Sunday, March 4, 2012

Saw III (2006)


I feel like all the Saw sequels have jumbled into one long movie for me, so when I swiped Saw 3 from my sister’s apartment to watch on an Amtrak train back to New York, I couldn’t really remember which one it was.  IMDB tells me this is that one where the doctor keeps him alive so another dude can make his way through a series of tests.  Oh, okay, I remember this one.  I sort of wish it was the one where they were trapped in that big house, but this one will do to pass the time on this trip.

I missed you, Donnie Wahlberg!  Saw 3 picks up right where 2 left off, with Detective Matthews chained up by Amanda.  As his former co-workers, especially Carrie, are haunted by his disappearance, another Jigsaw case materializes, except this victim had no way out, whether he completed the test or not.

Meanwhile, poor Carrie gets subjected to a test, while Doctor Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) gets kidnapped by Amanda.  She is brought to the warehouse in order to keep Jigsaw alive while another test is carried out.  A man named Jeff (Angus McFadyen) is poised to go through a series of rooms, confronting those directly and indirectly responsible for his young son's death.  Saw is trying that thing where they go progressively more and more violent and cringe-inducing with each sequel, and this one does the trick.

The ending of this movie was really well-played.  The whole flick is set up to make everyone related in a way we don't realize until the very end.  There's a "game over"-type moment that rivals the door-slamming in the original Saw, but in a way, this one seems to be set up to be the last of the series.

Didn’t we think at this point that these movies were going to be a trilogy?  Obviously we were proven wrong.  When I think about Saw I wonder how it “should have” played out.  The first movie was so groundbreaking that I wonder if they should have just left it at a standalone film.  After that, the victims and tests all kind of just blurred together, and you couldn’t remember which belonged with what sequel.  I think this series would have done well as a single movie (Saw) or a trilogy, but I didn't love that it played out as long as it did.  Although no one cares what I think, since it is the highest-grossing horror series in history.

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