The Quad

Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: Entertainment

Since 2004, the Halloween horror movie market has been dominated by the "Saw" film series. The initial "Saw" became an instant classic, due in part to its originality, and it gave the horror genre a new supervillain.

The most successful horror series have always contained a supervillain. Each villain contains something distinct about them. Freddy Krueger attacks teenagers primarily in dreams with bladed gloves. Jason possesses superhuman strength, a hockey mask and a machete. Pinhead controls the puzzle box and many devises of torture that border pain and pleasure. These characters gave rise to three very popular horror series-"Nightmare on Elm Street," "Friday the 13th" and "Hellraiser"-but all of these horror icons are supernatural. These movies contained moments of terror and fright, but the audience watching knew that these events could never possibly occur in real life. "Saw" gave rise to a character that was evil and was distinctly recognizable through his methods, but was flesh and blood and could possibly be living in your neighborhood. That is why it is such a huge disappointment to have to watch any of the subsequent "Saw" movies. "Saw IV" is not only a bad movie, but it is the worst movie in the entire "Saw" series.

"Saw IV" starts out with the autopsy of Jigsaw. An audio tape is found during the autopsy and the movie shifts to a building resembling a dungeon. At this crime scene, the audience is introduced to two cops-Hoffman and Riggs-and two federal agents-Agent Strahm and Agent Perez-who are all trying to figure out who is helping Jigsaw. While Strahm and Perez try to catch the Jigsaw gang, Riggs becomes a major part of Jigsaw's game. While this game is unfolding, Jigsaw's ex-wife reveals an ulterior motive for why Jigsaw began his insidious puzzles. As the game develops, the unimpressive torture devices, the lessons and the big twist are all revealed.

The "Saw" movies have become known for the horror devices used to teach different people the importance of life. These over-the-top contraptions in the second and third installment of this series gave people a reason (as perverse as it is) to watch the "Saw" movies. Saw had the sawing through the leg, "Saw II" had the pit of needles, and "Saw III" had the machine that snapped a man's arms, legs, and eventually his head. "Saw IV" lacked the cringe-factor prevalent in the previous films and lacked any real innovative designs for the torture machines, so it relied heavily on other aspects of the movie, which was a big mistake. This put too much of a focus on the character development of Jigsaw.

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