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I never watched any of the Saw movies before. My friends swear the first two are awesome. I could care less. I saw Saw IV yesterday more as a spontaneous impulse than some flick I’ve been murdering to see. I didn’t know what to expect, but saying that would imply that I put some thought into anticipating something special out of this. My low expectations, though, did give me some way to be entertained, then.

First off, I’d like to say that I was delighted by the fact that this wasn’t a conventional horror flick in the sense that most, if not all horror movies these days, use very cheap low lighting, eerie music and suddenly loud sounds, and jump factor that movies like Resident Evil: Extinction relied on. Saw IV generally tried to creep you out, as well as make you think more than anything else. Here’s an example: in the opening scene of the movie, the dead body of the man who was Jigsaw, the murderor from all the other Saw movies, is taken apart by two doctors. These doctors, from God knows what medical school, start cutting him open and removing organs left and right. This incredibly explicit scene, which even featured corpse penis right at the beginning for all you lady necrophiliacs out there, kept grossing my friends out. Being the sadistic bastard that I am, I kept giggling at it, as well as some of the other delightfully creepy scenes these movie features. Another nice example would be an incredibly random scene where two men are chained to this winch which, I guess if they get pulled into, they die. One of the men is blind, and the other can’t speak. I thought it was clever.

The plot itself was kinda interesting. It had two different stories to it. One half featured the life of the man who was Jigsaw before he died, with constant flashbacks, and even his first crudely constructed life or death game. Not knowing much about the story before this movie, I thought this was mostly filler, really. I wasn’t that interested in the life he led, but it did shed light on what drove him to become a sadistic murderer, which, I have to say, is kinda interesting. The other half of the story focused on Detective Riggs. Does the name mean anything to you? If it does, then you already know more about the story than I. But, basically, he has to play this one gigantic game, where instead of risking his own life, he has to save the lives of two other characters I don’t two licks of the bottomside of piece of dog doodie about. They’re probably significant. Either way, the way things are constructed is pretty well done, but while you watch the movie, you really get the feeling that the movie feels that it’s better than it really is.

Saw IV isn’t neccessarily a bad movie. In fact, compared to the other horror movies out, which actually the only other one out right now is 30 Days of Night, it’s really a breath of fresh, putrid blood scented air. It isn’t as remarkable as the movie itself feels that it is, but if you’re a Saw fan, or you have an insatiable blood lust, I’d say that this movie is for you. Otherwise, it’s quite easy to overlook. Oh, also, if you’re wondering why the man who was Jigsaw is dead, and yet still people are being murdered, go see for yourself. I don’t want to be bothered to explain.

Posted in Movies