Saw IV

Saw IV
Final theatrical release poster
Directed by	Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by	Screenplay: Patrick Melton Marcus Dunstan Story: Thomas Fenton Patrick Melton Marcus Dunstan
Produced by	Mark Burg Oren Koules Gregg Hoffman
Starring	Tobin Bell Scott Patterson Lyriq Bent Costas Mandylor Betsy Russell Athena Karkanis Donnie Wahlberg
Cinematography	David Armstrong
Edited by	Kevin Greutert
Music by	Charlie Clouser
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Running time	Theatrical cut 95 min. Extended cut 98 min.
Countries	United States, October 26, 2007
Language	English
Budget	$10 million (Approx.)

Saw IV is the fourth installment in the Saw series. The film was initially released on October 25, 2007, and in the United States on October 26, 2007. The film's North American release date follows the series' tradition that the films be released the Friday before or on Halloween of each year. This installment continues the story of the Jigsaw Killer, and his obsession with teaching people the value of their own lives. Although Jigsaw died in the last installment (Saw III), this film focuses on his ability to manipulate people into continuing his work. Saw IV was directed by Saw II and Saw III director Darren Lynn Bousman alongside with co-creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell returning as executive producers. Unlike the previous three films, Saw IV was not written by either Wan or Whannel.

Plot

The film opens with the autopsy of the Jigsaw Killer and the discovery of a wax-coated microcassette in his stomach, which, when played for Detective Hoffman, promises that "the games have just begun." It then cuts to a mausoleum, where Trevor and Art are chained to a large device. Trevor's eyes have been sewn together, and Art's mouth has been sewn shut, making communication between them impossible. When the device begins pulling them together, they panic, and Art murders Trevor to retrieve a key from his collar.

Meanwhile, the police discover the corpse of Detective Kerry. After cautioning Lieutenant Rigg for barging through an unsecured door, Hoffman is introduced to FBI Agents Strahm and Perez, who deduce that Amanda Young, Jigsaw's apprentice, would need assistance with Kerry's death, indicating that there is another accomplice to the murder.

That evening, Rigg and Hoffman are kidnapped. Rigg is told that Detective Matthews is in fact still alive, and is given ninety minutes to save him. He is then given his first test, where he finds Brenda is slowly being scalped. He rescues her, although he is warned not to, and Brenda later attempts to stab Rigg; Rigg subdues her and learns that Brenda was told that Rigg was there to arrest her for prostitution.

Rigg's next test is at a motel, where he is instructed to abduct the manager, Ivan, revealed to be a serial rapist. Angered by seeing videos of Ivan's exploits, Rigg forces Ivan into a prearranged trap, which dismembers him. Rigg's next test occurs in a school where Rigg attacked a man acquitted of abusing his family, though Rigg's career was saved by Hoffman. In one of the classrooms, Rigg discovers that same husband and wife impaled together back to back via several three foot long metal rods. The rods are placed such that they pass through vital circulatory points of the man's body, but non-vital points of the wife's. If she has the courage to remove the rods her abusive husband will bleed out but she will survive. Rigg tells the woman that she must remove the spikes herself, and pulls a fire alarm as he departs.

Strahm and Perez arrive on the scene, where it is learned that all of the victims were defended by Art, who is also the lawyer of Jill Tuck, Jigsaw's ex-wife. After a photographer is accidentally killed on the scene, Perez finds Billy, Jigsaw's puppet, in the office. She is told that Strahm will "soon take the life of an innocent man" and that her "next step is critical". Ignoring past clues that she is in danger, Perez continues with the investigation before Billy explodes; she is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Furious, Strahm interrogates Jill, who recounts Jigsaw's backstory. She was once pregnant with a boy to be named Gideon, but the baby was lost when Cecil Adams robbed the clinic at which she was employed and he slammed a door into her stomach. She and her husband grew apart and divorced. After learning that he had cancer and only a short while to live, Jigsaw placed Cecil in a trap which collapsed prematurely; Cecil then lunged at Jigsaw, but fell into a mesh of barbed wire. Strahm makes connections from Jill's story to the Gideon Meat Factory, the scene of Rigg's final test.

Strahm arrives but finds himself lost, accidentally trailing Jeff Reinhart - thus revealing the events of this movie to be occuring concurrently to those of Saw III. Rigg, meanwhile, approaches his final test. In the next room are Art, Matthews, and Hoffman; it was revealed earlier that if the door was opened before Rigg's time was up, Matthews' head would be crushed between two ice blocks and Hoffman would be electrocuted by a complex device. Rigg charges through the door with one second to spare; despite Matthews' attempts to stop Rigg by shooting him, he is killed. Rigg shoots Art while, in another room, Strahm faces off with Jeff, who brandishes a gun, unaware that Jeff is frantically searching for his daughter. Strahm kills Jeff while Hoffman, who was never in any danger and is Jigsaw's other apprentice, rises and seals an injured Rigg and a bewildered Strahm in the factory.

The film then replays the autopsy scene from the beginning, revealing it to have occurred after the events of the film. Hoffman again hears that the games have just begun, and that he himself should not expect to go untested.

Cast

Actor	Role
Tobin Bell	John Kramer / Jigsaw
Costas Mandylor	Detective D. Hoffman
Lyriq Bent	Lieutenant Rigg
Scott Patterson	Agent Peter Strahm
Betsy Russell	Jill Tuck
Athena Karkanis	Agent Lindsey Perez
Justin Louis	Art Blank
Donnie Wahlberg	Detective Eric Matthews
Billy Otis	Cecil Adams
Janet Land	Morgan
Ron Lea	Rex
Sarain Boylan	Brenda
Marty Adams	Ivan Landsness
Kevin Rushton	Trevor
Emmanuelle Vaugier	Addison
Tony Nappo	Gus
Ingrid Hart	Tracy
Kim Roberts	Nurse Deborah
Angus Macfadyen	Jeff Reinhart
Shawnee Smith	Amanda Young
Dina Meyer	Detective Allison Kerry
Bahar Soomekh	Lynn Denlon
James Van Patten	Dr. Hefner
Mike Realba	Detective Fisk
Kelly Jones	SWAT Pete
Joanne Boland	Unnamed woman
Alison Luther	Jane
Noam Jenkins	Michael
J. Larose	Troy
Mike Butters	Paul Stallberg
Oren Koules	Unnamed man

Production

There were rumors about who was writing the script for Saw IV, including Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. On a news article on the same rumor site, an actual writer was revealed , Thomas Fenton. There was also a hunt for the director of Saw IV before it was officially stated that Darren Lynn Bousman should direct the fourth installment. Two of the rumored directors were David Moreau and Xavier Palud. It has been stated that 90% of the crew from the last movie will be back.

On the official Saw fan page, director Bousman says: "Scott Patterson, the first day he shows up, he says, ‘I’m going to do something a little different here.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright.’ We yell ‘action’ and all of a sudden he started improvising and it was gold. It was like the best stuff I’d ever seen and he’s insane."

Production offices opened on February 12 2007 to begin the pre-production period. The filming of Saw IV began on April 16, 2007 and continued for 6 weeks. The filming location for the horror film was Toronto, Ontario, the same place both Saw II and Saw III were filmed. Post-production period began on May 19.

Shooting for the film ended on May 30, 2007. In an interview with Darren Lynn Bousman, he stated that the last work on Saw IV will happen in August to be able to have prints made.

At Comic Con 2007 it was revealed by director Darren Lynn Bousman and producer Mark Burg that the MPAA had given the film an NC-17 rating for extreme graphic violence, mayhem, pervasive terror, and bloody torture. They would have to figure out whether or not to cut the film to achieve an R rating or release it as an NC-17 film.

Lionsgate has teamed with the American Red Cross for the annual Saw IV Blood Drive. Since the first Saw blood drive in 2004, Saw film-goers have donated nearly 38,000 pints of blood to help save as many as 112,500 lives. Collection totals have doubled year after year resulting in tens of thousands of lifesaving blood transfusions.

On August 30, 2007, it was announced that the film was officially rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language. This was clarified by the new poster (which can be seen at the top of this page), www.ropeofsilicon.com, and numerous other websites.

On August 31, 2007, the official trailer was placed on Yahoo Movies. On the same date, the official website for Saw IV was launched.

Release dates

• - October 25, 2007 On DVD March 19,2008
• - October 26, 2007
• - October 26, 2007 On DVD January 22,2008
• - October 26, 2007 On DVD March 3,2008
• - November 1, 2007
• - November 2, 2007
• - November 9, 2007
• - November 17, 2007
• - November 21, 2007
• - January 17, 2008
• - January 24, 2008
• - February 7, 2008
• - February 7, 2008
• - February 7, 2008
• - May 2, 2008

Soundtrack

Main article: Saw IV (soundtrack)

DVD and Blu-ray release

The unrated DVD and Blu-ray, released on January 22, 2008 in America and March 3, 2008 in the UK, in both full screen and widescreen format, features a 95-minute running time of the film.

There are several changes in this version:

• In the Mausoleum trap, Trevor is hit with a hatchet four times instead of two.
• In his apartment, Rigg is shown waking up in bed after hearing a noise outside his room. You see a light turn on then off.
• There is some extra dialogue exchanged between Rigg and Brenda.
• How Ivan gets captured is different.
• Ivan's death is slightly extended.
• Rigg pulls the final rod out of Morgan at the Save As I Save test.
• There is an additional scene where Agent Strahm calls Perez's mother and informs her that Perez has been injured.
• Strahm calls for back-up before entering the Gideon building.
• The "Open the door and you will find me." key is further explained.

As for extras:

There are two audio commentaries, one from the producers and one from director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor, Lyriq Bent. "Darren's Video Diary" which shows the making of the film, and 2 featurettes on the movie’s props and traps, as well as one deleted scene, a music video: "I.V." (X-Japan), and a theatrical trailer. There is also a secret game hidden in the special features menu of the Blu-ray version.

The Blu-ray is notable for being the first release to use MoLog, allowing viewers to contribute to online discussions about the film.

Box office performance

The film opened October 26, 2007 in the United States and Canada and grossed $31,756,764 in 3,183 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. As of January 26, 2008, Saw IV grossed $63,300,095 domestic and $134,618,938 worldwide. The film stayed in cinemas for 49 days (7 weeks).

Critical reception

Critics gave the film mostly negative reviews. As of November 6 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 59 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 36 out of 100, based on 16 reviews. Scott Schueller from the Los Angeles Times called it "a film as edgy as a rubber knife" and said that "if the terrible craft of Bousman's film doesn't turn your stomach, the borderline pornographic violence will. It's disconcerting to imagine anyone enjoying the vile filth splashing the screen." Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter said "the famously inventive torture sequences here seem depleted of imagination", but added that "it hasn't yet jumped the shark like such predecessors as the "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th" movies eventually did." Peter Hartlaub from The San Francisco Chronicle called it "the Syriana of slasher films, so complicated and circuitous that your only hope of understanding everything is to eat lots of fish the night before and then watch each of the previous films, in order, right before you enter the theater."

Positive reviews came from Scott Weinberg from Fearnet, who said that while it "is almost certainly the weakest of the series where stuff like plot, logic, and chills are concerned... there's still more than enough here to keep the fans intrigued, entertained, and squirming in their seats" and added that the "Saw-makers are to be commended for actually putting forth this sort of effort. I grew up in an era that offered little more than quick-cash, stand-alone horror sequels like Halloween 5 and Friday the 13th Part 7 -- so the fact that these producers actually give a damn about narrative continuity (right down to the smallest detail) is fairly impressive." Horror.com said that "with Saw IV, the pieces have all come together and [it's] the best of the lot." Jamie Russell from the BBC called it "deeply unsettling; just like a horror movie should be."

Sequels: Saw V & VI

Main article: Saw V

Costas Mandylor has signed up for the next two installments in the horror franchise along with main character, Jigsaw, portrayed by Tobin Bell.

It was confirmed through multiple sources that David Hackl, the production designer for Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV and second unit director for Saw III and Saw IV has officially been announced to direct both Saw V and Saw VI.

The writers of Saw IV, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, will be writing Saw V and Saw VI. Saw V will be going into production after Christmas, and is set to be released on October 24, 2008. In an interview at IGN.com, Patrick Melton hinted that Saw V will reveal what happened to Corbett after Saw III. Producer Mark Burg has stated he wants Scott Patterson to return as Agent Strahm but is difficult as he's doing a TV series.

External links

• Official site
• Saw IV at IMDb
• Saw IV at Rotten Tomatoes
• Saw IV at Metacritic
• Saw IV at Box Office Mojo
• Saw IV at AllMovie
• Saw IV at IGN
• Official SAW props, wardrobe and autograph auction