Saw III (2006)

Credits / Details

64%
Overall Rating

Ranked #943
...out of 20,698 movies

Genres: Horror Psychological Drama Sadistic Horror

Connections: Saw

Jeff is an anguished man who grieves and misses his son that was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident. He has become obsessed for revenge against the drunk driver, judge, and only witness who refused to testify; he has also become neglectful of his daughter. Lynn Denlon is a skilled surgeon that is cheating on her husband and suffering from depression. Both are abducted and brought to Jigsaw's warehouse, where they must play two separate games: Jeff must choose whether to save or let the people he holds responsible for the death of his son die, while Lynn must keep Jigsaw alive until Jeff completes his tests, or face the deadly consequences. --IMDb

Review by Chad
Added: February 11, 2007

The Saw franchise is getting to be a bit of a yearly tradition: the newest sequel will be released right around Halloween, we'll hear news about the next sequel around November or December, news about said sequel will start to leak out to the online dirt-rags throughout the summer, and then the pattern will repeat all over again. The series isn't without its detractors, though: I'm fairly positive that it won't take long before we'll get a couple of comments in response to this review to prove my point, but personally, I've been enjoying the series. The films haven't been anything revolutionary and none of the individual entries will go down in history as classics, but they've been better than a solid ninety percent of the crap that has been hitting theaters in recent years.

The storyline here assumes that you've seen Saw II, and although you could probably piece things together without seeing that entry due to the numerous flashback sequences, it's highly recommended that you watch the films in order to fully grasp what's going on. This one begins with Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) laying on his death-bed as his body is finally succumbing to cancer, and it becomes immediately apparent that he won't be amongst the living for very long... however, he has a few more games up his sleeve before he meets his maker. The main one revolves around a nurse named Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), who is assigned the unenviable task of keeping Jigsaw alive while another man (Angus Macfadyen) plays his own game. Why would she want to keep her tormentor alive? Well, she's wearing a collar that, upon Jigsaw's death, will fire five shotgun shells into her face. If Jigsaw lives throughout the entire movie, the collar will be taken off of her by his "assistant" Amanda (Shawnee Smith) and she'll be free to go.

When Saw II came out, I was expecting it to be pretty bad. After all, it was hastily thrown together thanks to the unexpected success of the original, so I was fairly confidant that it would feature more blood and more traps but much less of an actual plot. I was pleasantly surprised by that sequel, but when number three came around, I can't say that those same low expectations weren't floating around in the back of my mind. After all, how far can they stretch this universe and these characters, especially considering that the main protagonist is just about ready to croak from the beginning of the original film? Well, after watching this one, I have to admit that I was wrong once again.

Is it as good as the original? Not quite. However, it is on par with the previous entry, and that alone should pretty much let you know whether or not you'd enjoy this latest offering. Fans of the series will find plenty to enjoy here in terms of gore, creative kills, and yes, even some actual furthering of the storyline, but if the previous two entries haven't done much for you, this one certainly won't change your mind about the quality of the series.

I'll admit that I started getting worried during the first chunk of the film. It begins with a series of random kills which really have nothing to do with the overall plot and were seemingly inserted just to get the expected gore and guts out of the way. The characters who are killed during this time have no relevance to the overall storyline, and for about twenty minutes, we simply watch people die with no motive and no plot. Gorehounds will love these opening scenes, but at this point in the running time, I was expecting to be slapping down a fairly negative review. However, things suddenly turned around at about twenty-five minutes in as we were given a plot to chew on, and from there on out, it got much better. Twists and revelations are the order of the day here, and there's certainly no shortage of them to be found here.

In the previous entries, I've enjoyed the unpredictability of the storylines and found them quite refreshing amidst a sea of horror movie endings that you'll see coming by the thirty minute mark. This one is no exception. While I had a pretty good idea about one of the main things that would happen (and I was right), I can honestly say that I didn't see those details coming at all, and in the end, I felt that they made the movie. My only complaint was how director Darren Lynn Bousman apparently thought that his audience would consist of knuckle-dragging morons. When the ending happens and the details are revealed, we go through an overly-long montage of flashbacks in order to show off how a large number of the earlier scenes were clues leading up to these big revelations. Did he really think that we, the audience, would be completely dumbfounded when all of this played out? This isn't exactly Lynch, and anyone that would require this amount of explanation probably shouldn't have received their parents' permission to purchase their ticket or DVD.

Barring those annoying flashbacks and a depressingly large amount of music video-style editing (which I've simply learned to live with in this day and age), I think that I can safely say that it's worth a rental at the very least for fans of the previous two entries. 8/10.

#1: Crispy - added February 11, 2007 at 3:20am
Actually, the early traps do play a small part into the plot if you'll recall what Jigsaw tells Amanda towards the end. However, I do have to say that this entry seemed a bit more "watch this trap!" than story, which I blame Hostel for. The story is the only thing that puts Saw as gold in my opinion and keeps it away from the mindless porn and torture that makes up the Hostel series.

Also, Tobin Bell is apparantly contracted all the way up to Saw VI, so we'll have to see how that goes.

#2: Chad - added February 11, 2007 at 11:44am
I know they worked it into the plot towards the end, but I'm fairly sure that they filmed those traps and then tried to come up with a way to work them into the plot later on. It ended up making sense and all, but you can tell they were hard-up for ideas.

Also, three more movies? Wow. I knew about number four being in production, but just... wow.

#3: BuryMeAlive - added February 11, 2007 at 2:41pm
Worst one in the series so far. But really not all that bad.

#4: grain of sand - added February 11, 2007 at 4:13pm
I've never really thought about how I felt about the Saw series, but I've seen em all and never really been genuinely dissapointed but I also don't really LIKE them, maybe just time fillers and I enjoy time fillers with unique gore.
the traps and kills in this one are pretty neat, but I really wish they would have shown the full scene where the dude rips the chains out, the jaw would have been a great thing to see..

#5: QuietMan - added February 11, 2007 at 9:41pm
i guess i'm alone but i think this is the best one. 2 sucked it had nothing to do with the 1st one i like how this one tied everything together. I liked how Bell's character shows how he isn't just a master of tourture but also mind games on par with the Undertaker lol VI has to take place b4 the 1st one either that or it's just a copycat killer. ok i'll shut up now

#6: Tristan - added February 12, 2007 at 9:09pm
I saw this as a cam version the first time, and hated it. Watching it again now, it's a lot better then I remember. Quality is all the difference, I suppose. Watching 2 again helped me remember the storyline as well. This may not be as good as the first two, it's till a strong film. But again, this series just keeps going, and it's almost predictable at this point. For the second and this, I knew the ending ahead of time. 7/10

#7: Crispy - added February 13, 2007 at 12:44am
Also, three more movies? Wow. I knew about number four being in production, but just... wow.
I know the feeling, I have a sinking feeling I'll have abandoned the series by the time it gets that far.

#8: doney - added March 5, 2007 at 8:18am
read on Wikipedia that Bell is in a contract for up to Saw 6..... ??? will anyone even care about the whole Saw thing by then? i know everyone (including myself) will rush to see them all, but ultimately the two current sequels only retell the original story. they were great and all, but essentially were nothing new...

#9: Nirrad - added September 27, 2007 at 9:46pm
I really enjoyed this movie. I personally think it's the 2nd best of the series thus far, behind part one. At time it did seem predictable, but there were also a few parts that I didn't seem coming. I can't wait for part 4, but I hope its the last one because I don't want to see this series get run into the ground and wind up to DTV *cough* Hellraiser *cough* I give this 8/10

#10: Tristan - added September 27, 2007 at 9:49pm
Eat my ass. The later Hellraiser movies were great.

#11: Crispy - added September 28, 2007 at 3:49pm
You misspelled terrible.