The Jigsaw Miracle Network

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2006)

"Hello, dear readers. That time of year is upon us once again--a time when we ask our loyal constituents to look deep in their gore-dipped hearts and make a donation to the Jigsaw Miracle Network. This year, a portion of your donation will go to Jigsaw's Kids, to help perpetuate future generations of murderous masterminds wreaking psychological torment and physical torture on unsuspecting common folk who put their lives to no good use. Make your pledge to see "Saw III"--heck, see it twice--so that one of the current lone beacons of quality horror may continue to warm our hearts with its reign of terror!"
Richard Roeper called the original "Saw" "an exercise in audience manipulation," damning the film to a position on his 'Worst of 2004' list. Needless to say, I think he missed the point--horror films, when done well, are all ABOUT audience manipulation; being terrorized by a madman for 90 minutes, at the end of which we are given the mandatory plot-twists, can be quite fun. As in the first two "Saw" films, diabolical mastermind Jigsaw is a sly string-puller, and one of the more endearing, well-defined villains in recent horror history.
"Saw III," in addition to being a twisty torture chamber of nasty surprises, is the third installment in one of the only horror franchises with any quality (most--no matter how awful--do well at the box-office). I approached this sequel with great skepticism--after all, the prolific "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," and "Nightmare on Elm Street" series trudged on for years, seeing little to no glory after their initial installments (condemn "Scream" all you want--at least Wes Craven had the dignity to end it at "3").
My fear of "Saw III" plunging a thus-far successful series into the toilet lasted for the first 15 minutes--a montage of bad acting, bad setup, and overall crudity (with two characters forced to fight against traps with no exit) that almost completely dashed my hopes. Then, to my surprise and delight, "Saw III" redeemed itself. Once cancer patient/mastermind of murder John "Jigsaw" (Tobin Bell) enters the scene, hooked up to life support and apparently breathing his last, his utterance to partner-in-pain Amanda (Shawnee Smith)--"I want to play a game"--kicks the film into high gear. The contestants on this round of Wheel of Torture are Jeff (Angus Macfadyen), a revenge-minded father looking to get even with the drunk driver who killed his son; and Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh), a doctor enlisted to keep John alive, otherwise a harness around her neck will blow her to bits.
As with "Saw II" (and, to a lesser extent, the original film), "Saw III" has fun playing with the mythos that have been established in the series so far. Some questions are answered, some loose ends explained, and while one could argue that this is unnecessary overkill, I enjoyed the little segues that referenced the previous films. It's not a revisionist history (like idiotically adding a man in black--or Busta Rhymes--to "Halloween"), just a play on the seemingly deliberate ambiguities throughout the series. Granted, this often comes off as an attempt to out-twist the previous films, but I cannot fault "Saw III"'s narrative ambition--there's a richness of detail present that could provide a solid base for a prequel and maybe 2 more sequels. (Pauses while the critics recoil in horror.)
Is there blood, you ask? Yes, and it's rather disturbing stuff; no, not because there's a lot of it thrown in our face (which there is, along with pureed pig guts, but that's another story), but because it complements the story and characters so well. I won't give away any of Jigsaw's torture techniques this time out, but his methodology (and the filmmakers') puts the viewer in a morally jarring position--the 'guilty' are turned into victims, to the point where our 'hero' looks as repulsive for simply standing idly by. Additionally, the relationship between Jigsaw and Amanda, briefly explored at the end of "Saw II," is dramatically plausible, and even heartbreaking. Loyalty, guilt, revenge, and other emotions of Biblical proportion are smeared across the screen in all their ugliness and beauty. Amazingly, director Darren Lynn Bousman and writer Leigh Whannel make this commentary fresh and genuinely gripping--the conclusion of "Saw III" is a lesson in the boundlessness of revenge that is as compelling as it is blood-spattered.
Though "Saw III" has some flaws (including a completely implausible scene involving a hidden camera and some shaky performances) and the constantly-jerking camera movements are enough to induce vomiting, it is, quite surprisingly, the best showing of the series thus far. Quite rare for me to say (or even think) this after a second sequel, but "bring on the next one!"
7.5 out of 10