Saw 3

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus MacFayden, Bahar Soomekh

Following on from the first two films in the series that has broken the mould of the horror genre, Saw III continues to turn stomachs of audiences across the globe. Tobin Bell reprises his role as the cancer-ridden John Cramer a.k.a. Jigsaw, and has his apprentice Amanda (Smith) kidnap a doctor (Soomekh) to keep him alive while he completes his final, brutal test. An unsuspecting Jeff (Macfayden) wakes to find that he is to undergo a series of grave challenges that will force him to either have mercy on those who led to his son’s loss of life or let them die slow and vile deaths. His dilemma, however, is that showing forgiveness requires him to say goodbye to various mementos of his son. Meanwhile, Dr Lynn Denlon has the quest of keeping the evil Jigsaw alive until Jeff’s task is completed, something that is not altogether easy considering the tools with which she has to work.

Although Saw III lacks the fright of the first two films, it most definitely makes up for it in gore and stays true to the series with the necessary twist. As in the first two instalments, the film thrills in the sense that the audience anticipates in horror what awaits those in the film. For a brief few seconds, we are suspended in a state of not knowing what unbearable tool Jigsaw has invented this time. We are then faced with the decision of whether to watch, close our eyes or, in my case, cover my face with opened fingers. Things are set up very nicely indeed for October 2007’s release of Saw IV.