A 21st-century horror franchise keeps hacking away in “Saw III,” a gruelingly unpleasant sequel that opened without advance screenings for the press. In this installment, we quickly learn that evil-genius-killer Jigsaw is still around. But ailing.
In the gruesome one-two punch that opens the film, we begin with a resolution to a question left hanging from “Saw II.” Then we flash back to find out what happened to a criminal chained in a room with a time bomb. His situation makes the old Richard Harris movie “A Man Called Horse” seem like a pinprick.
The detective on the case is rapidly encased in her own iron maiden-like torture device. Before you can say “stick your hand in this beaker of acid,” she’s also out of the picture.
Then we settle into the story proper, if “proper” is the right word. Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is at death’s door with a brain tumor. His sidekick (Shawnee Smith, returning from the first two “Saw” pictures) kidnaps a doctor (Bahar Soomekh) who will serve as Jigsaw’s private physician.
And if the doctor refuses, she’ll be blown up by the bombs in the metal necklace she’s been locked into. Jigsaw is like that.
There’s a subplot, in which a grieving father (Angus Macfayden) is forced to encounter the people responsible for his son’s death. Jigsaw has a moral motive for his sick games, you recall; it’s to make people face their past sins.
Well, thanks. But enough already. “Saw III” is pretty well the end of the road for this idea, which might explain why the ultraviolence is even more ultra than before.
Original “Saw” creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell, who found a gold mine with their clever first film, worked on the script of this one. It’s a sequel for the DVD age, designed to work as part of a boxed set of “Saw” films: It has flashbacks to previous installments, and rewards for people who are watching all three in a row on the same night.
The hyperactive editing is annoying, and the production design retains its aura of Jules Verne crossed with a Nine Inch Nails video.
The first “Saw” actually had an idea behind it, as grisly as the execution was. Now it’s just entrails, power tools and death by freezing. In short, it should be the top-grossing movie of the weekend.
“Saw III”
Not cutting edge: This should be the end of the road for the initially clever horror franchise, as the evil genius Jigsaw tries to save his own life while putting a few people through his Jules-Verne-meetes-Nine-Inch-Nails games of torture. Lots of entrails and power tools.
Rating: R for violence, language, nudity
Now showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Mountlake, Stanwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall and Oak Harbor.
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