Saw III

With most film franchises, having three rapid-fire entries released exactly one year apart of each other is almost a certain sign of creative bankruptcy. Credit must be given to the crew behind the Saw films that, although the idea may not be as fresh as it was back in 2004, the latest entry still manages to come across as an actual continuation of the story, rather than shoveling another sequel onto screens just to make money. Saw III concludes the story of the notorious Jigsaw, and in turn, also fills in some of the gaps and plot holes that the earlier entries suffered from. Yes, you still need a great level of disbelief in order to buy the overall premise of the franchise, but having seen the series as a whole, I now have a lot of respect for the franchise. Saw III may not be the best entry in the series, but it's still a strong enough of a wrap up to be mostly satisfying for those who have been following the trilogy from the beginning.

Ailing madman "Jigsaw" (Tobin Bell) is reaching the end of his reign of terror as he slowly succumbs to the disease that has controlled his life the past couple years, but he's not going out quietly. His young assistant Amanda (Shawnee Smith) has been carrying on his work, and now is desperately trying to keep her mentor alive. She kidnaps a doctor with a troubled homelife named Lynn (Bahar Soomekh from Crash), brings her to their secret hideout, and forces the doctor to perform some impromptu surgery in order to keep Jigsaw alive. It is literally a game of life or death, as Amanda has placed a gruesome device to Lynn's neck that will explode if Lynn tries to escape or if Jigsaw's heart stops beating. Her life is also directly connected to another man who is also currently undergoing a series of "games" set up by the psychotic pair. The man is Jeff (Angus MacFadyen), a father whose son was hit by a drunk driver years ago, and who has been dreaming vivid fantasies of extracting revenge upon not just the driver responsible, but on the Judge who gave the man such a short sentence. Jeff is forced to undergo a series of trials where he will be faced with the people whom he has hated the past couple years, and must decide if they should die or if he should grant them forgiveness. As the story unfolds, unanswered questions will finally be resolved, and both victims will race against time and their own moral beliefs in order to stay alive.

Returning director Darren Lynn Bousman and screenwriter Leigh Whannell seem to have finally found the proper tone and pace for Saw III. Gone are the lengthy police investigation subplots that sometimes dragged down the action in the last two films, and in their place is an extremely tense and sometimes very uncomfortable film experience. The Saw series has always been rather bleak in tone and atmosphere, but this entry takes things to an entirely new level all together. It certainly raises the bar in terms of gore and violence, and pushes the limits of just where an R-rating ends and an NC-17 begins. From an emergency operation procedure where Lynn is forced to expose part of Jigsaw's brain by slicing open a piece of his skull with power tools, to one of the more unfortunate victims who has her rib cage busted open early on by a torture device, this movie shows it all in graphic detail, pushing the envelope in what could be considered acceptable in a mainstream horror film. And yet, unlike equally gory films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, this film is not just about violence or torture. What's always made the Saw franchise chilling to me is how Jigsaw is a very fragile and human villain, rather than a lumbering homicidal madman like Leatherface. He is cold, he is calculating, and he brings a certain amount of twisted logic to his actions. The character has always fascinated me as a villain, and although this movie doesn't go too deep into his madness, it does touch upon a few interesting aspects via flashbacks of his earlier life, and on some of his past victims. The film's opening 20 minutes or so linger a bit too heavily on the gore, with literally one "torture trap" scene after another. But once the story kicks in, the movie finds its footing, and becomes a worthy successor to the earlier films.

A lot of Jigsaw's success for me as a character has always been the performance by Tobin Bell. His disease makes him vulnerable and almost pathetic, yet there is obviously a very evil mind lurking within. He is cunning and intelligent, and the way Bell plays him in such a mild mannered and almost rational light is downright chilling. Shawnee Smith as secondary villain Amanda isn't quite as successful, mainly because the movie doesn't develop her very well. She seems to almost have romantic feelings toward her "mentor", but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into their relationship to explain much further than that. On the other side of the fence, there are the two main victims of the story. Bahar Soomekh is the stronger of the two, mainly because she is able to come across as more sympathetic and likeable. Angus MacFadyen's Jeff, on the other hand, seems harder to relate to mainly since the film focuses less on him, and he doesn't even seem to have many lines of dialogue in the entire film itself. Both storylines, however, are equally suspenseful as they are both trapped in their individual games of death with the madman. The film keeps itself centered almost squarely on these four characters, and when they all collide during the climax, it is appropriately chilling, if not more than a little convoluted with the large number of revelations that keep on popping up one after another.

Indeed, Saw III sometimes comes across as a bit too convoluted for its own good. The film piles on the flashbacks, especially near the end. While some of the flashbacks are helpful, there are some that are almost laughable, because they flash back to something that happened a minute or two ago. Either they figure the audience suffers from short term memory loss, or they got a little crazy in the editing room. And while the Saw franchise has always had a dark and murky look, this movie seems so dark as to be incoherent at times. Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember the earlier entries being so dark that it was sometimes hard to tell what was going on. During Jeff's "game", he is left a series of messages on note cards and written on doors, and I often found them hard to read due to the weak lighting, or the fact that everything seemed to be in such dark shadows. And while this most certainly can't be helped after three films released one after another in such a short span, the series has started to lose its luster by now. While still disturbing and chilling, I think the franchise has run its course. It's smart that this movie tries to wrap everything up before the films wear out their welcome, and if Lionsgate is smart, they'll leave it at this instead of trying to find a way to milk more money out of it.

Saw III may not be great, but it's a lot better than most horror films on their second sequel. Heck, this movie is better than it has any right to be given the circumstances it finds itself under. Somehow, the filmmakers have managed to rush out a horror sequel, and not make it seem like a rush job. They have done this not only once, but twice. To them, I say kudos. They've pulled off something few others can claim. While it's not an example of classic horror, Saw III has enough to intrigue the average viewer, while supplying more than enough violence for the gore hounds that will undoubtedly flock to this film opening weekend. It's definitely a cut above some other recent entries in the genre, and that's something horror fans simply cannot ignore.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

1 comments