 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Saw IV
- Review Date: January 20, 2008
- R
- Genre: Horror
- 2007
Common Sense Media says
Another Halloween, another gory torturefest. Yuck.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this fourth bloody Saw movie isn't remotely meant for kids (even though horror-loving teens will probably be interested), and it's hardly worth the time of the series' fans, either. The gory, torture-centric formula is familiar: Villain Jigsaw arranges elaborate "games" by which victims either survive by killing someone else or abusing themselves to near-death, or they die. Frequent over-the-top violence includes stabbing, shooting, hanging, fighting, slicing, and more. A pregnant woman suffers a bloody miscarriage. There's some nonsexual male nudity, a shot or two of cleavage, and reference to prostitution. Also expect the usual bad language, including lots of uses of "f--k."
What's the story?
Jigsaw(Tobin Bell)'s bloodfest continues from beyond the grave in SAW IV. (The killer's life actually ended as the fourth film begins.) This time around, the primary sufferer SWAT team leader Rigg (Lyriq Bent), last seen supporting Kerry (Dina Meyer). She also shows up dead, spurring Riggs to try to save his other, long-missing partner, Eric (Donnie Wahlberg), back one more time to endure unspeakable torment. Rigg's intense desire to help is exactly what he must unlearn, according to Jigsaw, who leaves behind complex instructions that will lead either to Rigg's reinvigorated appreciation of his neglected wife (Ingrid Hart) or his own end. Rigg's "education" involves one grisly torture scene after another, witnessed both by him and the FBI agents -- Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Perez (Athena Karkanis) -- who declare the Jigsaw case theirs. While Strahm brings all kinds of file knowledge and Perez is intuitive (like girl cops tend to be in the movies), they're both surprised to learn Jigsaw's history from his ex-wife, Jill (Betsy Russell), who spends her interrogation room time looking alternately aghast and bored. The agents press her predictably, she gives up the big secret and then ... nothing much. The murder and mayhem proceed as Jigsaw has ordained, with all his victims behaving in selfish, fearful, pathetic ways. Except for Rigg, who tries again and again to do the right thing (in his mind) but never meets Jigsaw's standards. And so he suffers, with the rest of us.
Is it any good?
SAW IV doesn't bring much originality to the bloody scrap table of the series' previous three installments. As fans no doubt recall from Saw III, his imminent death from cancer impelled him to torture a surgeon into providing him bloody closure. And although she's also dead -- like too many other players to mention -- she makes a brief appearance in this installment, because for some reason all plotty points lead to Jigsaw's death. Again.
Even if you consider the ex-wife's backstory about Jigsaw/John as additional information, it's certainly not news. Like many villains before him, John turns out to have been wronged rather randomly, an act of terrible violence that he absorbs into his worldview as a design he'll spend the rest of his life correcting -- or, perhaps more accurately, elaborating. Viewers might want to wash their hands of the entire Saw business and instead seek out other, more bearable cat-and-mousey thrillers.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the appeal of "torture porn." Why does this cynical subgenre of horror movies continue to succeed with viewers? Do you think it will ever go too far (and who defines what "too far" is, anyway?)? How is the Saw franchise itself now a kind of "game"? Is it different from the games perpetrated by Jigsaw? And does he become a more sympathetic character when you learn his backstory? Why or why not?
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AGE
I watched this for like 12 min and it was purely dreadful its
way way to violent and gory not worth seeing at all
i was sickened dont get me wrong i like scary movies
but this goes to far
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AGE
A VERY SICK MOVIE
IGUESS YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE WANT TO WATCH THESE TYPES OF THING'S ,AND I HAVE YET TO WATCH IT,BUT MY SON HAS AND MY GRANDSON AND FROM THERE TELLING ME ABOUT IT ,IT IS VERY DISGUSTING AND COULD BE VERY TRAMATIC TO A CHILD OF A YOUNG AGE. I DON'T CARE TO WATCH SUCH GROSS THING'S,THERE IS ENOUGH VIOLENCE IN OUR LIVES,IN THIS WORLD.
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AGE
not the same without jigsaw
i don really like this movie, it makes ... i dont know i dont like it. its not the same, it just this movie, im so sorry but this movie sucks!
if there is going to be a 5th and 6th part... im not going to see them!
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AGE
Dissapointment, but still good
This film was dissapointing because it wasn't as good as Saw 2 (see my Saw 3 review title too see why) but it was better than 3. There is just as much gore as the others, language is essentially the same, but in this movie there is a short scene of a man raping a lady who he later murdered.
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AGE
havn't seen it and don't plan on it!
NO no no no no no..I have no intreast in watching a movie that demonic. sorry
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AGE
SAW ROUND 4 IS STILL INTERESTING AND VIOLENT
SAW 4 PLAYS IN THE MODE OF THE FIRST THREE SAW FILMS USING EXTREME VIOLENCE TO SPIRITUALY SAVE PEOPLE EVEN THOUGH JIGSAW IS DED SOMEONE IS STILL PLAYING HIS GAME AND THIS TIME DETECTIVE RIGGS IS IN THE HOT SEAT AND LIKE THE OTHER SAW FILMS HE MUST UE THE CLUES GIVEN TO HIM TO FIND HIS COUNTERPARTS BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT WHILE THE COPS ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT MORE ABOU THE GAMES AND JIGSAW HIMSELF. LIKE THE OTHER SAW FILMS EXPET LOTS OF GRISLY VIOLENCE AND A TWIST ENDING
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| Studio: | Lionsgate |
| Director: | Darren Lynn Bousman |
| Cast: | Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Tobin Bell |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Run time: | 108 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | October 26, 2007 |
| DVD release date: | January 22, 2008 |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language. |
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