Saw III

Every now and again a horror movie comes along that has you grabbing onto the person next to you, checking under the bed for things that go bump in the night and even filling your trousers with that brown stuff that doesn't smell too good. It just so happens that two years ago such a franchise was created that would be known as the creepiest, goriest, thrill-packed horror movies to ever grace our screens. The first told us a tale about two men trapped in a room with a corpse, the second showed us what happens when it's every man, or woman, for themselves, and the third…

Jigsaw is back and he has a final game for us to play. Beautiful doctor Lynn (Bahar Soomekh) is the latest in a long line of unfortunates to become the next play piece in his game. The difference this time is that the young doctor must keep Jigsaw alive if she is to survive herself. Add to the mix a man (Angus Macfadyen) who has lost his son to a reckless driver, only to be offered the chance of vengeance. Who will survive Jigsaw's deadly game?

The trademark torture deaths are still involved in this third instalment, with some new pieces thrown in to spice it up - the rack is definitely a must for S&M freaks. The story is interesting, but doesn't have the same drawing power as the first and definitely not the same as the second, but fans of Saw and Saw II will finally be able to link the pieces together and unravel just what happened after the cameras faded to black.

The biggest problem with Saw III is that it doesn't make the impact that a third and final instalment should make. We are given glimpses into Jigsaw's past, but only enough to confuse us even more. His assistant Amanda (Shawnee Smith) turns up to help him with his final game, but even this has the feel that not enough effort has gone into it to make us think that what we have just seen is the best instalment ever.

Each of the Saw movies has opened with something interesting and frightening, but sadly in this one we are shown two pointless characters meet a gruesome fate that takes away a good 15 minutes from the real story. Oh, and before I forget, Donnie Wahlberg makes a surprise appearance in this intro, but he's only used because the guys that wrote it didn't have anything new to show us.

I'm not saying that Saw III is all bad. I'm saying, don't expect any of the sneaky twists that we witnessed in the first two.