Let's Play A Game in Saw III Movie Review

Let's Play A Game in Saw III (2006)

For the third installment of the Saw series, Jigsaw is back playing vicious games with his victims, placing them in elaborate death traps and giving them difficult choices if they hope to escape.

The Saw franchise is one of the hottest horror series out there. It really brings a very distinct psychological twist themes for which the genre is known, and yet also features the exciting "gorific" moments with the unique traps that lead "villain" Jigsaw creates. Saw III delivers a full on horrific excitement and energy from its very first scene to its jaw-dropping conclusion. It is undoubtedly shines with some of the most capable and incredible filmmaking ever seen from director Darren Lynn Bousman. IMO Saw III is the best horror film of 2006.

Saw III picks up immediately following Saw II at a very swift pace. Donnie Wahlberg's Detective Eric Walters is still chained up in the basement bathroom but taking extreme measures to escape, while his former partner (Dina Meyer) is trying to find him. Instead, she locates the scattered remains of Jigsaw's latest victim before falling herself as prey to one of his deathtraps. While on the otherhand Jigsaw is dying, his time is growing short, but there is still time enough for one more game.

This game will be a little different though as it's not Jigsaw pulling the strings but Amanda, his young apprentice. Amanda sets things in play for one last go round but this one has the highest stakes of all. While city detectives scramble to locate Jigsaw, Dr. Lynn Denlon is unaware that she is about to become the latest pawn on his vicious chessboard. One night, after finishing a shift at her hospital, Lynn is kidnapped and taken to an abandoned warehouse where she meets Jigsaw, bedridden and on the verge of death. She is told that she must keep the madman alive for as long as it takes another one of his victims, Jeff, to complete a game of his own. Racing against the ticking clock of Jigsaw's own heartbeat, Lynn and Jeff struggle to make it through each of their vicious tests, unaware that he has a much bigger plan for both of them.

Saw III is definitely the best of the three films. With tighter direction, a better story, and a rely less on clever murders and more on characters, this is strong film. The deathtraps and set pieces have gotten even more extravagant and gory than the last two movies with things that will make even those with the strongest stomachs wince, grimace or look away.

The best part about these franchise, and in Saw III especially, is Jigsaw. Jigsaw isn't some killer with no motive. He has a motive: appreciate your life. The fact that Jigsaw is a cancer patient on his deathbed, rather than some huge monstrous beast, he gives the audience psychological tension that we haven't seen before. Jigsaw has to be one of the most evil and morbid villains to appear on screen, but even with those factors taken into consideration it's hard not to feel some sympathy for him. How Bousman is able to turn the tables on us like that is a great achievement.