Saw III opens with a man breaking his own foot to escape a locked bathroom, and that is the whole pitch in miniature. The third film in the series, released in the United States on October 27, 2006, by Lionsgate Films, keeps the franchise’s bargain: pain as a test, and a clock running on everyone. Darren Lynn Bousman directs from a screenplay by Leigh Whannell, with a story by Whannell and James Wan. Tobin Bell returns as John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer. The tagline promises, “Suffering? You haven’t seen anything yet…”
Trailer, via Lionsgate Movies.
John Kramer Is Dying, and That Is the Point
The film’s smartest move is putting its monster in a bed. John is bedridden with terminal cancer for most of Saw III, kept alive by machines and by Amanda, his apprentice, played by Shawnee Smith. The games continue, but the man who designs them can no longer walk through them. Bell plays the role with a stillness the earlier films never allowed him.
Lynn Denlon and the Collar
Amanda kidnaps Dr. Lynn Denlon, played by Bahar Soomekh, from the hospital where she works. A collar armed with five shotgun shells is locked around Lynn’s neck and wired to John’s heart rate monitor. It detonates if she moves out of range or if John dies. Her task is simple and impossible: keep a dying man alive until another test ends.
Soomekh was cast after Lionsgate saw her in Crash (2004). She had not seen the first two Saw films and does not count herself a horror fan.
“I had nightmares the first month I was on set”
She also noted the role let her avoid the Middle Eastern typecasting of her earlier work.
Jeff Reinhart and the Meatpacking Plant
Angus Macfadyen plays Jeff, a father consumed by vengeance after his son Dylan was killed by a drunk driver. Jeff’s game unfolds in an abandoned meatpacking plant, and each test asks him to confront someone involved in the case.
The first test puts him in a meat freezer with Danica, the only witness to the crash, who refused to testify. She is naked and chained to a metal frame while nozzles spray her with water to speed hypothermia. Jeff retrieves the key after she persuades him to help her. She freezes to death before he can use it. His next test chains Judge Halden by the neck, in a trap the source describes only in part.
Macfadyen was a fan of certain horror films, including Saw, and took the part after reading the script.
Kerry’s Harness and the Broken Rule
Detective Allison Kerry, played by Dina Meyer, notices something wrong at the first crime scene. Officer Daniel Rigg’s SWAT team discovered it. The victim, Troy, had to rip chains from his body to escape a bomb. The room’s exit was welded shut, which breaks Jigsaw’s usual method of giving victims a chance to survive.
Kerry is abducted and wakes in a harness hooked into her ribs. She follows the instructions and pulls the key from a beaker of acid. Opening the lock does not save her. The trap kills her anyway.
That kill matters more than the gore around it. It tells the audience the rules have changed. Whether Amanda is now the one writing them is the film’s suggestion, not a stated fact.
Amanda Young and the Emotional Core
Whannell has said he wanted this story to carry more emotion than the previous installments, especially the Amanda and Jigsaw thread. It shows. Amanda is not a sidekick here. Smith plays her as an heir who may have mistaken devotion for succession — a reading of the performance, not a claim the film makes outright.
A Reduced Rigg and a Missing Alison
Lyriq Bent’s Rigg was cut down sharply because Bent was working on Angela’s Eyes (2006) at the same time. The filmmakers tried to make his schedule work. He shot one day. Monica Potter, who played Alison in the first film, was approached to return and declined, saying she had done “plenty” with the first film.
What Saw III Gets Right
The film opened to $33.6 million and grossed $80.2 million in the United States and Canada. It is the highest-grossing film in the series overall, and the highest-grossing in the international market. The film is dedicated to producer Gregg Hoffman, who died on December 4, 2005.
The traps are not the reason to watch Saw III. The reason is the triangle: a dying man, a doctor chained to his pulse, and an apprentice who wants the throne before the king is gone. Saw III is the moment the franchise stopped being a puzzle and started being a succession drama. The collar is the best idea in the film because it turns another person’s heartbeat into a deadline.
The weakest material is Jeff’s gauntlet. His tests repeat a single emotional beat — forgive or don’t — and the film mistakes escalation for depth. Macfadyen is fine; the writing gives him one note.
The TMDB audience score is 6.4 of 10, from 5,080 votes.
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