Saw III

Jigsaw’s late October moralizing continues with 2007’s Saw III, directed by Saw II director Darren Lynn Bousman. Bousman continually insists that the Saw movies and others like it aren’t made for “mainstream critics,” adding that Saw audiences know and love what they’re going to get. Certainly there’s a case to be made for that, especially if tacky acting, dizzying camerawork, and childish plot strings comprise what the primarily male fans of this increasingly ridiculous series love to see.

That said, Saw III is a fair shade better than Saw II (not like that’s hard). In my continued insistence on subjecting myself to cinematic punishment, I took in the third instalment of the series with low expectations after the bland and tasteless 2006 forerunner. Astoundingly, Saw III did the trick in the gore column (finally) and provided some reasonably squirm-worthy moments. I actually had to turn away at one point, which pleased me deeply in my expedition for gruesome material.

The film opens right where we left off in the second entry. Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is stuck in the bathroom. He has a smashing plan to escape his predicament, however, and we’re off and running on the right foot for the time being. The flashback-heavy narrative takes us to about six months after the capture of Mathews. We get in touch with the same crew of cops from Saw II as they’re investigating Jigsaw’s latest crime. There’s a difference this time, though, as the cops discover that this latest trap was inescapable. Hmm.

We’re then transferred to Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his partner in gore, Amanda (Shawnee Smith), as they begin to set up their next series of games. This time, a skilled doctor (Bahar Soomekh) and a father (Angus Macfadyen) obsessed with revenge against the drunk driver who killed his son are the targets. Jigsaw wants the doctor to help keep him alive while the father runs around completing various gory tests. If Jigsaw dies or the father fails, the doctor loses her head.

All of the elements that helped create such a shaky and stupid experience in Saw II are sorrowfully present in the third movie. Bousman’s work with cinematographer David A. Armstrong once again resembles a music video, with sound effects-laden cutaways providing some incredibly dumb shots. Bousman and Co. use echoes, edits, and other tricks of the trade to create “atmosphere,” but the layered screams and cries of various characters just come across as silly once they’ve been layered on top of one another. It seems that Bousman is either clueless in terms of suspense or deliberately sabotaging the film’s potential for thrills.

The performances are basically bizarre. Once again, the Saw series employs a cast of hams (no, not the liquefied ones) to help guide this ship through to its destination. Reactions are silly, with characters coming across as blathering idiots. While Bell’s Jigsaw remains the picture of calm, cold villainy, the other characters turn up the volume around him and become ludicrous in their attempts to outdo their competition. Soomekh’s facial reactions and daft fits of “emotion” are among the most over-baked in the movie, while Macfadyen doesn’t help matters with his trouble in finding safe ground between featureless and stupid.

Luckily, Bousman’s Saw III does exceed its predecessor in the gore department and this wins the movie some points. The disaster of Saw II was that it remained an extremely mind-numbing exercise and was extremely light on the bloodshed. This time around, Bousman features more than a fair share of gruesome sights. Best of all, a cringe-worthy ad hoc surgery sequence involving a power drill and, of course, a saw highlights the blood-spattered righteousness.

And so it is, Saw III is an unconditional crapfest when one looks at the bigger picture of cinema. While I am proud, somewhat, of my endurance in watching both Saw II and Saw III in relatively close succession and while I am also proud of my penchant to use the word crapfest, there’s really no reason to experience this tribulation of a picture. It is an entirely laughable episode for all of its dour bluster, one only salvaged by a pretty sweet look inside the head of the one and only Jigsaw.

Trailer: