Saw 4 (18)
Posted by Jemma on Fri, 26 Oct 2007.
Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyrig Bent, Athena Karkanis and Shawnee Smith.
Runtime: 95 min
Director Darren Lynn Bousman certainly tries his best in the fourth film of the Saw series. This outrageously gory flick will have you curling your toes and reaching for a cushion to cower behind. The opening scene starts with a blood filled autopsy of the infamous ‘Jigsaw’ (Tobin Bell) who we see die at the end of Saw 3. The sound of the drills cutting the skull and the tear of flesh when they open the body is not for the faint-hearted.
So far, the Saw films have lead us to believe that John aka ‘Jigsaw’ and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) were the one’s in control of the ‘games’ but who is continuing the ‘games’ with the detectives in Saw 4?
With the discovery of detective Kerry’s death (Dina Meyer) by way of a game, which we saw in the previous film when her rib-cage was ripped apart, the remaining detectives and the FBI agents set out to find ‘jigsaw’s’ accomplice and the whereabouts of Jeff (Angus Macfadyen).
SWOT team leader, Rigg (Lyrig Bent), lets the stresses of his job take over his life. Something which the jigsaw despises because his ‘games’ are designed to make people live their lives to the full, which is when the games begin for Rigg. His obsession with saving his colleagues’ lives has put his own life at risk more than once. So, his boss tells him to take some time out. No sooner has he stepped through his door the games begin to unravel. In the events that follow it is clear to the audience that the key to surviving the games is to listen to the instructions given in the tapes and read between the lines.
If you’ve seen the three previous films you are sure to be wondering how they’ve managed to drag it out for another hour and a half. With even more extreme games and blood-thirsty scenes, horror-lovers alike, are bound to flock to the cinema to checkout the latest instalment. If you enjoy the thrill of the fright then this is one for you but if like me you hid behind your sit in the previous films then you might want to give this one a miss. Be warned though, there could be a possibility of a fifth in the series!!