Saw III (2006)

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

	Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman	COUNTRY USA GENRE Horror NORWEGIAN TITLE Saw III RUNNING TIME 113 minutes
	Produced by: Mark Burg Gregg Hoffman Oren Koules
	Written by: Leigh Whannell

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 breathing room between them. That didn't mean they were not commercially motivated (at least they were in this genre), but it meant that audiences were able to recover in between. Now, here is the third installment of a series that started only two years prior with 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 to a large extent was 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 executed with a lack of vision and subtlety by director Darren Lynn Bousman. 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 devolving manner. By the time the movie has finally reached its conclusion, there isn't really much to reveal, even though Bousman seems to think so. Stay untuned for the next installment.