film #20 in operation: rewatch my blu-rays i havent seen in a long time the saw franchise's descent came rapidly, but surprisingly on a rewatch, it didn't start with saw iv. there are problems with darren lynn bousman's third time at the helm for this series, to be sure. but they aren't enough to drag this down too far. the film's failings mostly come in the fact that it's difficult to continually top itself with its traps, and this film's implements of death fail to match up to the inspired viciousness of traps like the ice bath or the "rack" fromo saw iii. in addition, the script is a little too clever for its own good, telegraphing some of its surprises and getting a touch lost in the convolutions of its time gimmick. and yet, there's an audacity here that i appreciate. patrick melton & marcus dunstan are up to the plate for the first time on writing duties, and they do an admirable job of figuring out how to keep john kramer involved as we delve into the mythology of the franchise via flashbacks. tobin bell's presence is of a huge benefit to this film, and he matches up well with the fantastic betsy russell as jill tuck. john and jill keep a lot of scenes afloat that would otherwise fall short, and they make the constant jumps back and forth through time worth following along with. bousman is fine again behind the camera, keeping continuity with the visual aesthetic and finding ingenuitive ways to film the sequences that officer rigg (a very serviceable lyriq bent) is put through by jigsaw. while it's harder and harder to care about the increasingly shallow victims, riggs' story remains improbably engaging to watch. the return of a previous character is handled decently enough and while other side (involving fbi agents looking for jigsaw's non-amanda apprentice) is a bit harder to care about, but it wisely does not get much of the focus. there is an absolute continuation of fraying around the edges with the franchise at this point, and it's easy to understand why people were getting tired of the whole thing at this point. but there's still plenty in saw iv to justify its existence -- even if it absolutely starts to go downhill from here.