Movie Review--Saw IV

"You see, things aren't sequential.  Good doesn't lead to good, nor bad to bad . . .  There's no accounting for it."
--Jigsaw, Saw IV

"I promise that my work will continue.  That I have ensured.  By hearing this tape, some will assume that this is over, but I am still among you.  You think it's over just because I am dead?  It's not over.  The games have just begun."
--Jigsaw via recorded tape, Saw IV



I'm ready to continue reviewing the Saw series.  I regret to announce that I have not purchased or viewed all of Saw III because the only version available to buy online is the unrated edition, and I just don't want to watch it.  Because of this, I have skipped right to Saw IV and I will eventually finish reviewing the remaining installments in the series film by film.


Production Values

The movie would have benefited at times from a higher quality camera, but the other production values are pretty good.  I liked how Costas Mandylor (yes, just like the planet in Star Wars!) performed as Hoffman, providing a muted personality that perfectly fits what the next movie reveals about his past, and, of course, Tobin Bell's calm delivery of terrifying lines always succeeds in conveying the seemingly-rational yet twisted reasoning of Jigsaw.  As usual, Charlie Clouser's classic "Zepp" theme always played during the plot's largest twist at the end remixes the most memorable part of the first film's soundtrack and preserves it for each consecutive movie.


Story

With Jigsaw killed at the finale of Saw III, the fourth movie's opening scene depicts a gruesome autopsy of John Kramer's body.  When a tape is located inside Kramer, Detective Hoffman listens to its message to find that Jigsaw wanted to inform the police department that his death would not terminate the infamous games he started.

The corpse of a female detective who died in the third film is recovered under circumstances which lead the passionate Agent Strahm to believe that Jigsaw and Amanda had another accomplice.  Though Hoffman objects, Strahm resolutely clings to his theory and begins searching for evidence to confirm it.  After the discovery of the body and the proposal of the accomplice theory, an officer named Rigg is subdued in his home and awakens to find himself the subject of a game involving other people.

A prostitute, a rapist, and a child abuser are just some of the "contestants" Jigsaw desires for Rigg to help "save".  During Rigg's timed tests, Strahm interrogates Jill Tuck, Jigsaw's former wife, and attempts to extract any possible information that could enable him to locate Rigg and cease the games.

(MAJOR SPOILER!!!!)

The final scenes of Saw IV reveal that the entire contents of the film (besides the autopsy) actually occurred directly alongside the events of Saw III and that Detective Hoffman was the unidentified person assisting John Kramer and Amanda Young.


Intellectual Content

Just like in Saw II, viewers receive more of John Kramer's backstory.  While in Saw II John explained that a terminal cancer diagnosis along with an unsuccessful suicide attempt "drove" him to begin "testing" people in the hopes of igniting a passion for life, here further information is exposed.  John's pregnant wife managed a recovery clinic for drug users, the rehabilitation of which can become a lengthy and frustrating process.  A particular troublemaker named Cecil accidentally caused Jill to have a miscarriage and the baby, named Gideon, did not survive.  After this tragic event came the cancer and suicide attempt and a divorce from Jill.  Now that Jigsaw has initiated his career with his own brand of rehabilitation he selects Cecil as the first victim.  The motto of his wife's clinic, "Cherish your life", was twisted into Jigsaw's justification for stalking, kidnapping, testing, and killing people.  When the police find the corpse of their colleague towards the beginning, the same motto is scrawled on the wall, but instead of responding as Jigsaw would hope the officers ask aloud how they can cherish their lives when they have to encounter things like the Jigsaw Killer's depressing work on a daily basis.

Jigsaw repeatedly mentions the "salvation" of his victims as his goal, the word clearly a synonym for the rehabilitation his traps ostensibly bring.  When Rigg restrains a particular offender so he can engage in his own personal test, a tape alerts him that he must give the man the "tools of his salvation".  In one of the last scenes, Rigg finally realizes that during the full 90 minutes of his game Jigsaw kept explaining that the actual redemption or "salvation" of those in the traps was never within his control.  Apparently, John viewed the tests as necessary to present someone with the adrenaline required to decide if they wanted to pursue and appreciate life but the effort amounts to nothing if the participant does not volitionally choose to change during or because of the experience.


"The rules were clear.  You were warned.  Tonight, you faced your obsession.  They had to save themselves.  Their salvation was out of your hands. Time was on your side, but your obsession wouldn't let you wait."


This movie seems to mark the distinct point at which Jigsaw's traps are no longer implied to be the depraved schemes of a torturer and a murderer, as here the games are instead portrayed more as the disciplinary measures of a moral giant saddened by the corruption of society and someone who truly hopes for the reformation of the victims' lives.  John plays God, and he is actually a comparatively patient and loving one-- at least he believes he is.


Conclusion

The beginning of a second Saw trilogy, Saw IV does not release its grip on the concepts that have always attracted people to the series.  By this point other horror franchises may become stale, unimaginative, parody, silly, or they lose continuity and purpose.  Not so here.  Even with Jigsaw dead the games truly continue, the scope of John Kramer's post-mortem intentions only just beginning to be revealed.  The extensive complexity of the Saw films becomes even more apparent and the conclusion prepares the franchise for the fifth entry with the revelation of an unexpected successor to Jigsaw.  For fans of Saw, Saw IV does not falter in the presentation of its premise.


Content
1. Violence:  Alright, I didn't watch the full autopsy because I just don't like certain levels of gore, but what I glimpsed was fairly graphic.  Two men fight each other in the first trap, a prostitute almost has her scalp pulled off, a rapist uses a mechanism to pierce one of his eyes (quickly though), a man must press his face into knives to release his restraints, and two blocks of ice descend to crush and vaporize a man's head.
2. Profanity:  As expected, there is much profanity.  Usually it comes in condensed bursts, but "f-ck" seemed to be the favorite.