Saw IV is quite impressive." Linda Cook from Quad City Times gave it a positive review also and said "The twists and turns are deadly, the 'lessons' are taught once again, and we have the perfect setup for Saw V."[25]
Box office
The film opened October 26, 2007 in the United States and Canada and grossed $31,756,764 in 3,183 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.[26] As of March 29, 2008, Saw IV grossed $63,300,095 domestic and $139,352,633 worldwide. The film stayed in cinemas for 7 weeks.
Soundtrack
DVD and Blu-ray release
The Unrated Director's Cut was released on January 22, 2008 in America and March 3, 2008 in the UK, on DVD and Blu-ray. The Extreme Edition was released in the UK only, before the release of Saw V in October 2008.[27][28] Features a 95-minute running time of the film.
Unrated Director's Cut
In this version, several changes have been made from the theatrical version[29]:
- In the Mausoleum trap, Trevor is hit with a hatchet four times instead of two.
- In his apartment, Rigg is shown waking up in bed after hearing a noise outside his room. A light is seen turning on then off, and then someone runs past his bedroom door.
- There is some extra dialogue exchanged between Rigg and Brenda.
- How Ivan gets captured is different. In the unrated version, Rigg lures Ivan's dog Chance up to his room. When Ivan comes looking for her, Rigg surprises him with his gun drawn.
- Ivan's death is extended and is more graphic.
- Rigg pulls the final rod out of Morgan at the "Save As I Save" test.
- New Scene: Agent Strahm calls Perez's mother and informs her that Perez has been injured.
- Strahm calls for back-up before entering the Gideon building.
- The "Open the door and you will find me" key is further explained. It is the key needed to open the door to the "sick room" that Jigsaw was killed in and Jeff was sealed in at the end of the third film.
- Footage of Hoffman unstrapping himself during the climax has been cut.
The DVD extras include:
- Two audio commentaries (One with director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor Lyriq Bent; the other featuring the producers.)
- "Darren's Video Diary"– A half-hour behind-the-scenes featurette
- Mini-Featurettes on the Traps
- A Props Featurette
- A single deleted scene
- "I.V." by X Japan music video
- A trailer for the video game Condemned 2: Bloodshot
- A hidden game in the special features menu of the Blu-Ray version
Extreme Limited Edition
This edition was only released in the United Kingdom.[27]
- Exclusive automated spinning Saw with a sound clip packaging
- A copy of the Saw: Rebirth comic
- Two audio commentaries (One with director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor Lyriq Bent; the other featuring the producers.)
- Video Diary of Darren Lynn Bousman
- Traps of Saw IV
- Props of Saw IV
- "I.V." by X-Japan music video
References
External links
