Scan and Pan
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Saw IV
The Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell) and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are dead. Meanwhile, it appears that Jigsaw's deadly games are continuing with new victims, leading FBI agents Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Perez (Athena Karkanis) to suspect that Jigsaw had another apprentice and that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent) are in danger.
Director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III) effectively takes the audience through the twists and turns of a story where past and present collide, employing clever transitions between scenes and keeping the audience guessing until the final plot twist that sets up Saw V. This is the first time that franchise creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell weren't involved in the writing process, but the screenplay by the team of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (Feast) still has the expected clever death traps Saw fans have come to expect while also being a surprisingly character driven entry in the series as a significant amount of time is spent revealing Jigsaw's buried past.
David A. Armstrong has been the cinematographer for all four Saw films, giving the franchise a coherent visual look, and his work here is as stylish as ever. Production designer David Hackl (Saw II, Saw III) continues to provide imaginative sets for the mayhem to occur in (and reportedly he'll direct the next two entries). Charlie Clouser, another veteran of all four films, once again provides one of his trademark dissonant keyboard-driven scores.
Bell continues to make Jigsaw a compelling figure, even more so as we continue to learn more about the man he was before he became a killer. The rest of the cast is solid, including Patterson and Karkanis as the FBI agents, Mandylor as Hoffman, Bent as the increasingly obsessed Rigg, Betsy Russell as Jigsaw's ex-wife, Justin Louis as Jigsaw's former friend and attorney, Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Matthews, and Billy Otis as Jigsaw's very first victim. Smith as Amanda and Dina Meyer as Detective Kerry also appear in flashbacks.
If you're not a Saw fan, you probably won't enjoy this film. If you are, you won't be disappointed by Saw IV. There's a lot of life left in this franchise.
[3.5 out of 5 stars]
By the time most horror film franchises reach their fourth entry, they're like vultures picking over the bones of whatever made them good in the first place. Not so with the Saw franchise. Its fourth entry is the best since the first one.
The Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell) and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are dead. Meanwhile, it appears that Jigsaw's deadly games are continuing with new victims, leading FBI agents Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Perez (Athena Karkanis) to suspect that Jigsaw had another apprentice and that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent) are in danger.
Director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III) effectively takes the audience through the twists and turns of a story where past and present collide, employing clever transitions between scenes and keeping the audience guessing until the final plot twist that sets up Saw V. This is the first time that franchise creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell weren't involved in the writing process, but the screenplay by the team of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (Feast) still has the expected clever death traps Saw fans have come to expect while also being a surprisingly character driven entry in the series as a significant amount of time is spent revealing Jigsaw's buried past.
David A. Armstrong has been the cinematographer for all four Saw films, giving the franchise a coherent visual look, and his work here is as stylish as ever. Production designer David Hackl (Saw II, Saw III) continues to provide imaginative sets for the mayhem to occur in (and reportedly he'll direct the next two entries). Charlie Clouser, another veteran of all four films, once again provides one of his trademark dissonant keyboard-driven scores.
Bell continues to make Jigsaw a compelling figure, even more so as we continue to learn more about the man he was before he became a killer. The rest of the cast is solid, including Patterson and Karkanis as the FBI agents, Mandylor as Hoffman, Bent as the increasingly obsessed Rigg, Betsy Russell as Jigsaw's ex-wife, Justin Louis as Jigsaw's former friend and attorney, Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Matthews, and Billy Otis as Jigsaw's very first victim. Smith as Amanda and Dina Meyer as Detective Kerry also appear in flashbacks.
If you're not a Saw fan, you probably won't enjoy this film. If you are, you won't be disappointed by Saw IV. There's a lot of life left in this franchise.
[3.5 out of 5 stars]
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