Review of Saw III (2006) by Halfwelshman — 12 Jun 2012

This is probably the most "human" of the Saw films. You're actually allowed to get under the characters' skin this time round, and given time to care for the sympathetic protagonists, a melancholic surgeon (Bahar Soomekh) kidnapped to care for the dying John Kramer, and a grieving father (Angus Macfadyen) who is forced by Kramer to confront those responsible for the death of his young son.

Tobin Bell is still great as Jigsaw, and steals the show despite being bedridden throughout the film, but it is Jigsaw's apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) who is actually more terrifying than her mentor.

Without Jigsaw's strict (if misguided) moral code, she's more like a rabid dog than a calculated killer with purpose, and actually seems to relish the misery she puts others through on her master's orders.

There are some particularly nasty and inventive traps, the best of which unusually for a "torture porn" film actually doesn't involve bodily destruction, but instead rancid pig carcasses are turned into slurry and dumped on the victim.

The film is generally quite engaging and keeps your interest until the final act which well and truly begins to ramble and comes across as rather preachy. The now traditional Saw "twist" doesn't come as a surprise either, making me miss the ingenuity of the first installment's spectacular ending.

Saw III is far better than Saw II because it's written by series masterminds Leigh Wannell and James Wan, and only directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (one of the failures of the second film was that Bousman wrote and directed, and he is far less talented as a screenwriter than he is behind the camera) and so the film feels more connected to the first film than any other in the series.

That said, the message of the franchise (if there is one) has well and truly been lost by this point, and the third film brings very few new ideas to the table. You can appreciate Saw III for decent writing, good performances and a certain perverse joy in death in cruel and unusual ways, but the twisted novelty of the series is beginning to wear off, showing a glimpse of the ugly truth at its heart.

Perhaps they should have ended Jigsaw's blood-soaked saga here, but as well we know, box office returns can be ever so persuasive...