‘Saw IV’ writers clean up
By James Allen
Staff Writer
Do you want to play a game? Do you want to play a game again and again and again? Well if the game has me suspended in the air upside down with hooks in my flesh, then I am afraid I will have to pass.
For the past three Halloween seasons, the big screen has offered a Saw movie full of terror, horror, pain, torture and above all, a lesson learned. This Halloween is no different.
“Saw IV” revives Detective Matthews’ (Donnie Wahlberg of “The Sixth Sense”) story from the second film. S.W.A.T. Officer Rigg (Lyriq Bent of “Four Brothers” and “Take the Lead”) is challenged posthumously by the killer Jigsaw, who died at the end of the third film in the series. The next step in the ongoing serial killer’s case is taken over by the FBI. The agents track the case victim by victim.
Jigsaw (Tobin Bell “The Road to El Dorado”), the movie’s serial killer, was a man who did not want his victims to die, but he set deadly traps for them from which they had to escape. His traps were meant to help his victims have a better appreciation of their lives.
Jigsaw was a terminally-ill cancer patient who had taken on an apprentice to continue his work. His death in the third film, as well as the death of his first apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith of “Eat Your Heart Out”) leads the FBI agents to conclude that there must be another apprentice. Rigg believes he is trying to save Detective Matthews in a series of gruesome tests, but throughout the movie the killer is attempting to have Rigg “see what he sees.” Other characters such as Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor “Portraits of a Killer”) are revived from the second movie.
The writing was done by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. They did a brilliant job of filling in some of the holes in the storylines of the first three movies. The writers explain how Jigsaw was able to acquire all of the information he knows about the detectives and criminals of the first three movies. The ending of “Saw IV” is as shocking as the first film’s ending. While Jigsaw’s character is dead in the story line, many retrospective looks at his life give Bell a chance to reprise his role. Jigsaw’s philosophy on life is more understandable in the fourth film and can be said simply: “You cannot help others. They can only help themselves.”
Director Darren Lynn Bousman directed “Saw II” and “Saw III.” He was the writer of the second film and did a fair job of carrying on with the characters and themes of James Wan’s “Saw.” Bousman’s knowledge of the second movie’s characters that are revived in the fourth film, gave it a more personal feel than the others. This film is a must for all “Saw” fans and a good one for any horror movie goer.
