Saw III
Year: 2006
Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring: Tobin Bell, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh & Shawnee Smith
Runtime: 108 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 29/06/21
Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring: Tobin Bell, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh & Shawnee Smith
Runtime: 108 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 29/06/21
Given the unprecedented, and unexpected success of the first Saw film, Saw II was quickly rushed into production, and if you’ve read my review of that film, you’ll know that despite having some good ideas it is mostly underwhelming. But also due to the success the original film had there was more than one sequel planned, meaning that Saw III was already in the pipeline during the creation of Saw II. A sequel that would not only continue the growth that Saw II started, but also allow for even more mind-fuckery than ever before thanks to it having a longer production period in comparison to either of its predecessors. But does Saw III use the extra production time and bigger budget correctly, or does it fall at the same hurdles Saw II stumbled over?
Six months after the events of Saw II, John ‘Jigsaw’ Kramer (Tobin Bell) only has a short time left to live due to his brain tumour. As such he and accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) kidnap Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), a doctor at the local hospital, to ensure he survives the next few hours whilst a game plays its course. If she fails, she will die.
Meanwhile Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer) and Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent) continue to search for Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), refusing to believe he is dead, but a spate of new Jigsaw killings seem to indicate a copycat is on the rise due to their inescapable nature.
Awaking in his very own game, Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) must choose to forgive those who were involved in the death of his son or allow them to die in a series of grizzly new traps.
Six months after the events of Saw II, John ‘Jigsaw’ Kramer (Tobin Bell) only has a short time left to live due to his brain tumour. As such he and accomplice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) kidnap Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), a doctor at the local hospital, to ensure he survives the next few hours whilst a game plays its course. If she fails, she will die.
Meanwhile Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer) and Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent) continue to search for Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), refusing to believe he is dead, but a spate of new Jigsaw killings seem to indicate a copycat is on the rise due to their inescapable nature.
Awaking in his very own game, Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) must choose to forgive those who were involved in the death of his son or allow them to die in a series of grizzly new traps.
What Saw II did well was allowing a lot of time for Jigsaw’s character to be developed on screen. We got to understand more about why he does what he does, and what he went through to decide that these twisted games were the right way to teach people about the value of life. What Saw III does is expand on this by placing his relationship with Amanda at the forefront of the story. One of the only people to survive Jigsaw’s games, and now his right-hand woman, Amanda comes with her own baggage, and this combined with the trauma she has suffered because of John gives them an interesting dynamic that’s half loving and half resentful. Her regular disregard for John’s strict rules makes for an excellent continuation of the dissection of the Jigsaw killings and continue to add a new perspective to this concept.
The introduction of a JIgsaw copycat also throws in a cool twist on the formula for the first twenty or so minutes of the film, but it’s mostly dropped after that save for recognition of John later in the film that someone is imitating his work, however what differentiates the two of them is that John’s games can always be won if the victim wills themselves to do so, whereas the copycats are simply elaborate murder machines with no hope of survival.
It’s a shame this isn’t given more time in the film, and whilst it is picked up on in the sequels, looking at Saw III without the knowledge of what is yet to unfold means that they introduced this idea and then did nothing with it.
The same can be said for the Eric Matthews storyline. If you were invested in his plight throughout Saw II, then to only see short glimpses of him and still have no true resolution to his story is irritating.
The introduction of a JIgsaw copycat also throws in a cool twist on the formula for the first twenty or so minutes of the film, but it’s mostly dropped after that save for recognition of John later in the film that someone is imitating his work, however what differentiates the two of them is that John’s games can always be won if the victim wills themselves to do so, whereas the copycats are simply elaborate murder machines with no hope of survival.
It’s a shame this isn’t given more time in the film, and whilst it is picked up on in the sequels, looking at Saw III without the knowledge of what is yet to unfold means that they introduced this idea and then did nothing with it.
The same can be said for the Eric Matthews storyline. If you were invested in his plight throughout Saw II, then to only see short glimpses of him and still have no true resolution to his story is irritating.
Jeff’s test meanwhile is an interesting spin on the Jigsaw formula, where the test subject must choose whether to save three people involved with his son’s death or allow them to die at the hands of Jigsaw’s game. Where we are used to seeing people in those life-or-death situations needing to find their own way out, this flips things on its head by asking Jeff to decide whether these people truly deserve to die as he so wishes them to be.
Unfortunately, Jeff is an awful character, probably my least favourite character in the entire franchise. He’s incredibly pathetic and blinded from the truth by his rage. Whilst the death of a child is something I do not know the pain of, part of me questions why he acts the way he does because it seems so counterproductive.
What makes Jeff’s game compelling is the traps. Saw III has what are perhaps the best traps in the entire series, with icons like the freezer room, the angel trap, and the rack. Whilst they are certainly much more complex and signal the start of Saw’s decline into absurdity, these traps are genius contraptions that are both extremely entertaining to watch and horrifyingly brutal in what they can do to the human body.
Saw III manages to make it three for three regarding the twist endings too. Despite expecting it this time, Saw III manages to exceed expectations by having a twist that not only reframes the whole film (as in the previous two instalments), but manages to even reframe various aspects of the previous two films in the process. It makes some bold moves, ones that are questionable in their payoff, but it’s certainly respectable just how far writer Leigh Whannell was willing to go with reframing the series up to this point in one fell swoop.
Saw III still pales in comparison to the almighty original, but I remain doubtful even to this day that the series will ever be able to recapture that same magic the first film had in droves. But Saw III is a considerable improvement over Saw II, and without spoiling too much about the future entries, is one of the strongest sequels in the entire series. Saw III certainly has moments where it stumbles, but the film plays to its strengths so often that these annoyances don’t derail the entire experience.
Unfortunately, Jeff is an awful character, probably my least favourite character in the entire franchise. He’s incredibly pathetic and blinded from the truth by his rage. Whilst the death of a child is something I do not know the pain of, part of me questions why he acts the way he does because it seems so counterproductive.
What makes Jeff’s game compelling is the traps. Saw III has what are perhaps the best traps in the entire series, with icons like the freezer room, the angel trap, and the rack. Whilst they are certainly much more complex and signal the start of Saw’s decline into absurdity, these traps are genius contraptions that are both extremely entertaining to watch and horrifyingly brutal in what they can do to the human body.
Saw III manages to make it three for three regarding the twist endings too. Despite expecting it this time, Saw III manages to exceed expectations by having a twist that not only reframes the whole film (as in the previous two instalments), but manages to even reframe various aspects of the previous two films in the process. It makes some bold moves, ones that are questionable in their payoff, but it’s certainly respectable just how far writer Leigh Whannell was willing to go with reframing the series up to this point in one fell swoop.
Saw III still pales in comparison to the almighty original, but I remain doubtful even to this day that the series will ever be able to recapture that same magic the first film had in droves. But Saw III is a considerable improvement over Saw II, and without spoiling too much about the future entries, is one of the strongest sequels in the entire series. Saw III certainly has moments where it stumbles, but the film plays to its strengths so often that these annoyances don’t derail the entire experience.