Saw III (2006)

Preceded by: Saw II (2005)
Followed by: Saw IV (2007)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jigsaw/John	Tobin Bell
Amanda	Shawnee Smith
Jeff	Angus Macfayden
Lynn	Bahar Soomekh	½
Eric Matthews	Donnie Wahlberg
Kerry	Dina Meyer
Adam	Leigh Whannell

Review

A couple of decades ago, sequels were made with some air to breath between them. That didn't mean they were not commercially motivated (at least not in this genre), but it meant that the audiences were able to recover in between. Now, here is the third installment of a series that started only two years prior with the invention of Saw, one of the most creative and delightfully vicious horror films in a long time. The problem with releasing two sequels in two years is that (as with The Matrix) follow-ups of a lesser quality will threaten to weaken the reputation of the original. Creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell might make more money, but their brilliant prodigy now has two mediocre siblings to compete with for attention.

Whereas Saw II was to a large extent a structural rehash of the original, Saw III is a more protracted and unrefined effort. It desperately lacks the suspense of the original, and has nothing new to say. The plotting, by Whannell himself, isn't all that bad, but it is conducted by Bousman with a serious lack of vision and subtlety. For one thing, the film is overloaded with flashbacks, which makes it very exhausting. And secondly, the graphic horror is less enjoyable, because here it serves no purpose. The best aspect of Saw III is that we get to see more inside Jigsaw's head (literally), but every other storyline is just repeating itself in a degenerative manner. By the time the movie has finally reached its ending, there isn't really much to reveal, even though Bousman seems to think so. Stay untuned for the next installment.