Jigsaw: Let the Games Begin — Part 4 of 8

I’ve had seven years to solidify my opinion on the ranking of the first seven SAW films. With just under one month until the franchise’s return, I continue with the fourth film in the franchise. And ending with a relatively hot take of the newest film.

This series will summarize each movie’s plot / interesting points, with some commentary about why it’s silly or cool, etc.

Continuing the countdown of SAW movies, much like a clock ticking down in one of the many gruesome traps in the series, we head into SAW IV, the final film to feature SAW II and III’s Darren Lynn Bousman in the director’s seat and the first with a new pair of writers.

Now it gets really interesting. SAW IV is the point of no return. This is franchise that askews supernatural tropes and has just had its previous film end with the two known killers … killed.

How do we get beyond that without “prequels”?

We get really complicated, that’s how.

SAW IV starts with a trap relating to ‘speak no evil’ and ‘see no evil’. It’s the first trap that actually somewhat intentionally pits two victims against each other (SAW II kind of has that Lord of the Flies element given the personalities at play but technically doesn’t have a scene built around this concept of competition). One has their eyes sewn shut. The other has his mouth similarly sewn shut. There’s likely a way to win with both but… who knows. Jigsaw’s purpose is becoming increasingly vague.

The one who is unable to speak wins this duel and screams, with his stitches tearing apart and him looking to be in quite a bit of pain.

Elsewhere we’re treated to the second bout of nudity in the franchise.

Wait, what?

Is that Jigsaw’s corpse? Is that Jigsaw’s penis? Yes, and yes. Jigsaw has been found after the events of SAW III, and that Detective from the last film? He is brought into see a ‘surprise’ — Jigsaw swallowed a cassette tape with a message. For who? Detective Hoffman! Why? Well, if you’ve seen the sequels, or read my earlier countdown posts, it’s quite clear — this is a warning for Hoffman, not as a detective — but for his moonlighting gig, which in this film we learn… is that he is also working for Jigsaw (was?).

(CONTENT WARNING: There is blood in this video as this is the scene in question. If the video doesn’t being at 1:04, that’s what I linked to — the tape.)

This is the scene from the end, but it’s also one of the first scenes, expanded upon.

Hold up… again, what?

SAW IV has one of the most novel twists in the series, and that is one of two reasons why I am way too easy on this otherwise garbage entry. The most interesting thing about it in fact is the twist. Not the revelation that Hoffman isn’t actually at risk of dying in the trap we see him in (he’s rigged this whole thing in his favor because he’s a rogue acolyte of Jigsaw)… it’s that this movie is actually taking place parallel to the events of SAW III.

There are some downsides to this. Namely, the moment we realize this is the same moment we see Agent Strahm — an FBI detective who along with his partner Agent Perez, has been brought into get this Jigsaw shit sorted — enter the room Jigsaw dies in … moments after SAW III. Strahm sees Jeff kill Jigsaw and shoots him on-site, so any hope you had of Jeff’s story continuing? That was it. That’s his whole story. Boom. Done.

Beyond this the story is okay but it ups the violence considerably from the already vastly over-violent SAW III. Lt. Officer Rigg from SAW II and III is still pissed off about his missing friend Detective Matthews, and we watch as him and Hoffman discover the dead body of Detective Kerry.

Rigg is the main person being ‘tested’ in this movie. His is a race against time. He has to save Hoffman but, to do so, he has to either understand why Jigsaw tests people and forgive them, or give them a harsher punishment than that of the law. This means we watch a woman be scalped by a device and, while Rigg tries to save her, this woman — a prostitute with a record- has also been told he will try to arrest her for her history of soliciting.

Rigg ends up killing he in self-defense and then has to go to a hotel. He learns, at this hotel, that he has to ‘don the mask’ (the Pig mask, if you’re wondering) and kidnap the man at the check-in desk. Why? He’s a rapist!

This is the most gruesome trap in the whole film and it’s fucked up. The guy ends up having each limb torn off while he’s strapped to a bed.

Rigg eventually has to go a school where a young girl was being abused and we are treated to a flashback (and a test) of two people covering up the abuse. And a crooked lawyer.

Hold up… this lawyer… he looks familiar. Is that the dude from the trap at the beginning? Yes, yes it is.

At this point, we should talk about the other part of the film’s story. Jigsaw’s past. We’ve had glimpses — SAW II explains Jigsaw tried to kill himself and has an inoperable brain tumor (we also know this from the first movie). But we really don’t know much else. His name is John Kramer. This is where the world building kicks into overdrive.

John Kramer is a successful businessman who is very smart. He’s happily married, his wife Jill runs a methadone clinic for impoverished and troubled recovering addicts. Jill is pregnant with a baby boy who they’ve decided to name Gideon. Gideon will be born in the year of the pig (… you see where that’s going? No? Pig… mask?).

John loves building things as well, he’s made a cute (but kinda creepy?) puppet for Gideon named Billy. See where that’s going? The doll … is a more fucked up version of that toy.

Gideon never enters this world. This is why Jigsaw begins his hobby.

One night, an addict named Cecil causes Jill to have a miscarriage. John is overwrought with anger and rage. Their relationship slowly starts crumbling because of this. John’s friend, Art (the lawyer from before!) wants him to get himself together and finish plans they had for some affordable housing projects. John ain’t having that.

At some point John beings following Gideon, watching him and learning about him. He finds Gideon frequenting what I understand to be the Chinatown of whatever the city these film’s take place in.

Remember, it’s the year of the pig. John lifts a plastic pig mask and chloroforms Gideon, abducting him.

This is kinda cool, in a way. We see the genesis of this otherwise enigmatic killer. Realizing that SAW is never going to be just one brilliant stroke of breakout movie making means we have to accept stuff like this will happen, and at least it’s done kinda well given how quickly the quality dropped.

Cecil is the first person tested. He has a simple but gross trap. He can die sitting in place with a sort of “knife helmet” stuck to his face. Or he can make himself visibly hideous (~like he is on the inside~) by pushing his face through the (very sharp) knives. John (not yet Jigsaw) watches and taunts him. Cecil, I believe, yells “FUCK YOU” and does it. But John taunts some more and Gideon charges at him before John dodges and Gideon trips and falls into a tangle of razor wires. That’s probably why those wires in the first movie look so gross?

This is a series about disturbing fucked up shit, and this is an interesting origin because it shows Jigaw isn’t as high and mighty as he has you believe. He goaded Cecil into this, and did it for revenge. It also kinda explains why so many of these traps always have enough holes that they don’t really seem fair.

Okay so we’re learning this, by the way, through Jill. Jill is being interrogated (and introduced properly, besides a dream in SAW III) by the FBI agents to learn more about why John is killing… and if she’s involved.

Strahm and Perez are the first intelligent pair of detectives the series has beyond the cast of the original. Strahm is bad cop, Perez is good cop. Perez seems to die (we later learn, in a small twist — that’s not true!) from an exploding Billy the Puppet.

They start to cause a lot of seams to show in whatever’s going on with Jigsaw’s plans, and this sets up the conflicts of later films.

Anyways, Rigg’s whole test ends up being a lot bullshit. He’s told he only has X amount of time to save his friend. Oh, I forgot to mention… Detective Matthews didn’t die. He uh… was picked up by someone else after his fight with Amanda from SAW II (and the scenes in SAW III) and nursed back to some semblance of health while being captive.

The friend? Well, Rigg is shown a video clip that shows Hoffman being held captive along with a very angry, very hairy Detective Matthews blubbering on about his son (remember, he’s not aware that all that shit got resolved somewhat). Which friend is at risk becomes clear at the end, which is when we learn how fucking dumb this test is.

You see, when Rigg and Hoffman find Kerry’s body Rigg rushes into the scene. Hoffman scolds him.

But Rigg is told there’s a countdown. The big thing is that it turns out Rigg needed that clock to hit zero to “win”. Why that would be a thing someone thinks of is beyond me but Rigg does what most would do and tries to save his friends before the clock hits zero.

We learn this because that corrupt lawyer is still a victim and has a little razor blade device that’s related to the timer attached to the back of his neck. If it goes off he’ll be killed.

So Rigg gets there with seconds to spare and watches as two giant ice blocks smash Detective Matthews’ head to smithereens, Art dies… and Hoffman just… unstraps the belt holding him in and stands up says “game over”, and walks away.

This movie has lots of small twists you kinda see coming. They all kind of supplement the big “timeline” twist the movies bases itself around. This twist keeps on giving too! SAW V takes place before the final (or first, I guess) scene of SAW IV, and the scene in question basically leads into SAW VI.

But wait? There are two reasons I am unfairly keen on this movie. The twisted timeline is only one reason!

What’s the other?

X JAPAN.

In highschool I got really into J-Rock. Most of the bands I found myself listening to were ones I discovered through anime, or because they actually had an album or two for sale in the US (Dir En Grey).

In mid 2007 I found a little band that was apparently not so little in Japan. X. Or, as they’re known now, X JAPAN. Combining the speed and fury of songs like “Fireball” or “Highway Star” by Deep Purple with classical music X JAPAN was a very different beast from most music I had heard.

For one their frontman, Yoshiki, is the drummer and pianist. He also writes all the other parts for most of the songs, including the lyrics and how they’re sung.

The thing is X JAPAN had broken up in the 90s. A week after I discover them however, I learn they’ve reunited and their first song in 10 years will be released … as the closing theme to SAW IV.

I give you “I.V.”, which is also the very first J-Rock tune to be in Rock Band, for what it’s worth, complete with a SAW themed music video:

The song works really well for a SAW movie but also as an X JAPAN song and I adore it and for that reason SAW IV get a pass. Seriously, I can’t fully hate a movie with this song — I mean I took a full day to go see them play in New York City during my final semester of college. I’m kind of a fan.

But, frankly SAW IV is an otherwise bad movie. Overly violent, the limits of ‘morality tests’ pushed far passed reasonable (or logical) limits, and still not answering some burning questions. There’s little hope for this franchise, at this point. But, oddly enough, SAW VI manages to ignite a glimmer of hope — despite upping the gore and body count even more, it has an interesting story, a fresh director, and … a relevant political message?

SAW VI is the next entry on the list.

The list so far:

1. SAW 3D: The Final Chapter
2. SAW V
3. SAW III
4. SAW IV
5. SAW VI (next!)
6. ???
7. ???

(Sorted from Worst to Best)