The Saw story was complete with Saw III. Artistically, we had a resolved series of films striving (with mixed results) to be thematically coherent and narratively complex, while just happening to be gory torture pornography. Story-wise, this is where things stood in ’06.
Ah, but commercially! Saw III’s worldwide gross was only slightly under Saw II’s, and later reissues (whuh?!) saw Saw III become the highest-grossing Saw to date, with $164 million (again, that’s worldwide). From a business perspective, there’s no way the story’s gonna die on the vine like that! Inevitably Saw IV intravened its way into our hearts one year later, like it or not. The only question is what route it could take, with all the killers dead, and its original masterminds (James Wan and Leigh Whannell) retreating to focus on non-Saw properties like Dead Silence.
Solving that problem was up to screenwriting newcomers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (of Feast). The difficulties are highlighted right out of the Lionsgate, with the autopsy of Jigsaw Killer John Kramer (Tobin Bell, occasionally doubled by a latex gore sack). Indeed, they reassure us, Kramer is D-E-A-D dead, without recourse to a ridiculous supernatural resurrection – at least, not if Saw wishes to maintain its realism, if not respectability. (Also, accomplice Amanda Young is dead too – and barely seen in this entry – meaning even the original sequel insurers they wrote in are no longer available.)
Kramer’s body is routed through in a scene I might consider off-putting, if I didn’t have memories of Saw III dancing through my head. Finally, within old Kramer’s stomach they find a tape cassette, encased in delicious wax. Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) – whom I am assured was in III too, but damned if I remember it – is called in, with the tape promising a continuation of the Jigsaw jive, by fiat.
So…this tape represents perhaps a series stall tactic. It is slightly allowable for one post-Jigsaw rampage to take effect, by a pre-laid series of traps, perhaps. That gives us Saw IV, at least. Where another three sequels could come from this, it isn’t apparent.
Having assured story momentum, we’re thrust into the standard opening torture – here more ceremonial than ever, as the victims on display lack back stories, a taped Jigsaw message, or even a follow-up police investigation. This is happening solely for our jollies. And the trap’s sorta unclear anyway. Two jerks are bound in a mausoleum on either side of a winch. One jerk, Trevor, has his eyes sewn shut; the other, Art (Justin Lewis), his mouth. (That only Art is given an actor should tell you something.) So they basically cannot communicate, in a way which seriously stretches Jigsaw’s ostensibly “fair” villainies. And they’re slowly drawn together, which – just what is the intended mutilation here?! It helps (Jigsaw, at least) that Trevor’s first instinct is to snatch up a weapon of sorts in order to kill indiscriminately; because Art can see, it is he (the credited actor) who successfully kills, and survives. And his mouth rips open.
As a one-off trap, that was just awkward. Evidence of new, less talented writers, I’d wager.
The subsequent police investigation (four films in, there is a clear pattern in place) isn’t even into this mess, but rather the death of Detective Kerry from III. (One, it’s about time there’s a plot purpose for that scene – apart from bumping off an unwanted character. Two, Saw IV barely works without a full understanding of the whole series, the sort of non-fan closeout which plagues shows like “Lost.”)
Here we get to know the main figure of Saw IV, now that all the really essential characters are worm food – SWAT officer Lt. Rigg (Lyriq Bent), who has been with the series since II, but hasn’t warranted mention until now. Rigg has a foolish, unfounded belief that II’s Detective Matthews is still alive (perhaps he saw the non-diagetic flashbacks from III), and thus rushes in unheeded. This earns a scolding from the latest investigators, FBI agents Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis) – the Feds’ presence holds up to scrutiny as poorly as most other details, when pondered. No matter, their function in the film – apart from filling in the many vacant character slots – is to suggest a second accomplice for Jigsaw. Ah hah! That’s how they’re gonna perpetuate! It’s also a way to frame the focus of Saw IV, and patch any holes now discovered in Saw III.
Well, let’s get things underway. Following Rigg home verifies him as the lead, as he gets the precise same marital woe scene every Saw protagonist gets as a way of characterization. Then it’s straightaway to his test, as Rigg awakes from a chloroform nap to discover his house has been given the Jigsaw redecoration. A TV explains the dilemma – to test Rigg’s obsession re: Matthews by showing Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg, as vulgar as ever) still alive, and with a 90 minute clock counting down. And Rigg is off!
The central scenario at least varies from film to film. Here, it’s Saw as scavenger hunt, Rigg flying all across town, stumbling upon little mini-games where he is forced to decide victims’ fates as if he were Jigsaw (or Riggsaw - heh heh). Say it with me – Rigg is being groomed as the accomplice (considering how chronologically cuckoo this series is, we cannot be assured all this is occurring post-III). Actually, so obvious is this conclusion (never outright stated in the screenplay), that it’s obviously wrong. It’s a red herring to make us mis-guess the arbitrary twist ending to come.
“See what I see.” Rigg’s first test is in his very own living room, where a female nonentity awaits in a scalping machine. Rigg does as Jigsaw “wants” – setting the machine off due to clue misinterpretation – but also manages to save the girl – but not until plenty of goo has oozed, and not in the way most folk would resolve the situation (cutting the girl’s lengthy hair). Then the girl attacks Rigg with a gigantic blade, and – Look, Saw IV is a frail house of cards. It depends more on the screwy, nanosecond-precise actions of half a dozen different players for Jigsaw’s scheme to work out effectively. Hell, it makes the Joker’s Dark Knight plotting seem coherent by comparison. Let’s just say that for contrived reasons the girl attacks Rigg, and then dies anyway – because gore’s no good unless followed by corpsification.
Meanwhile…there are three (at least) separate plot threads weaving about – let’s take them as carefully as possible. Let us assess Matthews’ predicament first. In order to make any legible sense of Saw IV, I must issue a standard Saw warning ahead of schedule:
SPOILER!
SPOILER!
SPOILER!
1) Matthews stands upon a rapidly melting block of ice. When it melts enough, he will be hanged.
2) The ice is on one end of a scale, weighted down by Matthews. One the other side is Hoffman (from the beginning), now bound to a chair. Should, say, Matthews tumble off, the melted water will hurtle over to Hoffman, and he’ll be electrocuted.
3) Overseeing all is Art, behooded like a common Junior Jigsaw. Ah, but that’d be too obvious. Actually, Art’s being tested too (despite his prior survival) – should Matthews die, some indistinct mechanism shall pinch into Art’s neck – just like The Tingler!
4) Also, if the door from outside opens before the 90 minutes are up, a pair of ice blocks shall plummet down and crush Matthews’ potato-shaped head.
5) Rather than, you know, explain this situation (in deference to its status as a twist), Art has granted Matthews his pistol. In this way Matthews will try fending off anyone who enters the room ahead of schedule.
Phew! That’s a gigantic distance from the old “shackled in a restroom beside a hacksaw” situation the original Saw was founded upon. Let us now leave Matthews et al in their Rube Goldbergian predicament, and instead examine –
“Feel what I feel.” Rigg has made his way to a seedy motel, where one of Jigsaw’s traditional notes informs him the latest clue awaits – just behind this locked door. Rather than scope things out, or find that clue, Rigg blindly obeys Jigsaw’s other order – and kidnaps the fat, fat manager (Marty Adams, and we won’t learn his character’s called “Ivan” until well after his death – one more way Saw increasingly resembles a Friday the 13th). So Rigg rigs the big pig to a jig. Rigg collects his clue, as a tape plays berating Ivan for his rapist ways. From what I can tell, Rigg’s note was just out there to be collected, so what was the point of implicating the rather useless Ivan in all this? So we can see Ivan fail to gouge out both his eyeballs, per Jigsaw’s “ironic” punishment (Ivan merely gouges one). Ivan is dismembered. Rigg continues on his strange mission of murder, so intent is he to save Matthews and Matthews alone.
The Feds, Strahm and Perez, have been trailing Rigg all this time, offering up exposition and plot hole patches at each Jig-site. Such a subplot is in danger of being as lame as Danny Glover’s from Saw, so we get thrown another Saw bone –
In the form of Kramer’s ex-wife, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), satisfying a thread III underexplored. Her interrogation, at the hands of “bad cop” Strahm (shades of every other male cop character in the Saw-niverse), affords a further descent into detours. The flashbacks are back, stronger than ever! This ensures John Kramer remains an active presence in his films…death or no, their killer shall remain – through the fundamental violation of cinematic rules.
These flashbacks act as origin story, not to plot patch, but to add new wrinkles – and totally retcon Kramer’s motives. Now it’s not merely his cancer. Now Kramer has turned psycho non-killer because wife Jill had a miscarriage at the hands of a fiendish junky eventually called Cecil (Billy Otis). This is all some melodramatic soap opera nonsense, with more blood, Kramer proving just as illogical in the face of grief as all his victims.
We’ll get back to this soon. For now, the Feds have learned the unneeded connection between all Rigg’s unneeded victims – their lawyer was Art. Yes, Art is getting the Zep treatment – and this isn’t a double-blind, meaning Art clearly isn’t Jigsaw’s Jigson.
“Save as I save.” And by “save” they mean “let a guy die.” Rigg is now at a school, for what it matters, to confront the next two victims. It’s Rex, a wife abuser, lashed back-to-back with said abused wife Morgan by a series of rods. (All this is in a school so Rigg can “learn.”) Now…what on Earth did Morgan ever do wrong?! Get beaten up?! Yeesh! We’re lucky Ivan’s rapees didn’t get the Jigsaw treatment earlier. At least she’s given the option to save herself, by pulling all those damn rods out of her body – if she doesn’t, she’ll bleed to death, but if she does, she’ll sever her asshole husband’s arteries. Of course, he’s dead either way – and yet Jigsaw has never murdered anyone. Suuuure.
It plays out exactly as Jigsaw and/or the screenwriters wish, with Morgan getting out, being in plenty of pain (because they assume that’s fun to watch), and Rex perishing. And Rigg simply looks at all of this, for the most part.
His latest clue: “Go home.” If this is a “stations of the cross by way of baseball metaphor” thing, I choose to ignore it.
The Feds soon make their chronologically retarded way to the school in time to save Morgan. Then, for the sheer hell of it, a machine fires a rod through an unnamed CSI agent’s head. Because Jigsaw just knew someone would be there at exactly that moment, and he’s not a murderer. Sure.
In the course of their examinations, the Feds have found two manila folders addressed to them – of course Rigg never noticed such things, because he’s not very good at this. Following another hint Rigg skipped, they discover a room with that goofy Billy puppet in it – that spiral-cheeked dummy the Saw-smiths are so proud of (which isn’t an iota as terrifying as Elmer Sneezeweed.
A tape plays, directed towards Perez (how’d Jigsaw know these specific people would find this specific room at this specific time?!). It says her partner Strahm will soon kill an innocent man, and it’s up to her to choose what happens. It really isn’t, though, because the doll then flat out explodes into Perez’s face. She’s hauled off, and we never even find out if she survives (at least, not for this entry). Jigsaw – still not a murderer.
Angered and logic failing him in precisely the unpredictable way Jigsaw predicted, Strahm goes to interrogate Jill more. Even though we’re told now she’s been a consistent suspect for the past 6 months (that is, ever since Saw II – ah, a timeline!), her new testimony descends us directly into a flashback. Of course. It’s supposed to be her flashback, which is exactly why so much of what we see is from Kramer’s point of view…
We learn that Kramer was once a civil engineer, before turning uncivil. We also get to see Kramer’s first fledgling attempt as a non-murderous serial killer, as he targets the Cecil responsible for his unborn child’s death. (Also, Jill divorces him.) Cecil’s capture takes place at a Chinese New Year celebration, which establishes Kramer’s obsession with off-putting pig masks – these sorts of details don’t need the hagiographic treatment! And then Kramer tests out his first-ever trap, even though its concept puts it squarely within the realm of fourth-movie-traps.
If Cecil is to free himself from this chair, he must shove his face into a bed of knives – and make his face as ugly as his soul. But the trap breaks early, Kramer dodges Cecil, and he dies in a bed of razors…I think. The DVD skipped. Whatever happened, it has no bearing on the main body of Saw IV, naturally – it’s just another cadaver to wave at us. Sadly, the whole of Saw VI or something ‘ll probably depend on the 30 seconds I missed.
Getting back to business, it turns out Rigg knows “home” is really the Gideon meatpacking plant (or abattoir) – Kramer’s first engineering project. (Me? I’d’ve just taken a nap.) Strahm also learns this precise information, by getting Jill to confess to the exact thing Jigsaw wanted her to confess to. And both of these guys are about to act out their final silly twists.
Rigg finds his way to Matthews’ chamber. He bursts in. Matthews shoots him. Rigg shoots Art. The ice blocks crush Matthews – at last, that guy is verifiably dead! And Art, who was shot exactly the way Jigsaw predicted, has precisely enough life left in him to play Rigg a tape. Here Jigsaw explains Rigg’s test was one of patience – his obsession to save Matthews in under 90 minutes is what killed Matthews. (Remember back in the day when people were responsible for saving themselves?!)
What of Hoffman? Shouldn’t I have mentioned electrocution up there? Nope, for here comes the standard Twist Number One: Hoffman is Junior Jigsaw! Man, this might have some impact – if we knew anything about Hoffman! Rather, he’s simply the least likely suspect available, making him the most obvious suspect. We’re getting down to Charlie Chan quality twists here.
But there’s always time for Twist Number Two, the one which we “don’t” expect – whereby the film lives or dies. Strahm stumbles through an entirely different chamber at Gideon’s meatpacking, precisely the chamber Jigsaw wanted him to randomly stumble through. And Strahm arrives here at exactly the necessary nanosecond to shoot Jeff dead. Who?! The main character from Saw III. And the twist – Saw IV takes place simultaneously to Saw III. (Which…kind of keeps Kramer himself directly involved, in a way – that option won’t be open again!) Of course, this moment compounds the leaps of faith one needed to accept Saw III could end exactly as Jigsaw wanted. What a compounding of variables! Manipulating dozens of people at once! (And barely a mention of Jeff’s doomed-to-death daughter, sadly.)
What a crock!
Also, the autopsy scene is therefore the last scene, temporally.
The problem with Saw IV, which shall surely continue into its descendants, is an overreliance on the intricacies of the former Saws. It’s the blessing and the curse of this franchise. Compounding the stories like this is antithetical to the “business as usual” approach of most sequels (especially horror sequels), which are nothing but gorier and lamer remakes, again and again. Sadly, that is exactly what the Saw sequels are. It’s duded up with all the moral equivocation and narrative intricacy possible, but that doesn’t resolve the underlying current of gore mongering. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Saw IV was the start of the end for Saw, both creatively and financially, but what a long, slow end that’s been. For the series’ first time, a sequel made less than its predecessor. From here on out, each Saw shall be a steady progression down to “0.” The films remain far enough away from that number to make further sequels profitable, but the day shall come when that is no longer the case (some say that day is Saw 3D). It isn’t instant death; like Jigsaw’s victims, the franchise shall bleed away slowly and painfully. And like Detective Matthews, it’ll take a lot longer to die than is appropriate.
Related posts:
• No. 1 Saw (2004)
• No. 2 Saw II (2005)
• No. 3 Saw III (2006)
• No. 5 Saw V (2008)
• No. 6 Saw VI (2009)
• No. 7 Saw 3D (2010)
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