I can’t say for sure if the reason I’m having such a hard time writing Saw reviews is because I’ve burned myself out from writing so many horror movie reviews this month, or if it’s because Saw is the film equivalent of a procedural television show like “Criminal Minds,” “Castle,” “Bones,” “The Mentalist,” “Monk,” etc. in which every episode is the same thing.
Yes, the crimes may be different. In the case of Saw, it’s the traps that are set. The victims and the criminals will be different, but for the most part, it’s the same sequence of events.
If it wasn’t for their length being a little under two hours instead of 45 minutes, they honestly could be a procedural show, except instead of catching a criminal, we’re just watching Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) torture different people each quote-unquote episode.
I don’t know that there is much point in reviewing them separately, and I think this will be my last Saw review because, sure, there are episodes that are better than others in television shows, and there are also some episodes that kind of just suck, but they all blur together.
**SPOILER ALERT**
If you liked the first two Saw films, I don’t know why you would dislike the third, unless you got attached to Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer), so you were upset when she was murdered. Or you got attached to Jigsaw and his accomplice, Amanda (Shawnee Smith).
I wonder if that’s why the movie had the ending that it did, in which both Amanda and Jigsaw die. Did the filmmakers recognize that there isn’t much more point to continuing the saga?
Now being alive in 2025, I have the benefit of knowing that this series continues well past this film. I’m really curious about how on earth they are going to start the next movie when they’ve killed the protege, they’ve killed the master. They’ve killed basically everybody. Who’s gonna be the next Jigsaw? Who’s gonna steer that creepy little fucking doll on his tricycle and leave garbled voice recordings?
Are they going to completely rewrite the series and continue it under the umbrella of Saw, so that they can hold on tight to Jigsaw’s coattails? Did Jigsaw miraculously survive the explosion like some sort of cockroach that even a terminal brain tumor can’t kill?
I can’t promise I’ll stick around to see.
As for the accuracy of my predictions in my “Saw II” (2005) review?:
“The third Saw film will begin with a victim in one of Jigsaw’s traps.”
He appears early on in the film, but the movie actually starts with Amanda and Detective Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg).
“We’ll cut to a scene intended to provide us with background and context. The audience will then learn more about the police and detectives working on the case.”
We learn about an important difference between Amanda and Jigsaw; Amanda’s puzzles are rigged. She is much more sadistic than Jigsaw. We also see a bit of Detective Kerry’s apartment.
“Amanda and Jigsaw’s lair will be found. Someone will get hurt.”
The police do not find their lair.
“We’ll see traps that are even gorier than what we have seen before. Someone in law enforcement is going to die. Their coworkers are going to want revenge and be extra motivated to catch Jigsaw. They’re going to bend and break the law.”
Whether these traps are gorier is debatable, but Detective Kerry brutally dies. This has no impact on the plot.
“Detective Matthews is going to try to escape his trap. He probably won’t; he wasn’t an especially compelling character, so I don’t think they’ll be that determined to keep him alive.”
He escapes his trap by breaking his ankle. After fighting with Amanda, she leaves him to die.
“Then, some unpredictable plot twist is going to happen before the film ends on a note that leaves plenty of room for a sequel to start with.”
It wasn’t especially shocking, but the ending reveals that Jeff’s (Angus Macfayden) actions have guaranteed his daughter’s death. At this point, we did not know that she was being held hostage. Jigsaw and Amanda also die at the end of the movie, which is mildly shocking, except the movies have been waving Jigsaw’s death over our heads for many hours at this point, so it was to be expected. This doesn’t exactly leave much room for a sequel.
