Last Thursday, a day before Saw IV handily won the weekend box office, the film was also helping to draw blood in a slightly more practical way. The fourth annual Saw franchise “Give Til It Hurts” blood drive, which benefited the Red Cross, hit college campuses across the country—including Columbia—in conjunction with the release of the Lionsgate film. And oh yes, there was blood.
Although Lyriq Bent, an actor in the latest three Saw films, had planned to attend the blood drive at Columbia, he was unable to due to bureaucratic complications. But Columbia’s administration might have been better served by allowing the promotion—Bent’s endearingly cocky and cool attitude would have had students lined up to open their veins.
The confident smile is a stark contrast to his role in the new film though, where Bent plays a detective tortured by the disappearance of his colleague. He must become a victim of the mastermind killer Jigsaw in order to save this colleague—though Bent objects to the term “victim” as too one-dimensional. “He has purpose and meaning,” he says of his character, Rigg. “He does not feel sorry for himself.”
Victim or not, Bent and many other characters in the film are subject to the kind of gruesome violence that has become highly controversial among moviegoers. Bent insists that, while it may be gory, there isn’t gratuitous violence in these films. “The blood factor and the gore factor are done with great characters and a great story that actually have a purpose,” he says. “They [the creators] don’t go in there thinking of the sickest way to turn people’s stomachs. We go in there to create the best story that we can tell.”
Of course, Saw IV does feature many atrocities, such as an individual who is dismembered in a hotel bed. “No one gets tortured,” though, claims Bent, since each victim actually has the ability to change their ways, and do what they have to do to get out of the trap.
Bent also extols some of the virtues inherent in Saw IV, particularly the franchise’s treatment of African Americans. As Bent points out, African-American characters rarely make it to the end of horror films, a familiar concept that has reached the point of parody in films like the Scary Movie satires. But Bent—who has survived two previous films in the Saw franchise, in addition to making it to Saw IV—praises the treatment of his race in the films. “It’s history in the making,” he says.
Despite criticism over its violence, Saw IV seems to signal more to come, especially with its weekend success. “There will be a [Saw] V,” promises Bent, assuring that the ending of the current film will leave open the possibility for another Saw flick come next Halloween. He, too, had heard—but could not confirm—a rumor that Saw V and Saw VI will be filmed at the same time in an attempt to save production costs and cater to the actors’ schedules. The Halloween tradition seems determined to continue, so love it or hate it, there will be more blood.