It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was a time of great acting and a time of face-pulling (not literally, mercifully). It was a time of wonderful tension and literal pig slop in faces. Saw III is everything right and wrong with the rest of the Saw series. Jigsaw makes his escape after his close encounter with the police in II and now has his trusty assistant Amanda by his side for the most elaborate game yet. A disaffected surgeon has to keep Jigsaw alive until the end of the game, or else the collar around her neck will set off a dozen shot gun shells directly into her head. Meanwhile, a grieving father has to confront the people he believes are responsible for the death of his young son; each accidental conspirator will die if he does not show mercy.
The best part of Saw III is finally getting to focus on John, better known as Jigsaw. Though bound to a bed for most of the film, Tobin Bell's approach to the psychopath is haunting. The few flashbacks of working with Amanda and setting up traps are the strongest we ever see Jigsaw in the series, and the makeshift hospital is the weakest. It's pathetic and all the more terrifying that the man who can barely lift his head is still able to cause so much chaos.
The inoperable cancer dilemma adds to the mystery of the character. Is he lashing out at the world because he has nothing left to live for? Is he trying to force people to learn to live before they meet an untimely demise? Is he just a psychopath? The answer is probably yes to all of these, but it blurs the lines from good versus evil to a much more compelling gray area.
The worst part is the series finally embracing its misplaced gory reputation. The studio wanted blood and director Darren Lynn Bousman and screenwriter Leigh Whannell delivered. The traps are far more vicious than anything else that appears (until VII/3D, whatever you want to call it) in the series. It creates a horrible distancing effect.
This isn't alienation to make you reconsider the greater themes of the story; it's taking the blindfold off and revealing that the bowl of eyeballs on Halloween night is just peeled grapes. There is no more subtlety to the series beyond character choices by the actors. Everything else is like a brick to the head from here on out.
An entire film focusing on John, Amanda, and Dr. Denlon would have been a bold twist in the formula of the series. A film focusing on Jeff and his stopped grieving process over the death of his son could have been strong, too.
Together, neither story gets its due. The balance is way off. Dr. Denlon's most memorable scene is her one encounter with gore--a ghastly surgery scene as a last ditch effort to keep Jigsaw alive--and Jeff's most memorable scene is a fight with his surviving daughter before the game begins--no blood, no violence, just emotion. The rest of the film, Dr. Denlon gets the emotion, Jeff gets the blood, and never the twain shall meet in a significant way.
The great scenes are some of the best the Saw series has to offer. The worst scenes are only trumped by IV and VII/3D in being the worst horror genre has to offer. There was still a chance to turn the series into something spectacular at this point, but Saw III is where the concept begins to show its age.
The entire Saw series received a beautiful Blu-ray release. Otherwise, Saw III can be rented from all the major digital platforms.