Lordy, I still haven't recovered from the onslaught of sequels, threequels and tetralogies of films that have graced our cinema screens this year. The Saw series has always been inventive and with absolute stomach churning effects. However, this latest celebration of all that is sick and twisted about a serial killer intent on playing a vicious game has lost its edge, I think.

‘Jigsaw’ is now dead but ‘the games have just begun’, a chilling recording announces, as his legacy is continued by hapless victims drawn into the game. The Saw films are an intelligent examination of the exploitation of human weaknesses and what happens when one man plays a game with the law, in the role of a God-like figure, to wreak retribution. The intrigue of Saw is that each victim has the opportunity to save him or herself, as some have done, but at a cost.

I find it very uncomfortable viewing and only dare go and see it if other friends want me to. It is the most chilling kind of horror, man’s inhumanity to man, and disturbing in the extreme. The trouble with Saw, like so many other series, it has become formulaic and mundane. The game is getting boring and, without giving anything away, the ending does not have the power to shock in the way the previous Saws have done. Perhaps I am missing the point and I would be grateful for anyone else’s opinion on Saw IV.

In my opinion, the First Saw was by far the best and was not so indulgent in ‘blood and guts’ horror but focused on the psychological terror of entrapment. Jigsaw’s voice on tape is now getting irritating rather than frightening but the slow unravelling of the story across the four films of how John Kramer becomes Jigsaw makes compelling viewing. I was also fascinated by the autopsy scene and wondered if I had made the mistake of not studying medicine at university. That said, I did not sleep easy that night, and wished I had not seen ‘Saw 4’ so soon after seeing ’30 Days of Night’.