The Saw series is always good at stirring up controversy, be it of the mock, pre-release variety or irritation in the critical community through some inane attempts to enforce an after-release review embargo. Its latest stirring of the pot falls in the former category, and comes from returning series director Darren Lynn Bousman and producer Mark Burg, in advance of Saw IV, releasing October 26.

Images from the film had previously been leaked, but I was talking with a colleague who’d been to the recent panel presentation at Comic-Con with the above, and he passed along how they said that the first cut of the film had been given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, and that therefore the producers and distributor LionsGate had to decide whether to make trims or release the film with that rating. <roll of the eyes> Please… come on. This bit may or may not be true (it’s actually immaterial), but the fourth installment of a hugely commercial franchise will not be rated and released in NC-17 form, thereby drastically limiting its earnings potential. This is a completely transparent attempt at the manual stimulation of its hardcore audience, but one that should be recognized even by that set. I mean, is there anything “shocking” left for them to say? Other than maybe they’re setting up Saw V to be a full-fledged musical? For an in-depth description of the clip previewed at Comic-Con — a sort of nouveau human quartering, it seems — click here.