Movie Review: 'Saw 3'

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is now in theaters, as of May 14th, 2021. The film attempts to carry on the tremendous legacy of the franchise begun by director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell in 2004. Spiral isn’t bad, but it is on the lower end of any ranking of the Saw franchise from best to worst. I happen to be a Saw apologist, to the point where I have never ranked the Saw movies from best to worst, worst to best, simply because, aside from 2017’s Jigsaw, blech, all the Saw movies are really good.

Instead, I am working on individual reviews highlighting the strengths of the franchise and why I believe Saw is the best horror movie franchise of all time. I’ve already published reviews of Saw (2004), Saw 2 (2005), Saw 3D (2010) and Jigsaw (2017). And with this review, I am circling back to Saw 3 wherein, following the terrific first sequel, the franchise began to flesh out the philosophy of Jigsaw and dig deeper into his notion that severe trauma can teach someone to appreciate their life more and that forgiveness of others is like an elixir against a poison in your soul.

Saw series co-creator Leigh Whannell seems to come from a very dark place. His vivid depictions of violent, horrifying death are the things that nightmares are made of. Watching the various forms of murder he crafts for his films; it's fair to wonder what he might have been like without the creative outlet of screenwriting. Thankfully, Whannell has found his creative outlet and his creativity and intelligence has helped him craft those terrifying images and underline them with a philosophical and disturbingly human edge. With Saw 3 the series Whannell created with James Wan and continued with Darren Lynn Bousman, began folding back in on itself and; for fans of this series, it's a troubling but endlessly intricate and fascinating experience.

In Saw 3 Tobin Bell returns to the role of the dying serial murder John 'Jigsaw' Kramer. On his deathbed from brain cancer; John has set in motion one last torturous test of humanity, compassion and the ability to heal one's own personal wounds. With the help of his assistant, Amanda (Shawnee Smith), John has taken a hostage to start this game. The hostage is Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), a bright young doctor locked in a bad marriage. According to John she has wasted much of her precious life, cheating on her husband and abandoning her young daughter. Her abduction is intended to teach her a lesson about valuing her life and not wasting it lying and being unhappy, and it's about her being given the task of keeping John alive long enough to see his latest game play out.

The game involves a man named Jeff (Angus McFadyen) whose son was killed in a hit and run accident. The driver was caught but because the only other witness disappeared and was unable to be called to testify, the judge gave the driver a very light sentence. Jeff has dreamed of nothing but revenge ever since. Now, Jeff finds himself locked inside a maze-like building with clues that will bring him face to face with the witness, the judge and the driver. Jeff has a choice, he can let go of his pain and save these people's lives, a form of forgiveness, or he can take his revenge by watching them die in the most horrifying, Jigsaw-ian ways.

I've said it before, and I will keep saying it, what I have really love about the Saw series is the philosophical underpinnings of the story. Jigsaw is no mere killing machine who lines up victims like cannon fodder. Jigsaw believes that he is teaching a masters course in humanity. He isn't taking people's lives; he is offering people the chance to earn their lives back with a whole new appreciation for it. One of the moral quandaries that Saw presents to you is the stunning ability to make you identify with Jigsaw philosophically even as you are repelled by him morally. The intellectual underpinnings of Jigsaw's work, the idea of renewing someone's gift of life, is a fascinating idea. Who doesn't know someone who doesn't appreciate what they have. This does not in any way justify what Jigsaw does but, that he has a philosophy and a belief system that defines what he does separates him from other movie killers who are more often than not; simple killing machines.

While Saw is arguably the smartest horror series in history, it's also one of the most gut wrenching and terrifying and Saw 3 is a great example of that. Director Darren Lynn Bousman brings writer-creator Leigh Whannell's dark imaginings to sharp, intense focus with the help of cinematographer David A. Armstrong and production designer David Hackl. However, it is the sound department that are the MVP's of the Saw 3 crew. The sound design, Foley art, and editing of Saw 3 are so gut churning that the noises alone, bones breaking, blood spurting, saws cutting through flesh and bone, they alone are enough to induce a run to the restroom. The sounds and images of Saw 3, even more than a decade later, will have you twisting in your seat and watching most of Saw 3 through your fingers, or with your head turned from the screen and fingers in your ears to drown out the awful noise.

One of the things that makes Saw 3 such a fascinating franchise entry is that director Darren Lynn Bousman and Leigh Whannell fearlessly weave in the previous two Saw films with little concern whether you have seen the other Saw movies or not. Saw 3 is a reward for fans who pored over the lore and mythology of the franchise and there reward is a richer and more exciting experience filled with twists and turns that tie the franchise together in time and philosophy. Saw 3 is not impenetrable for first timers, but it is unconcerned with anyone who, for whatever reason, chose to make Saw 3 their first experience of the franchise.

There are no extraneous plot points in Saw 3. Every scene from beginning to end has a purpose and a payoff, some more than one payoff, all of them tying into an overall storyline that ties together all three films. That writer-creator Leigh Whannell and director Darren Lynn Bousman can keep straight all of these plots and tie them together so intricately as they do in Saw 3 is part of what makes this series so exciting for completests, that and the exceptional level of horror movie gore that is both horrifying and thrilling.

For many years the Saw series was lumped in with such dreck as Wolf Creek, Hostel and the works of Rob Zombie, joyless, ugly, empty, spectacles of blood and guts with no meaning or purpose. Torture porn is what many called it, pointing to the way these lesser filmmakers appeared to revel in blood and guts with no redeeming qualities. Those films were nihilistic exercises in the emptiness and meaningless of existence. Jigsaw however, practices what I would call, optimistic nihilism.

Jigsaw looks at an empty and meaningless existence and see the chance to create meaning where none seems to exist. Jigsaw doesn't want to kill anyone, he gives everyone the chance to escape and be better, prove their life worthy of living. He's haunted by how few people learn the lesson he's trying to teach and his philosophy following his death does begin to curdle in the hands of his acolytes who exhibit more traditional forms of nihilism in Jigsaw's name.

Nevertheless, just having a belief system, a villain just believing that what he is doing is not merely the spilling of blood or merely an elaborate murder as artwork, Jigsaw gives the Saw franchise perspective and a dark, twisted intelligence that is absent from other, supposedly similar movies filled with irredeemable villains and the empty headed cannon fodder they mercilessly disembowel. No death in the Saw franchise is without meaning, each is an opportunity for the victim to make a sacrifice and learn the value of giving up what doesn't matter in favor of what really matters, the chance to live and be better. That's a big idea for a horror movie.