SAW IV

US, 2007, 85 minutes, Colour.
Tobin Bell, Scott Patterson, Lyriq Bent, Shawnee Smith, Angus Mc Fadyen.
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousmann.

Saw IV is something the same as Saw III. These two films were directed by 20-something, Darren Lynn Bousmann, who also directed Saw II.

The first was released in 2004 and was an extraordinary hit at the box-office. It was the brainchild of two young Melbourne filmmakers, Leigh Whannell who wrote and acted and James Wan who directed, who had their screenplay accepted in the US, moved rapidly into production and was very cleverly marketed. Their involvement in the sequel was mainly in producing. Leigh Whannell has written the screenplay for Saw III.

Once againTobin Bell who made a very sinister villain repeats his role and gets much more screentime as does Shawnee Smith as one of his victims who makes good, or rather makes bad, in becoming his accomplice. Now they are dead, but get the chance to reappear. The victim of the previous films is back again, Angus Mc Fadyen, once Robert the Bruce in Braveheart.

The plot repeats a lot of the first two films and, especially the third, but also gives more explanation of what happened in those films behind the scenes with the mad killer arranging his deceptions and gruesome killings. It also takes a fairly moralising tone about guilt and punishment, especially irresponsibility, vengeance and self-pity which consumes people as two of the sins to feel guilty about. The games, both cruel and vicious, are also meant to be moral challenges and lessons.

This is why it is difficult to write quickly and glibly about the sometimes extreme sadism of the visuals. The Saw series tries to make moral points but has absolutely no qualms in presenting the cruelty as graphically as the film-makers can. A film of terror and empathy for people in extreme peril.

1.The impact of this film? Its target audience? Terror and nightmares?

2.The success of the franchise, a film every year for four years? Audience expectations?

3.The style of the film, the drained colour, the warehouse settings, the blood and gore, the police precincts, the FBI offices, apartments, hospital? Dark? The musical score and mood?

4.The sadistic atmosphere of the film, the torture, gratuitous or thematic? The theme of justice, punishment? Madness?

5.The opening, Jigsaw dead, the five-minute close-up autopsy, the detail, finding the tape and playing it?

6.The scene of terror: the blind man waking up, the man with his tongue taken out, the mutual terror? A reminder of the themes?

7.The investigation, the police arriving, Rigg rushing in, warned not to, his wanting to save the world, the dead agent? The police, Hoffman and his warning, the FBI agents? The dead agent? Rigg at the office, going home, his wife, the theme of his wanting to save everybody, the intruder, his being attacked? The set-up, the notes, the recordings, his following the trail, trying to save people, leaving them for their own choices, the various criminals and their choices, the finale, the police officers, his rushing in, the split-second timing? Deaths? The portrayal of his character?

8.Jigsaw himself, the flashbacks, in himself, his marriage, his work, the death of the child, his work as an engineer, his going mad, his brutal revenge on Cecil for the baby, his lawyer, the lawyer and getting off criminals, his setting up the machines, the diabolical mechanisms, the giving of choice to the victims, his recordings? His own personal cancer, his death?

9.His wife, being questioned, the flashbacks, the explanation of the marriage, the pregnancy, her work in drug rehabilitation, his reactions? The death? His going mad? Her continuing to have contact with him? Co-ownership of buildings? Her being interrogated?

10.Hoffman, his work as a policeman, the tape, listening to it, the investigations, his being tortured? His being turned and doing Jigsaw’s work?

11.The FBI agent, Agent Perez? With Hoffman and Rigg, the dead agent, the suspicions of Rigg, following through, his apartment, the various criminals and their death? The attack on Perez and her going to hospital? The agent interviewing Jigsaw’s wife? The final information, arriving at the warehouse?

12.The policeman hanging over the ice, it melting, Hoffman, the possibility of electrocution? The man on guard? The gun? Eric attempting to hang, his being saved? The final confrontation?

13.The variety of criminals, the woman and her being saved by Rigg, the photos of her crimes? The hotel, the rapist, his eyes? Cecil and his pushing his face to stop his hands being fixed and bleeding? The man who bashed his daughter, his wife – and the flashback scene in the precinct? The woman pulling out the rods? Her being saved?

14.How important was plot, how important character? An exercise in sadism? Combined with themes of justice and retribution?