SAW Week: Saw III (2006)

'Saw III' tries to pull back a little with its story, focusing only on a few characters and their struggles through Jigsaw's newest set of puzzles and death traps. On the surface, that can be a good thing but the film tends to stumble frequently throughout due to a weak script and very little new changes to the overall formula. Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is now at death's door and bedridden in a hidden lair with his newest apprentice Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith). Their latest victims are a husband and wife whose relationship has been shattered after the loss of their child in a hit and run accident. Now the wife will have to tend to the ill Jigsaw while her husband must deal with those who were involved in the accident and choose their fates.

The fist thing I'd like to say about 'Saw III' is that the story is one of the best in the series. The couple here are two of the most well written and fleshed out characters, especially the husband who must deal with some really heavy emotions and decide whether or not to kill those who unintentionally killed his child. While many of the sequels tend to forget about the moral choice and overall idea of the traps in these films, 'Saw III' is what I would say is the best example of the original film's intentions and themes. Now after all that, it still struggles with many aspects which will only get worse as we go along. The traps linger on the suffering of the victims too long, and in doing so director Darren Lynn Bousman actually destroys any kind of real emotion they might have had. They are just gore for the sake of it, particularly during 'The Rack' scene which is meant to be the strongest for the husband character as he is meeting the very man who caused him so much harm. Instead of it becoming a scene of redemption and something special, it's just a man being brutally torn apart and the NC-17 (or Unrated) cut takes even more impact away.

The cast here is acceptable, with Bell giving his all despite his limited appearance this time around and Shawnee Smith giving a very strong performance as Amanda. She very much personifies Stockholm Syndrome in an eerily realistic kind of way. The husband and wife combo also do very well though the wife is given very little outside of giving Jigsaw some gruesome surgeries. 'Saw III' is a better film than 'Saw II' with a better script, better and more varied visuals, and scaling things back was a good decision. But it relies too much on its 'torture porn' persona and cuts corners in exchange for cheap thrills and gore.

( B - )