Released: October 2006
Before I discuss this movie let me speak about the genre that Saw created. I am a fan of horror movies but three years ago Saw created a moderately popular subculture of horror that I call 'torture-gore'. All the Saw movies are in this genre, plus I would include Hostel.
Historically speaking torture-gore is a technological continuation of 1980 slasher flicks. Now instead of teenage drinking and sex used as filler ala Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St, CGI allows for tremendous amounts of violence to the human body. Seeing that the main audience of horror is young men, the only thing more interesting to young men in this decade than women, is overwhelming fantasy violence. Thus in torture-gore you will see very little if any sex or nudity and the woman are more strongly portrayed characters instead of bit parts.
On to the review. Saw 3 in my opinion is the better of trilogy installments. I think the puppet Jigsaw is a great horror character reaching all the way back to the CryptKeeper but he is not seen much in this movie. John Cramer / Jigsaw, played with great restraint by Tobin Bell is back to his
tests of forgiveness this time while dying in bed. He is using two pawns to do his work, Amanda played by Shawnee Smith and Dr. Lynn Denlon played by Bahar Soomekh who looks much like Mia Sara from Ferris Buellers Day Off. Amanda is there to run his games and the Dr. to keep him alive until the games are over.
The first part of the movie jumps back and forth between watching victims complete their escape, the police tracking Jigsaw and then recovering bodies of the victims in CSI style police work. By the second act the police subplot is completed and honestly should have been stricken from the movie, it provides no movement or lesson later in the plot. Much like the first movie could have completely cut out the Danny Glover character.
The second act brings the two woman and Jigsaw together to run the 'final test' of an emotionally crushed father named Chris, played by Angus Macfadyen, who played Robert the Bruce in Mel Gibsons Braveheart. I didn't like his character but the actor is great and I loved watching him on screen move through his tests.
The third act ties up loose plot points nicely, a strange twist or two are realized in the final moments and then the movie ends. This Saw installment doesn't have as many characters as Saw 2 and has more set movements than Saw 1. Some backstory on Jigsaw is given but if this is the final Saw movie, I think much more could have been done to answer the 'Why" he does what he does. Also unless you have watched the first two movies there are flashback scene's that will have you scratching your head wondering where it fits into this movie. I was leaning over and trying to compare notes with a friend who was also having a difficult time making mental leaps between the movies since some sets are used in all three movies.
