by Thomas Ferguson

It’s Halloween…Time for our favorite torture franchise to splatter it’s way onto American movie screens. The fourth installment of the highly successful Saw series is back. You thought it ended with the “death” of Jigsaw, but things are only beginning.

In order for you to understand this installment…you must be familiar with the previous ones. At the end of part three, the brilliantly evil Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) are murdered by the husband of one of their victims. End of story, right? Not so much.

After the murders of nearly all of the law enforcement assigned to this grizzly case, two tough as nails FBI agents come in to “save the day”. Agent Strahm (Scott Paterson) and Agent Perez (Athena Karkanis) arrive at the deflating precinct only to find the carnage is not over. They help detectives sift through more horrifying murders and gather clues that will hopefully lead them to the location of Jigsaw.

While they are doing this, one of the last men standing SWAT Commander Riggs (Lyric Bent) is abducted and must suffer the same twisted fate of his fallen comrades. He is given only ninety minutes to navigate through a series of deadly traps that are connected in some way? If he fails…he dies.

Again, another sick and twisted tale of mayhem and torture. If this is your sort of thing, you will be in hog heaven. For me, I’m not really a fan of torture. I love horror movies, but torture movies are an acquired taste. I did like Saw 3 and Hostel 2, but they were the exception. This latest Saw film is just a rehash of what we have already seen. End it already!

Many say they were completely confused by this latest installment and there is a good reason why. You see, events of this film and the events of the third film are happening simultaneously. Just a heads up so you won’t be totally lost. It is confusing, but I’m sure all will be explained in the fifth installment. Yes, it is going to happen. No doubt, just in time for Halloween 2008. Stay tuned!