I defended the Saw franchise long past the point where most self-respecting cinephiles and even genre geeks abandoned it. It was only after the moronic, baffling Saw IV that I got off the bandwagon. But as someone who thinks the franchise has (had?) something to offer beyond the admittedly questionable thrills of what smug know-nothings call "torture porn," I'm anticipating this month's annual installment with an ever-so-slight glimmer of hope. The first three films took a gimmicky serial killer concept and expanded it to something big and increasingly baroque, piling on twist after twist that, to me, consistently seemed bold rather than (merely) ludicrous. They were gruesome, yes, but they were also moody and visually exciting; Darren Lynn Bousman, in particular, seemed to take painstaking care in the second and third films to construct a cruel, self-contained universe around the crazy-ass story.

So here, briefly, are three things Saw V -- which sees the franchise's production designer David Hackl take over directing duties from Bousman -- could do to avoid the pitfalls of its immediate predecessor and restore my faith in the series.

If it's Halloween, it must be Saw. And it is. So it must be. Cinematical attended a press junket this week for Saw IV. It consisted of three interviews, with reporters from various outlets throwing out questions. The first was with Jigsaw himself, Tobin Bell (phoning in because he lives in Malibu, so wish him and his family well). The second was with Lyriq Bent (Rigg), Scott Patterson (Agent Strahm), and franchise producer Mark Burg. The third was with Costas Mandylor (Hoffman), Betsy Russell (Jill -- Mrs. Jigsaw), and franchise producer Oren Koules. Lionsgate hadn't screened the movie for critics (or even the actors!) as of this junket, as the representatives are extremely secretive about its plot, particularly a final twist. All we know is, despite having seemingly died at the end of Saw III, Jigsaw is back. Oh yes, and we know that there will be blood. Lotsa blood. We discussed what makes the franchise so popular, the phrase "torture porn," and the future of the Saw series.

Can you tell us what attracted you to the role yet again?

Tobin Bell: He's a big character. There could be nothing better for an actor than to have an opportunity to play a role where the character is sort of a multi-faceted guy. I mean, he is a scientist and a very well read guy and a man of conviction and passionate about what he does. There is something Shakespearean about him in a way. And there is a lot more story to be told. I feel like the Saw story doesn't play out in a linear way. It doesn't happen in sequence, necessarily. Whenever you have the opportunity to develop a guy like this, it's a blessing. It's what actors become actors for.

It's interesting to hear you talk about the thought process that goes into creating his back-story. Because if you ask an audience after they see a Saw film, they were there for the gore. They want to see someone's guts spill out on the floor. Are you rationalizing the character for yourself? Or do you really care about the characters in these films?

TB: I think that anybody who goes to one of these films wants to care about the characters. I think you can accomplish the same thing in the horror genre that you can accomplish in any other genre, whether it's a period piece, or a romantic comedy. I think there is an opportunity in a drama of any kind for the viewer to get involved with the characters. If you sell out completely on that, and I think that is what the horror genre has done for many years, people will not think of it very highly as a genre. Many genre films of the fifties and sixties were interested in the special effects, or interested in the scare factor, or the sci-fi factor. Jacob's Ladder is a very smart, well-crafted script. It is very scary. The Dead Zone with Christopher Walken. On its face, you have a man that looks at things and lights them on fire with his eyes. Look at the film. Christopher Walken draws you in. He makes you care about him. That's what makes the film work.

Outside of the Baby Geniuses pictures, I can't think of a more joyless, humorless, lifeless movie series than the Saw films. I watched the previous three alone at home, and each just sucked the life right out of me. But since I'd be seeing Saw IV with an audience, I expected to finally understand why people love these grisly flicks so much. I thought I'd hear yelling, cheering, people shouting "Gross!". I thought it would be fun. But the crowd remained completely silent until the credits rolled. Then everyone quietly got up, quietly walked to the doors, and quietly headed for their cars. How has this become the most successful horror franchise of all time?

Jigsaw is dead, and the film opens with his naked corpse laid out on a slab. Yes folks, I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned more in the marketing, but you do get to see 65 year-old Tobin Bell's genitals. That oughta sell some more tickets! What follows is an autopsy scene so astonishingly graphic that I removed the organ donor sticker from my driver's license. Seriously, if you had trouble with the brain surgery sequence in Saw III, get to Saw IV 15 minutes late. A new cassette recording is found in Jigsaw's stomach, and the games begin all over again. Two FBI profilers (played by Scott Patterson and Athena Karkanis) join Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) to put together the Jigsaw puzzle (nice little play on words there, if I don't say so myself). SWAT Commander Rigg (Lyriq Bent) is abducted and has 90 minutes to overcome the usual series of traps and save an ex-New Kid on the Block (Donnie Wahlberg). In other words, it's exactly like the other Saw flicks.

"Oh yes there will be blood," and considering the annual profits being raked in by the Saw series, there might very well be blood every October for the rest of time. Regardless of your feelings toward them, there's no denying these folks have gotten the formula down cold for budget filmmaking that yields fattening returns. Of course it helps that the movies are mostly starless (no offense, Donnie Wahlberg), with the sole exception of Tobin Bell, a character actor who's appeared on roughly 40 percent of all the world's television shows and has become famous as the face of the franchise. It's no wonder that his character Jigsaw, the diabolical madman who teaches people how to appreciate life just in time for them to die, is back for Saw IV despite meeting a grisly end in the last chapter. We visited with Bell in his lair (OK, hotel suite), where he told us about interactions with fans and the time he read his young son the Saw script as a bedtime story. Well, sort of.

Cinematical: Do you get recognized much for your playing Jigsaw?

Tobin Bell: Oh yeah sure. But you know, I'm always amazed... I took my 11-year-old to an oceanography camp and these girls came over to me, and my son was like "Oh here we go, Dad," because they had been looking. They were like, "You're the guy, aren't you?" And I said, "Well, maybe." They said, "He is, he's the guy on Charmed!" They were like 13, and Charmed was their favorite show and I did one episode of Charmed as this blind guy. Sometimes people will say "You're the guy on Stargate." Or, "I loved you on Seinfeld." So I get recognized depending on where I am. Saw is a particularly popular film with 14-30 year olds, so I'll be at a playground and meet six or 10 skateboarders who just wanna talk about Saw. They don't want to talk about Seinfeld but they are just very excited about Saw. I'm always psyched about that because seeing something that engenders as much enthusiasm amongst young people as Saw does is a very interesting experience.

Cinematical: What do you think drives that fascination with 'Saw'?

TB: I remember meeting a girl in New York some years ago and she went to horror films all the time. She was very reserved, very presentable, a personal assistant type, extremely articulate, very well educated. She went to horror films and I asked her, "Why do you go to horror films?" Because I never personally was drawn to being frightened in the theater. She said it's because it's such a visceral experience. It's not something you can intellectualize. You can't control it. So she liked that. That always stuck with me. When I sit in the theaters and watch the Saw films and watch the audiences' reaction, it's true. You can't control what your body does. Like the last moment of Saw 1 when I get up off the floor, it induced this sort of universal reaction that people had to this moment. It was like "Ahh!," and their little asses came right off their seats in that moment. Their bodies would rise out of the chair. And there are other moments like that.

I'm sure someone out there has or is going to make a joke about 30 Days of Night taking a big bite out of the box office, just as if the movie had tanked we'd be hearing about how the movie bites. Well, you won't hear that from me, although I guess you just did. In any case, arctic vampires translated into cold hard cash (yeah, that was just as bad) this past weekend as 30 Days of Night was the big winner. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married slipped only one position landing in second place. The Game Plan remains in the top five for the fourth week in a row with a total take of $69 million so far. I sooo did not see that coming. It was pretty close between the fifth and sixth place positions, with The Comebacks just barely outdoing Gone Baby Gone. And now, the numbers if you please...

1. 30 Days of Nights: $15.9 million
2. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? $12.1 million
3. The Game Plan: $8.1 million
4. Michael Clayton: $6.6 million
5. The Comebacks: $5.5 million

Only two major openings this week, and they couldn't be more different from one another. Whether people are looking for laughs or screams will be the deciding factor.

Dan in Real Life
What's It All About: Steve Carell stars as an advice columnist, widower and father of three who falls in love with his brother's girlfriend. Hi jinx ensue.
Why It Might Do Well: Since this week's other big release is Saw IV, there will be moviegoers looking for something a bit lighter, and this should fit the bill. Despite Evan Almighty's tepid box office performance, Carell is still carrying enough momentum from The 40 Year Old Virgin and The Office to entice ticket buyers.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Despite Carell, there's still Dane Cook's presence to consider.
Number of Theaters: 1,700
Prediction: $15 million

Saw IV
What's It All About: Just in time for Halloween, it's a new installment in the Saw franchise. Jigsaw is back, though he looks pretty dead in the trailer, and there are more traps, moral quandaries, and buckets of gore.
Why It Might Do Well: Opening weekend figures for the first three Saw flicks have increased each year. Saw has become such a known quantity that I suspect the trend will continue, and I see this being in the number one spot this coming weekend.
Why It Might Not Do Well: With Hostel II tanking at the box office, I suspect the torture porn fad may be on its last legs.
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $31 million

Next weekend seems fairly straightforward, with Saw IV being the obvious number one film (blood and guts, Halloween, and a tried and true franchise) followed by the reliable Steve Carrel's Dan in Real Life, with last week's top three shifting down to make room for the new guys. So when all is said and done it might look something like this:
1. Saw IV
2. Dan in Real Life
3. 30 Days of Night
4. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?
5. The Game Plan

Hearty congratulations and a Cinematical Whoop-de-doo (I have no idea what that means) to Bubba8193 for the first perfect score our little competition has seen in awhile. Here's how everyone did:

1. Bubba8193: 16
2. Joseph J. Finn: 10
3. Neil: 9
3. Caddy: 9
3. Chris: 9
3. Anna07: 9
4. Ray: 8
4. Ethan Stanislawski: 8
5. Max: 7
5. Dre: 7
6. Matt: 7
6. Josh: 6
6. Dana: 6
6. Pete2169: 6
6. Nathan: 6
7. Gregory Rubinstein: 3
7. NPC: 3


Don't forget, please post your prediction in the comments section below before 5:00PM on Saturday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.

Pictured Above: Cinematical's Erik Davis wakes up in Saw IV.

Oh, how I lurve Lionsgate. Not long ago, I woke up to a package arriving at my door which contained a pair of girl's underwear promoting the film Good Luck Chuck. The underwear were cute, and my wife wears them when we role-play, pretending to be Dane Cook (that's me) and Jessica Alba (that's her). What? Why are you looking at me like that? Anyway, this morning a different kind of package arrived at my door; this time Lionsgate was pimping out a certain horror sequel opening in theaters this weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't another pair of girl's underwear. Oh no, this time it was a large briefcase. As I removed the briefcase out of the ginormous box it came in, a million different scenarios ran through my head. Maybe they sent me Megan Fox? Could she fit in a briefcase? Perhaps?

No, it wasn't Megan Fox. It was a nifty Saw IV package, consisting of a t-shirt (seen above), a weird pig's mask (now I have a Halloween costume!), a key chain that speaks like Jigsaw when you push a button, a few Saw IV postcards and a bottle of vodka. Combine all of that together, and I can come up with one helluva freaky night for myself. I can only imagine how nutty this film is going to be, and if I drink enough of that vodka, perhaps I'll work up the courage to sit through it. You can check out all the Saw IV treats Lionsgate sent me in the gallery below; Saw IV finally arrives in theaters this Friday.

According to Bloody-Disgusting, Lionsgate is planning to shoot Saw V and Saw VI back-to-back, perhaps to make sure they have two sequels in the can prior to any sort of Hollywood strike. Either that, or they're just testing director David Hackl and his crew to see how fast they can write and shoot these suckers. Of course, I won't be happy until they write, shoot and have a Saw film in the can in one month, with 12 sequels to watch each year. Maybe by that time they'll figure out a way to clone Tobin Bell before the guy gets so used to being Jigsaw, that he winds up going on a mass killing spree for real. Screenwriters Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Feast, Project Greenlight) wrote Saw IV, and they're also signed on to write two more sequels. Good for them! At least someone came off that Project Greenlight show ready to kick serious ass.

The most interesting note to come attached to this Bloody-Disgusting story is that, apparently, Lionsgate may skip a year with the Saw films. Yup, that means October 2008 would come and go Saw-free. This has not been confirmed yet, and folks are on it as we speak, but that's what's being reported. Should Saw IV absolutely demolish the box office, I imagine Lionsgate may re-think that strategy. But if Saw IV doesn't put up big numbers, then maybe it would be a good idea to take a year off, let the fans breath, and then come back with a Saw V and Saw VI that absolutely rock. What do you think? Are you ready for the Saw franchise to end? Do you want to keep seeing one installment each year? Or, would you be down with them taking a year off?

Sure, exploring bold new frontiers of cinema is important , but there's a lot to be said for seeking solace in a known quantity. That's why after a long day I'll throw Clerks into the DVD player for the umpteenth time, or maybe give Superman another spin. Sometimes you just want to deal with something you know, know what I'm saying? This week's quintet of trailerly goodness takes a peek at films with a comforting sense of familiarity.

Saw IV
Hey, it's another Saw sequel! Personally, I do not get a warm sense of recognition from this, but obviously some people do since there's been a new entry in the franchise every Halloween since it all started back in 2004. There's a new trailer (in glorious HD!) that shows off a little more footage than the domestic theatrical teaser I mentioned a few weeks ago. The villainous Jigsaw does the voice over, despite looking pretty dead when he's seen onscreen. There's also a cluster of quick cuts that will leave your head spinning. This one's not for me, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it.

Semi-Pro
Hey, it's that guy from Elf, Talledega Nights and Blades of Glory, and -- holy crap -- he's naked. Will Ferrell bares nearly all in this teaser for his new movie about pro basketball in the 1970s. It's hard to form an opinion based on less than a minute of footage that doesn't look like it will even be in the final film, but it looks like Ferrell is doing what he's become known for, and that usually makes me laugh.

I've been a horror fan since before the first Friday the 13th, but I'm definitely in the "loves the tension, thrills and release, but has a weak stomach" wuss category when it comes to the increasingly detailed anatomical level of blood and latex that's splashed on the screen nowadays. So imagine how I felt when presented with the latest clip from Saw IV, which actually begins with the explicit autopsy of Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, or a reasonable facsimile thereof). Yup, you get the whole deal: medical saws a-cutting, body parts laid open, internal organs sliced and diced.

If your reaction was stomach churning disgust, you can skip to the next article. On the other hand, if you just said: "More, please!" head straight over to the Saw IV web site, where, after entering your name, street number, zip code, date of birth, and next of kin (just kidding on that last one), you may go directly to "video" and click "autopsy." As our resident horror expert Scott Weinberg reported earlier this month, the teaser trailer is there too, along with various graphics and production notes. If you just want a quick look at the teaser -- not the autopsy clip -- you can also head over to Moviefone for a look in glorious HD.

At the Saw IV site you can also take a look at some of the puzzle traps from Saw III and click on "commentary" to watch video clips on how they were realized, with director Darren Lynn Bousman and production designer David Hackl talking about the technical challenges involved. Other site goodies are still marked "coming soon," but if you get bored you can always watch the autopsy clip again. Unless you work in a slaughterhouse, the entire site is NSFW. Saw IV buzzes into theaters on October 26.

Last week's big winner at the box office was Rob Zombie's Halloween, so horror flicks are definitely on my mind. It's Scary Stuff week on Trailer Park.

Hatchet
While this is definitely an old school style horror flick, it's not a remake. In fact the poster proudly proclaims "It's not a remake. It's not a sequel. And it's definitely not based on a Japanese one." If it weren't for the modern production values, you could imagine this one playing drive-in theaters back in the early 80's. A child narrates, telling the story of Victor Crowley, a deformed boy who died in a fire set by a nasty bunch of kids. Now people are disappearing in the local woods, and it looks like Victor is the one doing them in. Kane Hodder, who wore the iconic goalie mask in three of the Friday the 13th films, stars as Victor Crowley, and horror vets Robert Englund and Tony Todd are in there too, as is Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Mercedes McNab. Looks like a decent modern take on the classic slasher formula, with an eye toward casting that will keep horror buffs happy. The movie opens today but only in 78 theaters, so if this movie does manage to find an audience it will be on DVD. Additionally, you can check out Scott's interview with Hatchet director Adam Green.

Saw IV
Like the trailer says, "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw." The franchise rears its gore-spattered head every Halloween with a new installment, with each film raking in some serious cash, so don't expect the trend to end anytime soon. Are there really four of these things now? The teaser trailer shows some brief snippets of the film being projected on what looks like a grimy warehouse wall, with shrieks of agony and people begging for mercy in the background. More of the same, so if you liked the previous installments you'll probably enjoy this one. Have a look for yourself: