3 for the gore, but please... no more!!!

Rating: 3/10 (5 March 2007)

In this second sequel to James Wan's inventive 2004 low-budget shocker Saw, an ex-drug addict and a terminally ill psycho once again play sick games on those judged guilty of 'wasting their lives'. After the lamentable Saw 2, which upped the gore content whilst overlooking the need for a credible plot, I expected the makers of this one to go back to the drawing board, but instead they opted to go one step further and deliver the sickest of the series so far and saddle it with the lamest plot possible.
This time around, Amanda (Shawnee Smith), assistant to creative killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), kidnaps a doctor in order to keep her mentor alive to witness the outcome of one final game. Amanda, who has somehow become a top machinist and designer in between abducting people, has created some really nasty traps this time round, and these provide the film with its raison d'être: to disgust the audience in as many ways as possible.
Now I'm no stranger to gory films, and have been known to enjoy some pretty dreadful movies solely on account of their high level of bloodletting, so when I say that I found Saw 3 very tedious despite of its extremely graphic violence, you can take it as gospel that the film sucked big time.
Between the unbelievable death scenes, the movie is as dull as ditch-water and very far-fetched, with Jigsaw spouting more drivel about 'giving people a second chance at life' via his sadistic games, whilst Amanda looks on adoringly. This crap is obviously seen as some kind of justification for his evil doings, but when an innocent doctor is threatened with having her head blown off by multiple shotgun cartridges, the sicko's spiel loses its resonance.
Packed with the annoying grungy, MTV-style editing that is so over-used in horror movies these days, some really awful acting (particulary from Shawnee Smith), and saddled with the most ridiculous 'twist' ending since M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, Saw 3 is the kind of tiresome bilge that is giving the genre a bad name.