Over the past two years, Hollywood has managed to break the curse of crappy Halloween thrillers by bringing us the Saw movies, which although aren't amazingly scary, are well made and pretty dang creepy. This year was no different, as Saw III, the next chapter in this twisted series of horror/suspense movies, arrived. The big surprise this time? The fact that it might be the best thus far.
Jigsaw's brain cancer has him bedridden, so his new apprentice, Amanda, is doing his dirty work, to keep the Jigsaw name alive. In order to stay alive and alert, he sends Amanda to kidnap a surgeon. Her game is to keep him alive until Amanda has finished putting someone else through a brutal test. If the person in Amanda's game dies, so does the doctor. And if Jigsaw flatlines, the Doctor and the unlucky victim will both will be killed. This movie stands out from the others because we see what is going on in a depth which we haven't quite seen before. And as we are given a more detailed history of Amanda, the three movies become tied together very nicely. There is, as expected, a twist at the end which is somewhat predictable, but the actual ending is somewhat surprising (especially when you know more movies will be made).
The opening of this movie is just gruesome, with three people dying in the first fifteen minutes. Everyone in and around my group of friends was cringing as the opening played out, and again, during later scenes, people were turning away, talking about how messed up the movie was, and wondering aloud what kind of jacked up person could think up those forms of torture. I really do think this movie had some of the worst forms of torture out of any of them. In other words, it was awesome, but definitely not for those with weak stomachs.
Although it does have some of the same flaws as the previous movies (barely decent acting, similar plots, very similar plot holes, etc), it was a fun movie to see. If you've enjoyed either of the other movies, you have to catch Saw III.