Saw IV (2007) Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman

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The iconic 'Saw' franchise is one that just about everyone is familiar with, even if they haven't seen any of them. Prior to watching this fourth film, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who has helmed four of the films in the franchise thus far, I had seen about half the films that had come out to that point, admittedly, not all in order. By this point I was all too aware of what to expect from the film - these aren't the kind of horror films you watch when you want succinct, expertly-crafted storytelling - these films are all about creative, absurd, and, of course, gory, horror traps.

I have always had fairly mixed feelings on the editing of these films - mainly the use of fast forward footage and erratic camera movement - but this film wad especially bad. It was genuinely quite hard to see some of the traps and what was going on with them - something not helped by the poor lighting, albeit that was something I got used to as the film progressed. Either way, I don't recall having such a hard time with the other films in this franchise.

This fourth film had such a convoluted and jumbled mess of a story, unfortunately. It tried so hard to convince its audience that the various twists were smart and slick, but most of them felt predictable and poorly written. I did enjoy the grim and horrifying nature of the traps, as well as the irony that always entangles them, but this definitely wasn't the best film for those either. I felt pretty disappointed by how this story seemed to flounder at every turn.

I've come to expect overly dramatic and slightly comical acting from these films, and I think it's something to embrace, much like the over-the-top traps and violence, but it was still funny to see some of the people in this film acted. In fairness, I can't say that Tobin Bell was particularly poor - he never seems to let these films down, that's for sure. I also thought that other returning actors like Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, and Betsy Russell, all played their respective parts well enough to get away with it, but Lyriq Bent never compelled me in the slightest, unfortunately. He just wasn't very good.

Overall, I thought this was definitely one of the weaker films in the main 'Saw' franchise, and one that was certainly less notable for its traps - usually one of the main highlights of any of the films in this franchise. Regardless, whilst it still had some degree of entertainment value, I would definitely choose to rewatch most of the other 'Saw' films over this one. I just didn't enjoy it much at all.