A Film Review of Saw 3D

4D Torture (1 out of 5 Stars)
A Film Review by Matt Brigner

The Players: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Sean Patrick Flanery, Cary Elwes, Betsy Russell, Chad Donella, Gina Holden, Laurence Anthony, Chester Bennington

What’s Going On: Another Halloween has passed with another release of the once clever Saw series. This version of torture has us following two separate story lines. First, our favorite Jigsaw protégé Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) begins his pursuit of Jigsaw’s widow Jill (Betsy Russell), who left Hoffman for dead in Saw VI. He also has his sights set on self proclaimed Jigsaw survivor Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) who has made a whole bunch of money by telling his made up story of surviving a Jigsaw contraption. While the story unfolds an awkward internal affairs investigator (Chad Donella), who reminds me of Steve from Blue’s Clues, tries to uncover the man behind the murders and save those playing the game.

How Is It: This go around has not yielded the result that many fans of the franchise were expecting from the what is supposed to be the last film. Instead we are left with a predictable, gory, and dumb practice in horror, which believes that it accomplishes something special, but simply has its line caught on something humdrum. In the few moments people aren’t subjecting themselves to torture the movie reminds me of a Syfy original with suspect acting, poorly staged set pieces and campy dialogue. It is still good to see Tobin Bell make an appearance in a 40 second flashback, but for me that stands as the one high point in an otherwise forgettable film.

The M. Night Shyamalan Effect: The first two Saws drew a following by mixing clever, gore inducing contraptions with a solid twist ending that kept the fans talking. Each installment since has gotten stuck in this same effort. As a result of this we are left with monotonous violence without purpose that may be creative in design, but simply exists because it is expected; much like M. Night Shyamalan films which often exist more for the twist rather than the story. Saw 3D subjects us to the most gruesome and pointless violence yet. Even a horror fan like me was turned off by almost every aspect of the film and often got confused as to whether the director was out to entertain me or make me sick.  

Is The 3D Worth It: I can appreciate the use of 3D in horror films despite it being much more of a gimmick than an immersive experience.  I would have been less offended if the director would have been at the theater asking me for three dollars rather than forcing me to pay three dollars for the occasional piece of flesh flying at my face. If you must see this movie and have a choice to see it in 2D take that road and spend the extra three dollars on some ice cream afterwards. I think a waffle cone of birthday cake ice cream would have made this a much better day

Parting Words For The Franchise: “Game Over!”