Saw III Year: 2006 Director: Daniel Lynn Bousman Written by: Leigh Whannell Threat: Psychopaths Weapon of Choice: Booby Traps Based upon: none Color/B&W/3D: Colour Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Saw
Saw II

The tyranist's thoughts
I really felt like I missed the boat by not seeing the first two Saw movies in the theatre. I mean, I'm part of a small, but undying horror movie review site. How is it that I couldn't make it out for some of the most popular horror flicks to hit theatres in recent memory? Rish and I managed to miss Saw III as well when it hit the theatres, so when it showed up at the cheap theatres just after we watched both Saw and Saw II, we jumped at our chance. Sure it was months after everyone else and months after the hype, but we managed to finally catch one of them where they were meant to be seen.
So Jigsaw is still alive and still dying. With the help of Amanda, he has set up another set of tests. One of them involves a doctor keeping him alive and another involves escape in a warehouse filled with traps and pitfalls. Will anyone come out of this one alive?
This entry in the series is true to the spirit and mood of the first two and feels like a very direct extension of the second entry. With most of the mysteries already unraveled all that is left is for Jigsaw to die and his student to continue on. Even with only that for a plot basis, though, they carried out a very strong movie with even greater moral quandaries and blurrier lines between good and evil. The character development in this one was very nice with strong acting and a really good script.
As strong as it was, though, it is still a sequel and is a step down from Saw II. Some of the set pieces tried to stretch just a little too far. The really blurred lines between good and evil didn't always feel quite right. And while the ending was bleak, it was a bit contrived.
Even so, the series continues to be good and I will certainly make the effort to drag Rish into a theater opening weekend of the fourth Saw movie. If you are at all a fan of the series, you should see this one, but then, you should see them all.
Posted: September 3, 2007

Total Skulls: 24

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?