After the enormous success of both 2005’s Saw and 2006’s Saw II, the producers of Saw III felt so certain it would generate Big Bucks that they left fans with a cliffhanger ending. They bet correctly and that story continued with 2008’s Saw IV.

Note that while all discussions of Saw sequels inevitably involve some spoilers, that factor intensifies given the aforementioned cliffhanger element. As such, skip the movie review aspect of this article if you want to avoid info about the third movie.

While he searches for missing Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), Lieutenant Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) encounters a snag. He becomes the latest abductee to find himself involved in John “Jigsaw” Kramer’s (Tobin Bell) violent “games”.

Officer Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) gets involved when he winds up as part of Jigsaw’s challenges. He needs to solve puzzles within a short timespan to survive and rescue his colleagues.

Not mentioned there: the cliffhanger beat left over from Saw III. Even though I warned of spoilers, I won’t reveal why I didn’t mention that flick’s Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) as a prominent part of IV’s plot.

Suffice it to say that although III set up the prospect that IV would follow Jeff’s quest to find this missing daughter and thus endure more Jigsaw challenges, the flick fails to follow that angle. IV does eventually deal with Jeff’s side but only as a minor element.

Most of IV splits between Rigg’s pursuits as well as other detectives as they sort through the whole mess and attempt to prevent additional mayhem. This bifurcated narrative doesn’t work, partly because the movie fails to connect the two sides in a coherent manner.

Actually, IV does little that I’d call coherent, but I think if it focused on Rigg almost exclusively, it’d fare better. I feel the Saw movies work best when they stay with a tight focus and don’t spread the love among a large coterie of characters.

The first and third flicks did that, whereas II brought a bigger cast and suffered for it. While I didn’t particularly like any of these movies, the original film and III at least offered the most intriguing plots. II just came with too many mouths to feed.

This continues with IV. The expansive spread of the movie becomes an issue.

Other issues arrive as well, mainly because the series’ MO just gets less and less interesting with each new movie. We get the usual hyperactive visual and editing style that seems increasingly annoying.

Indeed, this frantic nature just works less and less well. It feels like a crutch to substitute for the absence of real terror or drama or development.

Jigsaw’s traps also feel less and less clever as the franchise goes and they become more about basic pain. This means a greater reliance on gross-out elements as well.

Even for a franchise built on gory torture and kills, Saw IV feels excessively disgusting. The movie starts with an extended – and gratuitously graphic – view of Jigsaw’s autopsy.

That nauseating vibe continues the rest of the way. As with the hyper cinematic style, the choice to “go really disgusting” seems like a decision meant to paper over the film’s inherent lack of substance.

Saw IV simply finds a franchise light on inspiration. It exists to churn profits but it can’t create scares or anything particularly interesting.

Saw IV appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though it looked better than its murky predecessors, Saw IV remained less than attractive.

As mentioned in those earlier reviews, some of this clearly was intentional. The filmmakers wanted a seedy vibe.

Still, the image seemed lackluster, partly due to inconsistent delineation. While much of the film offered pretty good definition, some soft spots popped up as well.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed heavy and print flaws were minimal, with nothing more than a speck or two.

The film’s palette went with the same mix of grungy green, blue and yellow from the prior flicks. These came across as intended.

Blacks felt decent, if a little inky, and shadows brought reasonable clarity. Saw IV boasted slightly stronger visuals than the last couple of flicks, but don’t expect major improvements.

As for the movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack, it continued the hyperactive ways of the other films. This meant a soundscape that worked overtime - too overtime, as the mix tended to feel frantic.

Some of this worked and made the action livelier, but it also became a distraction. Still, the elements blended together well and created a good soundfield, even if I thought the producers needed to tone it down somewhat.

Audio quality worked well, with speech that sounded concise and distinctive. Music boasted good range and impact.

Effects followed suit, as those components brought accurate and vivid tones. I’d still like a Saw movie with a less overdone soundscape, but this one largely accomplished its goals.

When we move to extras, we get two audio commentaries, the first of which comes from director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor Lyriq Bent. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion of story/characters, narrative structure and connections to the other films, cast and performances, effects and violence, sets and locations, cut footage and changes for the unrated cut, music, and related domains.

For the most part, Bent just goes along for the ride, so don’t expect a lot from the actor. Happily, Bousman takes the lead.

This means a chat that gets into a good mix of relevant topics and moves at a nice pace. Bousman ensures we find a nice view of the different subjects and an engaging track.

For the second commentary, we hear from producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg and executive producers Peter Block and John Constantine. All four sit together for a running, screen-specific look at aspects of the franchise, cast and crew, and various production domains.

Four movies into the series and these producer commentaries tend to go along pretty well, mainly because they provide a through-line of experience across the flicks. The info can seem a bit general at times but we still find some useful notes.

Some video programs follow, and Darren’s Video Diary spans 33 minutes as it gives us a “fly on the wall” of aspects of the production. The compilation seems rowdier than usual in this entertaining package.

Two similarly titled featurettes follow: The Traps of Saw IV (16:45) and The Props of Saw IV (8:58). Across these, we hear from Bousman, Burg, Bent, director of photography David A. Armstrong, production designer David Hackl, screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, property master Jim Murray, prosthetics makeup designer Francois Dagenais, producer Daniel Jason Heffner, props builder Jason Ehl, key prosthetics assistant Damon Bishop, and actors Scott Patterson, Donnie Wahlberg, Billy Otis, Justin Louis, Kevin Rushton, and Marty Adams.

As implied by the titles, we learn about the movie’s… props and traps. We get some good details along the way.

We find a music video for X Japan’s “IV”. The song offers aggro metal of the sort popular in this film’s era, and the video concentrates on lip-synch band performance. Nothing interesting emerges.

Next we locate one Deleted Scene called “Police Station” (0:44). It just delivers a little exposition so it doesn’t seem noteworthy.

We also get a mysterious connection just called Molog. This stands for “Movie Log” and appears to offer some kind of interactive online thing. I didn’t test it.

The disc opens with ads for The Eye, Rambo, The Condemned, War, The Descent and Saw III. We also get a trailer for Saw IV as well as a promo for a videogame called Condemned 2: Bloodshot.

As the Saw franchise progresses, it feels less about creative choices and more about profits. Saw IV ladles on the usual gore and overactive visuals without compelling characters or tense story beats so it moves along the series in a weak manner. The Blu-ray brings decent picture and reasonably solid audio and bonus materials. Maybe Saw V will deliver a rebound but I can’t claim Saw IV makes me feel optimistic.