This definitely falls under the heading of good news/bad news. On the “bad news” side, it appears that this Halloween will see the release of Saw IV, which strikes me as about five or six Saw movies too many. On the “good news” side, we learn that Lionsgate is good for something other than spewing out a seemingly endless torrent of revolting torture porn. Each year the studio has sponsored a “Give ‘Til It Hurts” blood drive that coincides with the release of the latest Saw spatter-romp, and the blood drives have been surprisingly successful. Donations have doubled each year, and last year’s drive collected more than 23,000 pints of blood. This year the American Red Cross has formally teamed up with Lionsgate to manage the blood drive on the national level, and it’s expected that more blood will be spilled than ever. Producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules of Twisted Pictures (the distribution company for the Saw franchise) stated, “We are very proud of the continued growth and success of the Saw blood drives and would like to thank Lionsgate for their boundless creativity and the incredibly loyal Saw fans who bleed for us, literally.”

Lionsgate has a real talent for releasing films that should never have been made (most recently, Bratz), but in this case they’re doing a good thing and deserve credit where credit is due. It’s a case of life handing you lemons and making lemonade. Or hemo-ade. Whatever.