Saw III (Darren Lynn Bousman, 2006)

Saw III (Darren Lynn Bousman, 2006)
Rating: 4.8

The Saw franchise is an interesting case for me and my film tastes, I suppose you could call it a guilt pleasure. The acting is always bad with the exception of Tobin Bell, the motivations and decisions of the characters are usually pretty questionable, the character themselves are often dense, and the editing style is a bit gimmicky. For some people, the extreme gore is a huge turnoff, but that isn't necessarily the case for me. In general I don't consider myself a fan of the torture porn genre nor do I claim to be a fan of this franchise, but nonetheless I find myself intrigued enough to have watched each of the films, and will continue to watch future Saw sequels. It is my opinion that the series is something the movie world has been missing and the industry needs; a moderately cheap horror franchise for this generation. In the 80s these kinds of franchises thrived (Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St., Halloween, Critters, Hellraiser, etc.) To use the old adage, "it's like a train wreck, that you can't quite turn away from." Subconsciously these graphic images are something I'm apparently drawn to. I think it's also interesting to watch people's responses when they are thrown into such extreme situations, whether the depictions in the film seem accurate or not. As for Saw III itself, I can confidently say that it is a vast improvement upon the 2nd installment. The return of James Wan, writer and director of the original, was partially responsible for this, although overall I still think the script is pretty bad, but enjoy the Jigsaw character. As I mentioned before I think the rapid editing techniques are a bit gimmicky, but lends itself nicely as a stylistic device for this type of film (which is basically a gimmick in and of itself). The special effects and makeup teams should be applauded once more for their efforts, as I feel they are overlooked, and really the people responsible for making this series such a success. This film contained some of the most shocking and graphic sequences I can recall watching. In particular the scene with the man on "the rack", the woman who gets her ribs ripped out, and Jigsaw's operation were all incredibly effective. For me watching a film that reaches out to the lowest common denominator is as engaging as watching a brilliant art house film, so although I realize the Saw films are pretty bad, to me they are still worth a watch.