"Saw IV" cuts through the mystery

Deliciously creepy, stuffed full of surprises and dripping with intelligence, director Darren Lynn Bousman's "Saw IV" picks up where last year's "Saw III" left off, and does it better. Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead. His grisly autopsy is the first, and goriest, scene in the film. But his games don't end when his life does - and this leads officers Rigg (Lyriq Bent), Perez (Athena Karkanis) and Strahm (Scott Patterson, of "Gilmore Girls") to seek answers and attempt to identify his mystery partner.

"Saw" aficionados know how off-base the police are in suspecting Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill (Betsy Russell), of being his accomplice - but the time Strahm spends questioning her and gives audiences new insights into his murderous motivation. We're also treated to a ringside seat of his first trap, and the knowledge of why his first victim fell into Jigsaw's homicidal hands.

Meanwhile, Rigg is racing against the clock to save Detective Eric Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg), among others. But his test is much more convoluted than most others' - he is asked to step out of his own obsession with saving others and see things through another set of eyes. Sometimes, this means making life or death decisions for people he encounters with very little time to think things through.

Unfortunately, after neatly answering nearly all the series' questions, the newest writers - Project Greenlight winners for "Feast" (2005) Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan -have left the door open for a fifth film. Fortunately, that is the biggest flaw in this film.

The other flaw is the abrupt, nearly strobe-like, crosscutting between images. What worked in small doses in the earlier "Saw" films, film editor Kevin Greutert has overused this time around. But the intricate story is so fascinating, this issue is easily forgiven.

Rated "R" for language as well as grisly, bloody violence and torture throughout, "Saw IV" is less gory than "Saw III" but still no place for children. Instead of parents in peril or vats of hypodermic needles, "Saw IV" has plenty of what made the series worth starting in 2004 - intrigue, suspense and character development.

Originally published in The Chronicle in November 2007.