Another year, and another SAW.. the fourth installment in the series did, again, remarkably well despite reviews proclaiming the acting was worth less than a made-for-TV movie, and the graphic violence was some of the worst torture porn that ever appeared in the big screen.. My niece saw it and said it was definitely gory.. the audience in the theater winced and bobbed their heads up and down as the heavy metal torture scenes played out--at least this is what she told me. I didn't see it. And probably won't.. I had enough of SAW with the second installment for a variety of reasons. First off, you could tell it was going to be a quickly produced Halloween staple. The speed of the production was evident with the lack of acting ability of the cast. I'm not an actor.. don't proclaim to be one. But I also don't audition for films. The actors in the SAW films don't know enough to stop themselves.. Maybe we can start picking actors in the SAW franchise films like we choose reality show contestants. They could submit their most graphic acting scene, they could be judged by a panel, and maybe even everyone can vote. Maybe Americans could even vote on how they wanted their actor to die.. what type of torture, how many minutes of a scene should it go on.. All that. Regardless of my lofty ideas for future cast placement, what is clear is how this franchise changed over time. In 2004, the original film was truly original. Low budget, story line, interesting twist ending. Gore, definitely, but it's a horror film. As it continued, however, the obvious lasting affect was much stronger than Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES or the DEVIL'S REJECTS.. what Zombie tried to do on purpose was done without much fanfare by SAW's creators.. The violence that gets splashed on the screen is realistically gory.. Almost borderline obsessive in detail. The script and casting is poor.. Leaving the assumption that the creators are simply making quickie gross out films dubbed "horror porn", "torture porn" and even "gore-nography" by reviewers.. But of course, reviewers have no say in real box office numbers. This week, SAW IV opened huge--again--at a Halloween box office. Not to sound prudish.. but maybe too much is now too much? SAW IV will no doubt next year equal SAW V.. By the time we get to SAW X .. will be have enough? Does this art imitate the violent life we live in? Or maybe, are viewers just happy it's not them being tortured in brutally sadistic ways? Perhaps we all know a movie gets to be enough when even FANGORIA magazine writes "Beyond that, though, itis more than fair to ask what another installment will have to offer that the other films haven't already given us. Clearly the filmmaking team can come up with endless ways to torture their victims physically, but this particular brand of psychological torment has pretty much been played out." Played out maybe.. But consistently popular definitely.