Life > November 1, 2007

By Ellen Hart | Contributing writer

I like to think I have a pretty strong stomach. When we dissect rats in biology, I dive right in. Blood doesn’t faze me.

So maybe you will understand how positively repulsive this movie was when I say I spent the first 15 minutes of Saw IV with my face buried in my friend’s shoulder screaming.

For those who don’t know, every Saw movie thrusts seemingly innocent people in a death trap situation, in which they must pass a test (which usually involves maiming themselves) or do nothing and die.

The mastermind behind these traps is a dying cancer patient known as Jigsaw.

The traps are usually symbolic of the individuals’ flaws, and their purpose is to teach a lesson: cherish your life.

Those who watch these movies religiously know that the Saw movies always have somewhat decent plots – complete with fairly developed characters, themes, morals and twists.

Saw IV begins just after the death of Jigsaw. But his “games” are far from over.

What’s more, Saw IV concentrates on the hero complex of one of the cops on Jigsaw’s case, and probably more interestingly, the backstory of Jigsaw himself.

I won’t lie, though. This movie confused me. There are so many subplots and references to the other movies (which I hadn’t actually seen in months) that it just comes out convoluted and at times just plain silly.

And in the end we have this insane montage of .00001 second clips that is supposed to help the viewer put the pieces together, but to be quite honest it doesn’t help much.

In fact, it made me more confused to see random moments in the movie as “Oh no, I wanted a ham sandwich,” being big clues. That’s a dramatization of course – there is nothing about a ham sandwich in the movie, but you get my point.

To say something nice, however, it was a decently acted piece of cinema for the most part. Lyriq Bent plays the role of Detective Rigg in a believable and engaging manner.

Tobin Bell does an OK job showing Jigsaw’s softer side, a pre-psychotic father-to-be in love. But let’s face it: he is so much cooler as a sadistic cancer patient.

The other actors are sub-par at best. If they are giddy to be in a Saw movie, it certainly shows. They milk their roles completely dry, but unfortunately for them they just end up curdled and ridiculous. But let’s be honest.

We didn’t gather our courage and our coolest (or most insane) friends to go see Saw I, II and III because we heard that the acting was good or the plot is emotionally riveting. We went to torture our psyches. We went making bets on who could keep their eyes open the whole time.

Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you (or maybe you won’t be disappointed, who knows), the death traps aren’t nearly as sadistically complex and creative as they are in the other movies.

It’s more just bloody and sickening. And the grossest part is actually just an autopsy in the very beginning. A very noisy, squishy autopsy.

All in all, I wasn’t very impressed by Saw IV. They tried to make it good, you can tell. They tried really hard.

And even though they have signed for at least one more movie, sorry guys, as far as the Saw series goes, game over.