Saw III (2006)

11th Nov 06





Plot
After eluding the cops, psychopathic killer Jigsaw turns an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town into a gruesome torture chamber. Jigsaw's new protégée Amanda kidnaps a doctor who's forced to keep the evil master alive. Barely clinging to life, Jigsaw begins to carry out his gruesome plans for the lady doc and another helpless victim.

Review
With the original Saw feeling more overwrought and less horrific on just a second viewing and Saw II proving to be an unbelievably dull experience, bar the pit full of hypodermic needles, it is pleasing to report that Saw III delivers on both the entertainment count and on the red stuff.

Fans of the series have apparently been gobbling up the advance hype by bootlegging the teaser trailer that went out before The Descent in the States on the day of its release and buying up 1,000 special posters made with the aid of two vials of Tobin Bell's (Jigsaw) own blood in aid of the American Red Cross. In fact so instrumental have the fans been that this time round ideas put forward by fans on the 'House of Jigsaw' website have been used in the finished script.

Reprising his role as 'Jigsaw' is Tobin Bell, recently nominated for the 2006 MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, and he is teamed up again by Shawnee Smith as his accomplice Amanda. Joining them this time is Iranian actress Bahar Soomekh (Crash, Mission: Impossible III) as Doctor Lynn Denlon and Angus McFayden (Braveheart) as Jeff – two new victims of Jigsaw.

Lynn is a married mother in her late thirties who is kidnapped by Jigsaw. As the story progresses we learn about some dark secrets that Lynn has been keeping from her family and that McFayden's Jeff has never moved on his life after his son died in an accident. Lynn is kidnapped and told to keep Jigsaw, on the verge of dying, in the land of the living for the time it takes Jeff time to complete a game of his own.

Angus Macfadyen, looking scarily like UK TV's Jeremy Beadle, mooches from one 'task' to another with little in the way of emotion. It is hard to tell, as he faces each 'task', whether he is numb from the occasion or just bloody stupid in understanding what he has to do. Fortunately for gore fans he is pretty slow at each 'task' he faces, meaning lots of nasty fun for us.

As always the plot demands a complete suspension of disbelief. How on earth does Jigsaw know so much about so many other people from both the safety of his lair and also with his increasingly worsening condition? Ok he has his apprentice Amanda to nose around but surely she would be too busy earning huge amounts of money to pay for the huge amounts of metal to create some elaborate contractions for twisting and breaking limbs whilst also fitting in some extensive studying at advanced level to come up with such devices that would work.

Perhaps if Jigsaw wasted less time and energy sticking his nose into other people's concerns he may have stood a better chance of recovery. As for the police looking, surely if they REALLY wanted to catch him they would just look to find out who was buying up loads of sturdy metal sheets and an abundance of mini-cassette tapes and players – Jigsaw must have shares in the things!

Unsurprisingly after the astonishing opening figures for Saw III were released - $33.6m in the States alone on its opening weekend from just a $12million budget, and record-breaking Halloween haul in the UK (£4 million in its opening week) – it comes as no surprise that a Saw IV is already being prepped for release next Halloween. Given the media attention this installment received here in the UK, with people fainting in East Anglia screenings, it's fair to say that this is one horror franchise that is set to run and run. Good fun for those that are happy to sacrifice a coherent plot for scenes where people's limbs are twisted off and ribcages ripped out.

Posted by
S Cockwell



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