My Review of Saw III (2006)

 

Written by Leigh Whannell And James Wan

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

Lynn: "Please, let me go. I saved your life."

Jigsaw: "Maybe my life isn't the one you are saving, after all."

There's a part of me that wonders if this franchise should've just ended with this installment. It felt like a natural ending point, especially considering that the focus was once again on Jigsaw himself, John Kramer (Tobin Bell).

The previous movie had revealed that he had cancer and that Dr Lawrence Gordon was one of his doctors. John's determined not to die, so he got his accomplice Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) to kidnap Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) to keep John alive while another victim had to undergo John's demented tests.

The second victim being Jeff (Angus Macfadyen). Jeff's a grief stricken father who lost his son due to a car accident and had been somewhat distant towards his daughter, Corbett (Niamh Wilson). Jeff's confronted with helping ot hurting people involved in his son's death.

The first was Danica (Debra Lynne McCabe) who witnessed the accident but didn't testify. Jeff did try to help her but she died. Judge Halden (Barry Flatman) got a really disgusting ending and then there was Timothy (Mpho Koaho). Tim was responsible for the accident and although Jeff forgave him, it didn't make a difference in the end.

In fact, there's just wall to wall death here. This movie actually killed John Kramer off, but he'd continue to appear in most of the remaining movies in the franchise. Amanda died. Jeff and Lynn were revealed to be a married couple and they both died and the fates of their daughter as well as Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) were also left unknown. 

- Adam (Leigh Whannell) popped up in Amanda/Kramer flashbacks, more screen time for Billy the Puppet and Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) was killed off at the start of the movie.

- This movie also introduced Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). He doesn't have much to do here but that'll change in later movies.

- Standout music: Slayer's Eyes Of The Insane.

- Chronology: A few days since the events of the second movie.

Saw III felt like an end point to this franchise. It probably should've been as well. I mean, this movie literally killed off Jigsaw and even his successor. Aside from the Corbett cliffhanger, where else could his franchise have gone? Let's find out.

Rating: 6 out of 10