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Saw IV (2007)
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The fourth film in the Saw franchise opens with the body of sadistic serial killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) being ghoulishly eviscerated on a mortuary slab. He may be dead but the game isn't over: a tape-recorded message found in his stomach draws Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and SWAT Commander Riggs (Lyriq Bent) into a fiendishly convoluted race to save yet more torture victims. Rejuvenating the series after the lacklustre Saw III, this makes the most of grandstanding villain Jigsaw; despite being killed off in the previous instalment, the rasping and icily emotionless Bell casts a sinister shadow over the proceedings as the character's origins are revealed in labyrinthine flashbacks. It's Grand Guignol splatter that's awash with viscera and chock full of baroque torture machines that wouldn't look out of place in a medieval castle. Yet the real horror lies in the film-makers' nihilistic take on human frailty and their apparent sympathy for Jigsaw's reactionary moralism. Scary. JR
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Tell us what you think
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Running time
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91min
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Country of origin
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US
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Genre
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Horror Thriller
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, from a story by Melton, Dunstan, Thomas Fenton
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Theatrical distributor
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Lions Gate UK Ltd
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UK cinema certificate
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18
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UK cinema release date
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October 2007
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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