Twenty-two years ago, James Wan’s Saw (2004) premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival. Between Park City’s snow-capped peaks, a new horror villain was born from Wan and Leigh Whannell’s twisted perspective of what a gritty detective thriller could be. The then-burgeoning Lionsgate Films knew that Saw was a juggernaut in waiting, having purchased the film for distribution prior to its very first screening. Two decades and ten films later, the Saw franchise has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, sitting at the top of contemporary horror notoriety and countless debates over the value of such 2000s “torture porn” titles.
There is a world in which Saw’s legacy ended a few years after it began, however, as die-hard fans like myself believe the first three films form a complete trilogy about serial killer Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell) and his apprentice, Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith). On its 20th anniversary, Darren Lynn Bousman’s Saw III (2006) stands as a story-driven, remorseless conclusion to Amanda and Jigsaw’s pursuit of vigilante justice, while also uncovering the inherent flaws in trying to stretch a property’s existence past its artistic merit.
How did Lionsgate manage to draw crowds back every year with a new sequel—with more on the way—and what does it mean for the way we historize film franchises?
A Sick Satisfaction
Saw III picks up where Saw II (2005) ends, which finds Detective Eric Matthews chained to a water pipe in the same bathroom trap from the first film. In the previous film, Jigsaw had kidnapped Eric’s son and placed him in a house with several others who had been arrested by Eric during his police career. Over the course of two hours, the victims must survive a series of traps in order to receive an antidote to the nerve gas seeping into the home. One of the last victims standing by the end is Amanda, who not only survived a Jigsaw trap before, but is later revealed as a plant within this game to ensure that Eric meets his demise during his attempt to save his son.
Although Saw II contains the barbaric needle pit and Venus flytrap scenes, it really operates as the bridge for major conflicts that Amanda and Jigsaw face in Saw III. Here, Jigsaw’s terminal brain cancer has left him immobile, and so he confides in Amanda to kidnap Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh), who can potentially grant him more time to pass his life’s work over to Amanda. Running parallel to Amanda and Jigsaw’s storyline is a game designed for a father, Jeff, whose son was killed by a drunk driver years prior. Each of the traps in this game involve someone who was responsible for failing his family in seeking justice for their son’s death, and so he must decide to either save them or let them die in typical Saw fashion.
Bousman’s second stab at this franchise certainly showcases his creativity through the traps, as Jeff’s trial includes some of the most unforgiving torture machines in the franchise; the pig vat trap is pure vomit material, and the freezer room trap is an agonizing, slow death scene that leaves you hollow at the end of act one. “The Rack,” as referred to by the Saw fandom, takes the cake as the worst way to perish and the ultimate test for Jeff, specifically because he watches the man who killed his son have his limbs and head twisted 180 degrees. There’s a sick satisfaction present in Jeff’s reaction to each trap that places his own morality into question more than Jigsaw does, but this philosophical approach to who has the right to live lies underneath the foundation of each Saw entry.
Amanda’s subplot also points to the inequities in how she and Jigsaw understand their mission, as the traps she designs do not grant victims a path to victory. In one scene, Eric’s former police partner, Detective Allison Kerry, analyzes an Amanda victim who was supposed to rip chains out of his body before a pipe bomb exploded. Upon further inspection, she concludes that the victim was never meant to escape this puzzle, as the door to the room he was trapped in was welded shut. Soon after her investigation, Allison is abducted herself and placed in the angel trap that tasks her with grabbing a key from a pitcher of sulfuric acid to free her from the contraption hooked into her ribcage. When she manages to do so, she cannot rip the metal out of her body, proving that Amanda has bastardized Jigsaw’s traps for her own revenge.
Cheap Thrills and Shocking Kills
Between Amanda’s inner turmoil, Jeff’s vengeance trial, and Jigsaw’s impending death, what did Saw III accomplish for the franchise and the horror genre at this time? Foremost, its oversaturated color grading that focused on greens and browns caused the film’s gore to look dirtier and far more abundant than its predecessors. Combined with the hypermediacy aesthetic running rampant in Hollywood action films at this time, Saw III rewarded the viewer seeking cheap thrills and shocking kills, with plot falling to the wayside in the film elements hierarchy.
Despite its obvious appeals to the mainstream spectatorship at the time, Bousman’s character studies of Amanda and Jigsaw remain prescient of the sociopolitical issues Americans are raising at the moment. In a country that dismisses the sick and favors the corrupt, who is working to balance the scales? Even when Lynn successfully heals Jigsaw of one of his ailments in the end, it’s not enough for Amanda to release her from captivity. Similarly, Jeff’s impulsivity that results in Amanda, Jigsaw, and Lynn’s deaths strands him with no family and no resolution for his woes. Everyone dies, no one atones for their sins, and we’re left with a bleak message about modern life.
Saw III closed the chapter on Amanda and Jigsaw, but it did not kneecap the pervasive themes that propelled the Saw franchise for years to come. Saw IV (2007) through Saw 3D (2010) treaded water by recycling minor characters and embracing the torture porn spectacle, and the Jigsaw (2017) and Spiral (2021) spinoffs rightfully exist in a world of their own. The most recent Saw X (2023) pumped some blood back into the franchise, but we’re going to need a new narrative heart to keep this property alive.
