Diasppointing

Rating: 3/10 (6 March 2007)

After the ingenious Saw, and the breakneck Saw 2, comes Saw 3. Following the separate story strands of Doctor Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), who must keep a dying Jigsaw alive, and Jeff (Angus Macfadyen), who is trying to avenge his son's death, the film is guilty of severely diminishing returns.
The attempts to inject this series with some 'human drama' falls flat with a collection of unlikeable and stupid characters, and the pacing is flabby. The gore, which used to be inventive and fresh, is now just nasty and gratuitous (the chest scene being a particular lowlight.) The tension that made the first film so good is nowhere to be seen, with the film providing none of the shocks and jumps of say, the camera flash scene of Saw. Instead we are 'treated' to a series of genuinely repulsive torture traps, each one more revolting than the last. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the original, and even quite enjoy the second, but this just left a nasty taste in my mouth.
The final scenes wrap the series up relatively cleanly, and I would like to say that this was the end of this rapidly decaying franchise, but with Saw 4 already in development for an October release, I think Jigsaw will be playing games with us for the foreseeable future.
Get ready for a lot more blood...