Saw III (2006) is a horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Leigh Whannell and a story by Whannell and James Wan. It is the third film in the Saw series and follows Saw II (2005). Tobin Bell returns as John Kramer, the Jigsaw killer, now bedridden with terminal cancer. Shawnee Smith returns as his apprentice, Amanda Young. While a kidnapped doctor is forced to keep John alive, a grieving father works his way through a series of tests built around forgiveness. Whannell wanted it to be the most emotional film yet, calling the John and Amanda story a father-daughter “love story.” Critics were unimpressed, but it opened at No. 1 and grossed $164.9 million worldwide on a $10 million budget, the highest total of any film in the series.
At a glance
| Release date | October 27, 2006 (US) |
| Director | Darren Lynn Bousman |
| Writers | Leigh Whannell (screenplay); Whannell and James Wan (story) |
| Based on | Characters created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell |
| Starring | Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Dina Meyer |
| Runtime | 108 minutes |
| Rating | R (US), for strong grisly violence and gore, sequences of terror and torture, nudity and language |
| Budget | $10 million |
| Box office | $164.9 million |
| Franchise | Saw: sequel to Saw II (2005); followed by Saw IV (2007) |
Plot summary
Six months after the events of Saw II, Officer Daniel Rigg’s SWAT team finds a new Jigsaw scene. The victim, Troy, had to tear chains from his body to escape a bomb. Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) notices that the room’s exit had been welded shut, breaking Jigsaw’s rule of always offering a way out. Kerry is then abducted herself and wakes in a harness hooked into her ribs. She retrieves the key from a beaker of acid, but the trap kills her anyway.
Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) is taken from her hospital to the bedside of the dying John Kramer. Amanda fits her with a collar of shotgun shells linked to John’s heart monitor: if he dies, or she strays too far, it fires. Lynn must keep him alive while another man finishes his game. Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) has been consumed by revenge since a drunk driver killed his young son, Dylan. In an abandoned meatpacking plant, he is confronted one by one with the people he blames: a witness who refused to testify, the judge who handed down a light sentence and the driver himself. Each time he has the chance to save them.
Spoiler section: Amanda’s test
The witness freezes to death, the judge is shot by a hidden shotgun, and the driver’s neck is broken by a twisting rack despite Jeff’s cries of forgiveness. Lynn performs makeshift brain surgery on John and begs him to release her. Amanda refuses. Jealous of Lynn, she admits she no longer believes in John’s philosophy and rigged Troy’s and Kerry’s traps so they could not be survived. She shoots Lynn just as Jeff arrives. Jeff turns out to be Lynn’s husband, and he kills Amanda. John explains that the game was really Amanda’s test, which she failed. He offers Jeff one last choice, to forgive him or kill him. Jeff cuts John’s throat with a power saw, triggering Lynn’s collar and sealing the room. John’s last tape tells Jeff that his daughter has also been taken, and only John knew where.
Production and behind the scenes
Bousman, Wan and Whannell first turned down a third film. Producer Gregg Hoffman died a few weeks after Saw II opened, and the three met for lunch the day they heard the news. They decided to make Saw III in his memory, and the film is dedicated to him. As with the earlier films, only the actors in the final scene got the ending when it was shot. Bousman said the twist was not meant to be as sharp as before. Whannell said they wanted “an emotionally impactful ending.” Soomekh, cast after Crash, said she had nightmares during her first month on set. Costas Mandylor joined as Detective Hoffman.
The budget rose to $10 million, from $4 million for Saw II. Filming lasted 27 days at Toronto’s Cinespace Film Studios, from May 8 to late June 2006. The production borrowed the bathroom set from Scary Movie 4, which had parodied the series. Most transitions between scenes were done in camera rather than digitally. Bousman called the “Pig Scene” the hardest to shoot. The foam-and-latex carcasses had live, disinfected maggots stuck on with honey. Bousman wanted a freezing trap because the films had already covered burning, bleeding and cutting.
Release and reception
According to executive producer Daniel Heffner, the film was toned down seven times to get an R. Bousman said the MPAA worried more about emotional torture than graphic violence. Lionsgate’s marketing chief, Tim Palen, had 1,000 posters printed with ink mixed with a small amount of Bell’s blood. The first was auctioned for the Red Cross, and the studio’s “Give Til It Hurts” blood drive collected 23,493 pints. Released on October 27, 2006, the film opened at No. 1 with $33.6 million, just ahead of Saw II‘s opening. That was the biggest Halloween-weekend debut until 2011 and Lionsgate’s best opening at the time. It took $80.2 million in the US and Canada. In the UK, five people were reported to have fainted at screenings.
Lionsgate did not screen the film for critics. It holds 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus says it “does little beyond repeating its predecessor’s tropes on a gorier level.” Metacritic scores it 48, and CinemaScore audiences gave it a “B.” Variety‘s Robert Koehler said its many flashbacks drained the tension. Bell was nominated for Best Villain at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, and the film was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.
Legacy and influence
Saw III kills off both John and Amanda, but the series continued the next year with Saw IV. Its $164.9 million worldwide remains the highest gross in the series. Later films, including Jigsaw (2017) and Saw X (2023), which is set between the first two films, returned to John’s story. For the full series, see the Saw franchise hub and the original Saw (2004).
Trivia
- In Japan it was rated R18+, while the first two films had been R15+.
- It was the first Saw film that Lionsgate distributed directly in the UK. Entertainment Film Distributors had released the earlier two.
- The DVD and Blu-ray sold 1.6 million units on day one and 2.5 million in the first week. An unrated 113-minute cut came out the same day, and a 120-minute director’s cut followed in October 2007.
- A clip of Troy’s trap shown at San Diego Comic-Con was barred by the MPAA from playing before Crank in theaters.
Related links
- Jigsaw, Amanda Young and Billy the Puppet (characters)
- Saw franchise
- Saw (2004), Saw II (2005) and Saw X (2023)
- Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith
- Darren Lynn Bousman (director) and Leigh Whannell (writer)