Why aren't you listening, Hollywood?

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2006)

After listening to the bitching and moaning exhibitors put on about how films are making less this year than last year, one has to wonder who is in charge there. Saw III proves a few things, not least of which is that spending two hundred million dollars to make a film is unnecessary. There is also a claim made by studios that a film has to be aimed to "please everyone" in order to make back its money. Saw III also turns that claim right on its ear. Saw III is indeed the first horror film, and indeed only the second film period, I have seen this year that could solidly be labelled as being for adults. And it grossed back its production budget three times over in one week. Why Hollywood does not take a cue from this is beyond me, and it seems to be beyond Hollywood, too. Although reception among critics and fans is sharply divided, Saw III is also easily the most intelligent and philosophical of the series to date. Although most people will miss the fact, it has quite a lot to say about our ability to confuse justice with revenge.
At heart, the Saw films are about people undergoing tests. Where Saw III distinguishes itself from its predecessors is that the tests are no longer about survival. The penalties for failure are still fatal, but the tests are a little deeper than those of the mere will to live. And everyone, save for the ringmaster that is Jigsaw, is being tested. Viewers who wondered what kind of apprentice Amanda would make after Saw II will be shocked and satisfied. In contrast to Saw II, however, the plot does not revolve around a group of individuals arguing with one another. Jigsaw is less in control of his games this time, leaving us with less cryptic (yet exceedingly obvious) clues to laugh at. Yet there is nothing he has failed to think out in advance, with every angle and variation accounted for. In another life, he could have been a championship chess player. However, one loose end remains for him, that of who will succeed him when the tumor that caused his epiphany in the first place finally gets the better of him.
Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell are literally on fire in this film. Smith plays an emotional wreck so convincingly it makes one wonder what she had been up to in the time she had seemed to disappear from the media. Anyone who doubts her acting chops will be floored as she acts out the consequences of Amanda failing to realise that she is being tested. The big drama of Saw III is that Jigsaw is now so frail that he can no longer set up his games unaided, and thus Amanda carries out most of the work for him. Kerry, the detective from the other two films, investigates the latest of the Jigsaw killings. She suspects something is afoul when she deduces that this trap was impossible to escape from. Fans of the first two films will remember that Jigsaw is all about playing by the rules, or at least being consistent with the rules he sets. I do not believe it is giving much away to say that Amanda has been playing a little game of her own in between carrying out Jigsaw's wishes, and that Jigsaw is not terribly impressed by this.
Woven into the story is the test of a man whose son was killed in a car accident, and forgotten by the justice system. In most Hollywood films, this would dissolve into a comment about how liberal our justice system is. Not so in Saw III. In Saw III, Jigsaw places his victim on a path to confront the people most directly involved both in the son's death and the minimal punishment the offender received. His challenge is to overcome his hatred of these people for long enough to be able to save each individual from some of the most ludicrously cruel contraptions seen in the series. Of course, it would not be a Saw film if people did not die in ironic ways, but the change here to leave the lives of several participants in the hands of another is exactly what is needed after familiarity with the standard scenario had been enforced by the other two films. The most peculiar variation on the original scenario comes from the fact that Jigsaw knows his death is imminent, and he delights in weaving that fact into the tests he sets those around him.
In case I have not made it clear enough, credit is due to the creativity of the filmmakers. Robert Rodriguez has said in at least two audio commentaries that once you turn on the money hose to wash away creative problems, you cannot turn it off again. Every dollar of the twelve million spent on filming Saw III was used to much greater effect than a lot of films that spend ten times that amount. Having seen the insides of my own arms and one of my feet, I can say without hesitation that in contrast to almost every other effect in horror films, the removal of a fragment of Jigsaw's skull made me ill. Special effects is meant to be an art of fooling people to believe they are looking at something they are not, and Saw III is one of the few feature films of recent years to accomplish this. I am sure a neurosurgeon or effects artist would be able to point out flaws in the scene other than the varying mark indicating drilling depth, but this scene alone is enough to put the fear of mortality into even the most jaded viewer. Rarely do I walk out of a theatre feeling this satisfied.
I gave Saw III a ten out of ten. If you are like me and prefer your horror uncompromisingly brutal, then it is essential viewing.