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Saw III performs the
rare feat of presenting a continuing
horror series’ third feature
film that equals those that
have gone before, while upping
the shock value and revealing
more about its lead characters.
By the third installments of
their franchises, Halloween,
A Nightmare on Elm Street,
Alien and Friday the 13th,
to name a few obvious examples,
had already displayed a loss
of their original’s potency.
As conceptualists and writers,
James Wan and Leigh Whannell
have been the masterminds throughout
the Saw series, and that
continuity is what weaves all
three stories together with
such unfailing and unflinching
success.
Saw III begins where
episode two ended, quickly placing
audiences again in another room,
with another tormented prisoner,
with another agonizing choice
to make in a game of life and
death. But something is different.
The games we have seen were
inconceivably sadistic but were
beatable by the helpless players,
even though to win the passage
to freedom required an iron
will and a willingness to tolerate
the ultimate horror and agony.
Now it seems the traps and devices
are rigged to be impossible
to escape from.
Jigsaw is still alive, but barely.
He is being kept alive in a
makeshift hospital room in his
warehouse workshop by his protégé
Amanda. The connection between
the pair of lethal killers is
explored, revealing their weaknesses
and obsessions, as outsiders
are tested within their intimate
and mutually dependent circle.
The stakes for each fiendish
game are getting higher, and
the potential for death, dismemberment
and mutilation is increasing
exponentially. The nerves of
everyone involved are frayed
to the breaking point –
all except those of the ever-cerebral
and manipulative puppet master,
Jigsaw.
Flashbacks throughout Saw
III shine a harsh light
on heretofore-unseen events
from the previous films, and
Donnie Wahlberg, Dina Meyer
and Lyriq Bent appear in their
roles from Saw II, adding
to the continuity.
And then of course, there is
the ending. Just as Jigsaw insists
that his games be played according
to his strict rules, so too
do Wan and Whannell adhere to
theirs. The final rule being
that when the mechanical device
of their carefully constructed
plot snaps shut, the result
is shocking and unforeseen.
In Saw III, the edge
remains sharp and the rules
remain unbroken.
Saw III stars
Tobin Bell...........................Jigsaw
Shawnee Smith................ Amanda
Bahar Soomekh................Dr.
Lynn Denlon
Angus MacFadyen............Jeff
Dina Meyer........................ Kerry
Donnie Wahlberg.............Eric
Matthews
Leigh Whannell.................Adam
Mpho Koaho......................Tim
Barry Flatman....................Judge
Halden
Lyriq Bent...........................Rigg
J. Larose............................Troy
Debra Lynne McCabe......Danica
Rated R for strong grisly violence
and gore, sequences of terror
and torture, nudity and language
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