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Reviews

Saw IV

More gory pranks

By TOM MEEK | October 31, 2007

2.0 Stars

SAW IV: Jigsaw lives.

Unless his name is Jason, Freddie, or Michael, a serial killer has problems returning from the dead, especially one suffering from terminal cancer, as Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) was before an angry victim terminated him and his sidekick in Saw III. No worries: Jigsaw has a new apprentice, and the apprentice has a battery of scratchy videotapes from the puppet master explaining how to escape if you wake up in an iron maiden or the like. (A personal favorite: extricating the key to freedom from one’s own eye socket.) In this episode, Jigsaw directs his ire at the police officers who dogged him over the previous three films, but most of the movie consists of a backstory about how he came to be that includes his charity work, his wife (Betsy Russell) and the son they never had. All of which is marginally engaging, but save it for your therapist — director Darren Lynn Bousman muddles the flashbacks and they take the edge off the gory pranks.

Related: Saw III, Saw V, Crossword: ''Home slice'', More

Topics: Reviews , Betsy Russell, Tobin Bell, Darren Lynn Bousman

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