Saw Wraps up tight.....can you find the key in time?

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2006)

Saw 3 does what most third installments don't do; it comes back at us with a tight script, super laden with mystery and yet despite all the loose ends that tighten, does not lose its power. Coupled with this are supreme images of ghastly terror within the modernized medieval type torture devices that we never get enough of.
Saw 3 picks up lightly where the 2nd one left off, but does not dwell there long. In this film, we're reintroduced to jigsaw yet again, but more of the focus is on his apprentice this time. Meantime, several characters, some strangers, some not, come into play. One of the "key" (no pun intended) members of this cast is Jeff (played by Angus MacFadyen). Jeff is apprehended by someone and soon finds himself in quite a predicament. The key (again, no pun intended) here is that unlike other victims of the vigilante/vengeance psychopath known as "jigsaw", Jeff is not shackled, bound or trapped. His quest is to take place throughout the industrial maze of brick, steel and cement landscape that has become a staple of "Jigsaw" hangouts. Jeff has not been paying attention to the family that needs him, but only because of hatred that has filled him over the loss of a loved one. Now he must play jigsaw's final game, to see if he can overcome his problems and in the process, simply survive the carnage.
Jigsaw's apprentice (Amanda, played by Shawnee Smith) has quite a past of her own as we soon discover. Despite the power you would think she would yield, we quickly learn how fragile all the seams of life really are. Saw 3 again shows great imagination and unique direction in the horror genre with such devices as the shotgun collar, attached body chains, ribcage reversal vest, the ice shower, pig guts vat, and another called "the rack". Jigsaw (played brilliantly by veteran actor Tobin Bell) has more tricks up the sleeve than you can shake a blade at. The writing of Saw 3 is superb as it intertwines multiple characters on a destiny soaked with death. The key again, is also its ability to not make to much of a puzzle of it as much as intertwine past events of the first two movies to make it come together with one final showdown. What will become of Jeff? What happens at Jigsaw's bed when the minute is up? Will the apprentice fulfill her mission or die trying? Gore Factor of this movie is a 9 of 10. At times Saw 3 is able to freak you out with its nailed hands, ripped skin and breaking bones. The humanity and irony that surrounds some of its more special parts is often drowned out with glimpses of complete carnage so gory that you just better hope you saved Dinner for later.