Saw IV
Lionsgate | Release Date: October 26, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
10
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Director Darren Lynn Bousman, who also helmed the past two installments, doesn't deviate from the stylistic formula, which includes grinding industrial music, frenzied editing and a blue-gray color palette. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The trouble is that if you haven't seen the other entries in the cycle, or don't have all the characters committed to memory, you'll have trouble figuring out who anybody is or, in the end, what any of it is supposed to mean. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
Even by the standards of the recent "Saws," which have enjoyed considerably larger budgets than the first pic, the new edition is more frenetically cut (by editors Kevin Greutert and Brett Sullivan), more dimly lit (by lenser David A. Armstrong), sweatier in terms of perfs by the grimly serious cast, more madly packed with micro-incidents and action, and more brazen in requiring suspension of disbelief. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
If an hour and a half of so-called "torture porn" sounds like fun, you'll find Saw IV situated somewhere between the first in the cycle (a solid original with plenty of energy in it) and the last (a gasping copycat willing to do anything to stay alive). Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Since the thing is increasingly impatient to jump forward to the next big torture set piece, there isn't any time to establish anyone's character. Butcher shops are bloody, too, but they're not scary. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Saw IV is bloody proof that Jigsaw may be dead, but his well of corporeal abuses has yet to run dry. Read full review
50
PremiereDarren Ratner
Though the series seemed like a great concept three years ago, it's now just a repeated assault on the senses, designed strictly for the gross-out crowd, and disturbs rather than scares. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Torture, you may recall, used to be an unparsable, unpardonable sin. Now it's porn. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Fans know exactly what they're in for, while everyone else knows to stay far away. Everyone can agree, however, that this is probably the worst date movie ever. For non-sadists, at least. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Like the movie’s mysterious Jigsaw doppelgänger, Saw IV is itself a poor substitute for the original. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a depressing experience to view something like Saw IV. It's not just the soullessness that's dispiriting, but the lack of invention. When a movie does little more than repeat what its predecessors accomplished with grotesque effectiveness, it's past time to tip this corpse into its grave and bury it. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
He now imparts so many life lessons via his Rube Goldberg thresher devices that he's starting to turn into the Rod Serling of severed body parts. Now that's torture. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
There is no narrative tension in the film, however, just a variety of grisly crucifixions. And the morality tales are blood-stained window dressing. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
One more small thing: Every other scene in Saw IV starts and ends with a potential victim pressing "play" on a tape recorder, to the point where it's almost funny. Read full review
20
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
For devotees of the series, the gore is still there and the traps are just as weird as they were in the other entries but for the rest of us, your mind will forget it the second the end credits roll. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Getting to the true root of his evil may necessitate "Saw LX." Read full review
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