Thursday, April 3, 2008

Saw IV: Beating a Dead Horse


Well, that’s not really the subtitle of Saw IV, but it should be.

Let me recap: once upon a time, there was this brilliant, suspenseful independent horror film that had a brilliant twist to it. People were put into seemingly-inescapable traps with the task of thinking their way out. Those who did developed a stronger appreciation fo their own lives. This was a lesson designed by the traps’ engineer, who was suffering from terminal cancer. Lots of twists and surprises and nowhere near the blood and gore I’d imagined.

Then came the decent sequel, the disappointing third one and the unwatchable fourth one.

Saw IV has lots of traps—gorier than ever and, frankly, not much purpose to them. To me, the movie is nothing more than an attempt to milk the franchise. I watched 20 minutes, skipped forward a few scenes and then turned it off. I like Tobin Bell and Donnie Wahlberg as actors, but to me, this film is just unwatchable.

You know what’s really disturbing? They’re actually working on Saw V. Ugh.

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