Saw IV is a Puzzle with Missing Pieces

Starring Tobin Bell and Lyriq Bent, Saw IV has so many twists, the film seems to surprise itself. All of the surprise endings in this series have felt natural and unpredictable. In the new Saw film, you end up feeling like the writers threw a bunch of names and possible surprise endings in a hat, and played a game of Bingo.

What is Saw IV about?

It's about blood, gore, torture. Seriously, aside from a group of characters trying to catch or stop the Jigsaw killings, what else can you say about the plot of these movies? Someone, whether it is Jigsaw (Bell), a copycat of Jigsaw or say, an apprentice of Jigsaw throws some "students" into a terrible situation and make them choose to "live or die." There is always elements of suspense to any situation where two men, one who cannot see and one who cannot speak are chained to a medieval-looking device that gradually reels them into its own body. They can either choose to work together and help themselves get free or they can let this device squeeze them into itself or kill themselves for a little piece of mind.

With every Jigsaw trap or game, he likes to put his students threw tests that get down to the very core of who they are. If they love themselves too much, he will have them destroy that thing they love most about themselves - anything to squash their pride. His reasons are simple. You should appreciate life. If you don't, you don't deserve life. I can see where he's coming from. But should this belief system actually be the core plot to a movie? Hard to say. If the Saw film is done right, you end up believing as Jigsaw believes. This concept is truly challenging for anyone who does not get a thrill from torturing others. If that theory is handled improperly, the movie does not deserve to be called Saw. Saw IV leans more toward the latter.

In Saw IV, the main person being tested this time around is SWAT Team Officer Rigg (Bent). He keeps losing people he cares about to the Jigsaw killer. He wants to be able to save anyone and everyone. Can he? Can he do it without being impulsive or dangerous to himself or others? This is the question that Jigsaw puts to the test. Does the officer succeed? I don't know. That's something you'll have to find out for yourselves. Is the test well-plotted and well-executed by either Jigsaw or the writers? Yes. I believe what the officer was put through and the reasons for it made sense. In the process, Rigg discovers that he can't save everyone and maybe, some people shouldn't be saved. It's the conclusion that makes no sense.

Is the horror too much?

I've decided to add a new header to this article just for this special occasion. I feel I should strongly caution people on some of the gore and horrific elements of the film. We see a full autopsy on a man. This means, you get to see his brains, his chest cavity and his stomach. We see a woman's intestines exposed and rats crawling through it. We get a wonderfully unpredictable shot of a man's genitalia (sp?). Then there are those cringe-worthy moments of a woman's scalp being ripped away from her skull by a ponytail, a man willfully poking out his own eyes, and a few more creepy surprises I won't get into.

Final note

Saw IV is certainly not the best of this series. The surprises just aren't surprising. When the Jigsaw killer revealed himself in the original film, the entire audience felt a twinge of dread, a spine-tingling sensation because it was not just shocking, it was terrifying. Here, we're left feeling more hollow. This might as well be another installment in the Friday the 13th series - or better yet, A Nightmare on Elm Street. It just doesn't have what the others had. That's certainly a shame, since Saw has been one of the most shocking and terrifying movie-going experiences in years.