"Saw III" Movie Review

Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of "Saw III," was quoted as saying, "We don't pull punches this year. We start it with a kick in the balls, and end it with a kick in the balls." Amen to that.

"Saw III" performs the rare feat of presenting a continuing horror series’ third feature film that equals those that have gone before, while upping the shock value and revealing more about its lead characters. By the third installments of their franchises, "Halloween," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Alien" and "Friday the 13th," to name a few obvious examples, had already displayed a loss of their original’s potency.

As conceptualists and writers, James Wan and Leigh Whannell have been the masterminds throughout the "Saw" series, and that continuity is what weaves all three stories together with such unfailing and unflinching success.

"Saw III" begins where episode two ended, quickly placing audiences again in another room, with another tormented prisoner, with another agonizing choice to make in a game of life and death. But something is different. The games we have seen were inconceivably sadistic but were beatable by the helpless players, even though to win the passage to freedom required an iron will and a willingness to tolerate the ultimate horror and agony. Now it seems the traps and devices are rigged to be impossible to escape from.

Jigsaw is still alive, but barely. He is being kept alive in a makeshift hospital room in his warehouse workshop by his protégé Amanda. The connection between the pair of lethal killers is explored, revealing their weaknesses and obsessions, as outsiders are tested within their intimate and mutually dependent circle.

The stakes for each fiendish game are getting higher, and the potential for death, dismemberment and mutilation is increasing exponentially. The nerves of everyone involved are frayed to the breaking point – all except those of the ever-cerebral and manipulative puppet master, Jigsaw. Flashbacks throughout "Saw III" shine a harsh light on heretofore-unseen events from the previous films, and Donnie Wahlberg, Dina Meyer and Lyriq Bent appear in their roles from "Saw II," adding to the continuity.

And then of course, there is the ending. Just as Jigsaw insists that his games be played according to his strict rules, so too do Wan and Whannell adhere to theirs. The final rule being that when the mechanical device of their carefully constructed plot snaps shut, the result is shocking and unforeseen.

In "Saw III," the edge remains sharp and the rules remain unbroken.

Saw III
Stars:
Tobin Bell...........................Jigsaw
Shawnee Smith................ Amanda
Bahar Soomekh................Dr. Lynn Denlon
Angus MacFadyen............Jeff
Dina Meyer........................ Kerry
Donnie Wahlberg.............Eric Matthews
Leigh Whannell.................Adam
Mpho Koaho......................Tim
Barry Flatman....................Judge Halden
Lyriq Bent...........................Rigg
J. Larose............................Troy
Debra Lynne McCabe......Danica

Rated R for strong grisly violence and gore, sequences of terror and torture, nudity and language