Saw III

Saw III
Directed by	Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by	James Wan Leigh Whannell
Starring	Tobin Bell Shawnee Smith Bahar Soomekh Angus Macfadyen
Music by	Charlie Clouser
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release dates	October 27, 2006 October 27, 2006 November 2, 2006
Running time	107 min.
Budget	$10,000,000

Saw III is the third installment in the Saw horror film series. The film is a joint effort of both Saw's writers / directors, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and Saw II's writer / director, Darren Lynn Bousman. Saw III follows Jigsaw, along with his new apprentice Amanda Young, as they painfully teach their victims to appreciate life.

The film has been dedicated to Gregg Hoffman, producer of the first two movies. Hoffman died on December 4, 2005, shortly after the official Lionsgate announcement of Saw III.

Saw III is rated R for Strong Grisly Violence and Gore, Sequences of Terror and Torture, Nudity and Language according to the official website. This is the first film of the Saw franchise to include nudity.

Production

Saw III began production on May 1, 2006 and principal photography on May 8, 2006 in Toronto, Canada in preparation for the film's October release. The final shooting draft of the script was written in under a week in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by Leigh Whannell based on an idea by creator and Saw director James Wan.

Despite Saw II's success director Darren Lynn Bousman was initially reluctant to direct the film and return to the franchise. "There was a lot of pressure after the popularity of the first two, and I didn’t want to let the fans down," he claims, but later accepted the directing role. A majority of the SAW II production crew returned to the new production, which included the director of photography, David Armstrong, and production designer David Hackl. Many of the same Toronto locations were used and the crew was housed in the same hotels.

Cast

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Jigsaw and Amanda during one of the film's flashbacks.

Actor	Role
Tobin Bell	John Kramer / Jigsaw
Shawnee Smith	Amanda Young
Angus Macfadyen	Jeff Reinhart
Bahar Soomekh	Dr. Lynn Denlon
Dina Meyer	Det. Kerry
Barry Flatman	Judge Halden
J. Larose	Troy
Debra Lynne McCabe	Danica Scott
Stefan Georgiou	Dylan
Alan Van Sprang	Chris
Franky G	Xavier (Dead)
Leigh Whannell	Adam (Flashback)
Donnie Wahlberg	Det. Eric Matthews
Tim Burd	Obi (Hallucination)

• The full cast list can be found at: Link under "Production Notes."

Plot

Template:Spoiler Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is chained by his ankle in the same dilapidated bathroom he was imprisoned in at the end of Saw II. After realizing his gun is empty, he quickly discovers a hacksaw next to him. Attempts to saw the chain prove futile, and he quickly learns, after seeing Dr. Gordon's severed foot, that he must saw his own foot off to leave. Eric realizes that sawing off his own foot could result in fatal blood loss. He decides instead to crush the bones in his foot, with the toilet's tank cover, so that he can slip it out of the ankle cuff.

Elsewhere, a welding torch cuts through a metal door that has been welded shut. Once through the door, a SWAT team, led by Rigg (Lyriq Bent), rushes inside. Rigg immediately calls for Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer), the "Jigsaw expert." A forensic expert informs her that the corpse is not Detective Matthews as she initially feared, but a man named Troy.

Troy (J. LaRose) in the body chains trap.

Troy's trap is shown in a flashback. He finds himself with many chains stuck into his body. A television screen turns on, and Jigsaw's puppet, Billy, is shown. Billy speaks to Troy about how, despite the many advantages he was given at birth, he's been in and out of prisons, seemingly finding more comfort in chains than being free. To live, he must break free of his chains. The chains are hooked through his skin in various places. The television screen turns off, and he notices a bomb planted nearby, with 1 minute and 30 seconds ticking down. Troy does not manage to tear free before time runs out. Kerry notes this particular trap does not fit Jigsaw's usual pattern, as Jigsaw's "games" normally gave their victims a chance to escape if they were successful. The door being welded shut would not have allowed Troy to escape from the bomb's detonation even if the chains had been removed.

As she reviews Jigsaw's video tape on her bedroom television, Kerry's screen blurs and a new picture appears. Kerry quickly realizes that it is a live image of herself on the television, and that the camera is positioned inside her closet. Upon investigating and attempting to disable the camera, she is assaulted from behind and captured by Amanda (Shawnee Smith), Jigsaw's apprentice. Kerry wakes up hanging from a ceiling in a metal contraption when a video starts on a nearby TV screen. Jigsaw's puppet Billy tells her that she has spent all of her life living amongst the dead, and identifies with them more than she does the living. He reveals that the device she is wearing is hooked into her ribcage. She has one minute to retrieve the key from the jar of acid before it fully dissolves. She manages to get a hold of the key after painfully disfiguring her hand and unlocks her chest piece, realizing it did next to nothing, as the contraption is still lodged in her chest. It is then that a cloaked figure walks into the room (Amanda). Kerry immediately realizes who it is, just as the device rips her ribcage open, killing her.

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Lynn (Bahar Soomekh) and Amanda (Shawnee Smith).

Meanwhile, Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) and Chris (Alan Van Sprang) sit on opposite sides of a bed. Lynn excuses herself to begin her early shift at the hospital, but not before taking an anti-depressant pill. They bicker for a moment, and as she walks out of the room, Lynn asks Chris what it is that he wants. He turns to her and replies that he wants a divorce. She seems entirely unaffected by this statement, and she turns and goes to work. Once there, she sits, depressed in a locker room while a dying boy waits on a table. A nurse comes in and finally retrieves her, and Denlon is able to save his life. After finishing her shift at the hospital, Denlon prepares to leave, but finds herself locked in the locker room. Amanda kidnaps her and takes her to Jigsaw's new lair.

Once conscious, Lynn finds herself tied to a wheelchair. Amanda enters and Lynn is wheeled to Jigsaw, John Kramer, who is resting in a makeshift hospital room. Jigsaw asks Lynn how long he has to live, given his current condition, and the medical files they show her speaking of his inoperable brain tumor. Lynn replies that it is not a simple answer, eventually confessing that he does not have long. Jigsaw then says that he wants to play a game. Amanda equips Lynn with a bulky collar surrounded by explosive shells. The hammers behind each shell are clicked back by Amanda, who explains the situation at hand. The collar contraption is linked with Jigsaw's heart rate monitor. If Jigsaw flatlines, or she strays too far from him (or tries to remove the collar herself), the shells will explode, killing her. It is explained that another man is also being tested, and if he completes his tests before Jigsaw dies, she is free to go.

This man is Jeff Reinhart (Angus Macfadyen), who wakes in a wooden crate suspended by a forklift. He finds a tape recorder and it tells him that he is still consumed with hatred for those involved in his son Dylan's (Stefan Georgiou) death. The tape also tells him that he must suffer and forgive in order to pass his tests and escape. His final test will be confronting the man responsible for the loss of his child. In two hours, the doors will lock and seal him inside forever. Jeff quickly breaks free and falls to the ground. In a flashback sequence, his rage is explored. It shows Jeff as he practices in front of a mirror what he would say to his son's killer, brandishing a gun. The clearly drunk Jeff then notices a stuffed animal missing and goes to his daughter's room and asks where it is. Jeff sees that she is hiding what he is looking for because she was afraid to sleep alone, and it is revealed that the stuffed animal once belonged to Dylan. He tells her to never take things from her brother's room before placing the toy back in its place. Moments later, Amanda captures Jeff. In the current time, Jeff finds an open box containing a piece of paper with the words "Open the door, Jeff." typed on it. Along with it is a partially ripped photograph (showing himself) and a key.

Amanda watches all of this on television monitors as Lynn tends to Jigsaw. She comes to the room and tells Jigsaw that the test subject is awake and the game has begun. Lynn explains that Jigsaw has a brain herniation and his only hope is to get care from a hospital, but Amanda won't permit leaving. Jigsaw then vomits and begins to have a seizure and Lynn rushes into action, with Amanda assisting. She manages to stabilize him, as a very distraught Amanda leaves the room. Amanda still will not permit a hospital visit, and asks for the tools needed to fix the hernia. Lynn tells her she'll need anesthesia and a power drill.

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Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) and Danica (Debra Lynne McCabe) in the ice shower trap.

Jeff, elsewhere, enters a nearby room with "FACE YOUR FEARS" painted on the door. The room is a freezer, and in the middle is where Danica Scott (Debra McCabe) is shown hanging by her arms in a walk-in freezer, where two vertical poles spray her naked body with cold water. In her tape, it is revealed that Danica was the one witness to the death of Dylan, and she fled the scene, giving Jeff the choice to save her or let her freeze to death. In this trap, behind freezing cold pipes, there is a key that Jeff can reach if he gets close enough to them. By doing this, however, his skin sticks to the pipe and he has to rip it off. Ultimately, Danica freezes to death before Jeff can save her; her upper body and chains are completely frozen. Jeff initially tries to get the lock, but it is also frozen over. He grudgingly leaves the room and removes his icy jacket. He finds another box nearby. Written on this paper is "One bullet will end it all." Inside, along with a single bullet, is another piece of the original photograph, this time showing his son.

Back inside Jigsaw's warehouse, Lynn searches for tools to help in the operation, and briefly confronts Amanda. Lynn has thoughts of killing her and escaping, but Amanda's words dissuade her from even thinking of trying it. Then, in a flashback scene, Jigsaw is shown painting the puppet Billy shortly before placing Amanda into her reverse bear trap. This is shown amidst scenes of her gradual escape. Amanda is then shown in her apartment after the ordeal, where Jigsaw offers her a new life. In present time, Amanda asks Jigsaw the reason he chose Lynn, if it was because she was 'the best'. Jigsaw replies that was one of the reasons.

Elsewhere, Jeff walks down a hall and sees Billy the puppet, arranged in the same way as to how Dylan was killed: Crumpled up and tangled in a tricycle. Upon entering a room marked "TIME TO LET GO," Jeff hears the voice of a man screaming for help. He climbs up a staircase to see a man pinned to the bottom of a silo by a metal collar around his neck. As he screams for help, Jeff plays the tape recorder hanging from the ceiling. Jigsaw's voice tells him that when the judge presiding over his son's murder trial sentenced the murderer so lightly, his soul never recovered. He now has the power to sentence the man's soul straight to hell, or he can choose to forgive. The man inside the silo is that very same judge. In order to get the next key, Jeff must destroy all of his son's possessions in an incinerator down at the base of the silo. As the tape player ends, a series of large, interlocking saws connected to the silo begin to whirl and buzz. A conveyor-like bar turns on, one of its hooks showing a dead, maggot-filled pig. The pig is dropped onto the saw blades and ground up, the liquefied results expelled into the silo, splashing over Judge Halden. Jeff screams at the judge over only sentencing the killer to six months, who in turn pleads with Jeff not to become a murderer himself. Jeff climbs back down and faces the incinerator. After expressing his anger and silencing the judge, he finally hits the button and watches his son's possessions burn. During this time, many more pigs are dropped upon the judge. Jeff is able to retrieve the key and climbs into the silo, narrowly freeing the judge before he could be completely submerged.

In the warehouse, Lynn begins to operate on Jigsaw under local anesthetic. She uses a power drill with tape on the drill bit (assumedly to judge distance to the brain matter) and then uses a bone saw to cut open a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure the tumor is causing. Jigsaw's heart rate begins to decrease, and he hallucinates, having flashbacks of walking in a sunny park with a blond curly-haired woman - his ex-girlfriend Jill, from the Saw: Rebirth comic,- while Amanda screams hysterically. Also present in Jigsaw's hallucination is one of his future accomplices and then victims, Obi, who is walking down the park and passes by John and Jill.

Jigsaw soon stabilizes and Amanda watches as he holds Lynn's arm and then says he loves her, still momentarily stuck in his hallucination. Jealous, Amanda leaves, a flashback showing her agreeing to give up every cell in her body for John. The flashback reveals that she kidnapped Adam prior to the events of Saw I. In the present time, Amanda, stricken with grief, cuts herself on the thigh, a new addition to numerous scars assumed to be from the same practice before. Lynn, in the other room, puts on her wedding ring again and cleans herself up. Amanda enters and hugs John, only to be scolded by Lynn for touching him. Amanda confronts Lynn, about to brandish a gun, but John interferes and tells Amanda to leave. Once she leaves, he apologizes for Amanda's behavior, stating that her emotional nature is her weakness.

In a flashback sequence, Amanda is shown returning to the bathroom where Adam is locked with the dead body of Zep. She sets her flashlight down and goes up to him, slowly waking him up and telling him that she's going to help him. She then wraps a plastic bag around his face while telling him to breathe, then begins to break down and cry as Adam finally dies.

Back at the warehouse, Jeff and Judge Halden explore more and find a box with another piece of the photograph, this time with Jeff's daughter depicted, along with a gun magazine and a card reading "One step closer to revenge." They then enter a room with "HERE'S YOUR CHANCE" painted on the door. 'The Rack' (aka Twisting Crucifix) is in the center of the room, where the next victim is bound. As Jeff plays his tape, Jigsaw's voice reveals that the man is Tim Young, the one who hit and killed Jeff's son. Jigsaw states that this trap is a favorite of his. He implores Jeff to realize that Timothy's guilt over Dylan's death equals his grief, and to see him as a human being. Tim's head, arms, and legs are attached to the metal machine in the shape of a cross, each end able to twist 360 degrees taking Tim along for the ride. The key to unlocking the trap is set in a long clear box nearby, strung up on a chain that is connected to the trigger of a shotgun. Jeff must take a bullet to save the man who killed his son. Jeff is crazed and hesitant at first, briefly making insight to the fact that he had wished to kill Tim for 3 years, and whether this really does make him a murderer, but he pushes his demons aside and tries to get the key off the chain. He realizes that the key can be removed without pulling the string by unscrewing the ring that the key is attached to. When he removes the key he lets go of the string which ends up triggering the shotgun. It narrowly misses him and instead hits Judge Halden in the face - killing him. Tim screams of pain can be heard during the ordeal, the rack twisting his arms and legs and snapping his bones. Jeff frantically searches for the place to put the key, but runs out of time as the rack twists Tim's head 180 degrees, snapping his neck as Jeff watches Tim's horrified fashion and exclaims he has forgiven the man who killed his son and cursing the man behind these actions.

Meanwhile, in the makeshift medical room, Jigsaw has a brief conversation about Lynn's family and how she abandoned it. During the conversation, he reveals that he despises murderers, and also quotes the film's tagline, "Suffering? You haven't seen anything yet." Amanda shows up to see Jigsaw holding Lynn's hand, and Jigsaw tells her to leave. She does, in a jealous rage, returning quickly with her gun to reveal that Jeff passed the third test. Jigsaw tells Amanda to release Lynn, but she refuses, cocking her gun and pointing it at Lynn. He attempts to calm her, claiming she would not be following the rules, but Amanda refuses to listen. Jigsaw begs her to listen and says Lynn is far more important than she knows. Amanda feels betrayed by her mentor and lashes out at him, as he condemns her for her past crimes, where she killed people rather than give them a chance to leave alive. Jigsaw forgave her for all of this, and cleaned up her mistakes. Amanda eventually admits she is a murderer, and flashes back to her confrontation with Eric Matthews.

In the flashback, Eric has opened the door to his prison and is hobbling down the hallways. Amanda is still around, emotional and distraught, but quickly realizes Eric is out of the room. Eric creeps up on Amanda from behind a corner wall, and brutally attacks her with a lead pipe, slamming her face into the wall and demanding where his son Daniel is, calling her a 'fucked-up junkie bitch' in the process. Amanda refuses to tell him anything, kicking out his broken ankle and stumbling away. Eric recoils in pain and screams down the halls, calling her a 'bitch,' telling her that she is nothing, and that she is no Jigsaw. While he screams and taunts her, she stands up and gets a stone cold expression on her face. Jigsaw states that Amanda left Eric for dead and that Jigsaw cleaned up her mistakes. Since Jigsaw is against personally killing his victims, it's assumed that Jigsaw let him go.

Back at the warehouse, Jeff discovers a gun and inserts the magazine he found previously, before continuing down the corridors toward the exit. Jigsaw and Amanda continue to argue as Jeff arrives in the immediate area. Lynn goes to embrace him, and a noticeably distraught Amanda shoots her in the back. Lynn collapses in Jeff's arms. Jeff immediately raises his gun and shoots Amanda in the neck. Amanda recoils, wide-eyed with surprise, appearing to have not known Jeff received a gun. Jigsaw stares at her and reveals his true plan all along: Amanda was the one being tested. Lynn and Jeff were actually married (Lynn had been cheating on Jeff with Chris earlier in the movie), and he was the one who set up the boxes in the corridors for Jeff's tests. In his desperation to make her his true apprentice, after all the injustices she had committed with her murders, he gave her one last chance. He also claims that all the "games" that Amanda had set up were impossible to survive, referring to Troy's welded room and Kerry's torso device. By disobeying the rules and shooting Lynn, she had failed. Amanda can only listen to him with her wound bleeding, before collapsing and apparently dying. Jigsaw then utters the words "Game over."

A few feet away, Jeff has set Lynn against the wall. He initially points the gun at Jigsaw, who tells Jeff he can't kill him. Jeff, clicks the trigger once and goes back to his wife, who is starting to speak again. Jigsaw tells him she is dying, and to stand and face him. If he co-operates, he can call an ambulance to arrive in four minutes. Jigsaw proposes one final test. On a nearby table, there are various tools about that Jeff can use to exact his revenge on Jigsaw, or he can forgive him for the pain he's caused Jeff and Lynn. "Live or Die," Jigsaw says, "make our choice." Jeff claims he forgives him, but then brandishes a circular power saw. Jigsaw smiles, while Lynn desperately tries to tell Jeff to stop, but she can hardly speak. Jeff slices Jigsaw's throat open, once again proclaiming "I forgive you."

Jigsaw begins to flatline and reveals a tape recorder in his right hand, playing it. The tape reveals that Jigsaw himself was the final test. For as he said earlier, Jigsaw was the man responsible for the loss of Jeff's child: His daughter. Only he knows where Jeff and Lynn's daughter is, and she is running out of air. By killing him, Jeff has failed the final test, and learned nothing in his ordeal, or the location of his daughter. For living a life consumed by vengeance and hatred, he must now be punished. Lynn's collar light starts to flash red. The doors of the warehouse all latch shut (seemingly also connected to Jigsaw's heart rate). Jigsaw flatlines, causing the collar to go off, blowing Lynn's face away and killing her instantly. The tape reveals that Jeff must play one final "game" if he is to save his daughter. A montage of imagery compiled from all three films flashes by as Jigsaw finally dies. Jeff is left screaming in terror beside his wife's corpse inside the sealed warehouse.

Template:Endspoiler

Promotion

Taglines

• Suffering? You haven't seen anything yet...
• This year, he's pulling out all the stops.
• Legends never die.

A scene from Saw III was going to be shown when the action/thriller film Crank opened in theaters on September 1. However, the MPAA did not allow the preview, due to the scene's reportedly large amount of gore. For similar reasons, an early teaser trailer for the movie was removed from the official Saw III site.

The next trailer released featured flashbacks of Jigsaw attaching the "reverse bear trap" to Amanda and applying his makeup for posing as the corpse in the bathroom from Saw I.

Around 1,000 posters were made and were sold for $20 each in support of Saw III. All 1,000 posters were sold out hours after they went on sale. The posters were made with a small amount of Tobin Bell's blood (mixed with the printing ink). One such poster was also signed by the entire cast and crew of Saw III, and was auctioned off. All the proceeds from the auctioned poster will go to the Red Cross.

At Spike TV's Scream Awards on October 10, 2006, Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith appeared on stage with director Darren Lynn Bousman. Smith pinned Bousman to a chair, saying "Payback's a bitch," while Bell staged sawing off the top of Bousman's head. Smith then found a blood-saturated piece of film on his brain. This led to a "World Premiere" trailer featuring the plight of Troy in the Body Chains trap.

In a promotional video featured on MySpace (with similar versions made for YouTube and Break.com), Billy, Jigsaw's puppet, addresses the viewer in the same fashion as in the videos in the film. He states, "Hello. Are you watching me on MySpace? Good. I'd like to play a game with you. Up until now you've...just sat there as a voyeur, watching other people in their videos without care about who that person is. Well, what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Let's find out. Right now you are being watched. If you forget for one second that you're being watched, you will lose. Your only way out is to understand these numbers: 1, 0, 2, 7, 0, 6. Find the meaning and you will live. Just remember; knowledge changes everything." The numbers represent the release date of the film, October 27, 2006.

The original cut of the movie ran for over three hours, the only scene that has been confirmed to be cut out was a brutal fight scene between Amanda (Shawnee Smith) and Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), as it was shown being filmed on Much on Demand. There was also reference in an interview with Bousman of a scene that was not shown Jigsaw questioning if he was correct in his goal: He begins to question because he's near the very end, maybe this wasn't right. Maybe none of this really worked. Maybe he is a murderer. Maybe he is a killer....For the first time, we actually see him break down and cry. Imagine your entire life's work. You're on your deathbed. You know there's nothing else you can do and here's how you'll be remembered: as a killer, as a murderer. Not as someone who helped people. Not as someone who changed lives. Someone who took away lives. The one thing he didn't want to be and, as he's on his deathbed, he's realizing this.[1]

Response

As with its predecessors, the film has gained a positive response from movie-goers, but mixed reviews by critics. "Saw III is the sickest, most brilliant, most twisted, most clever and most emotional Saw yet," and, "has the strongest acting [in the Saw franchise] to date," claims Fred Topel of CanMag.com. Other critics, such as Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times has scolded the film not for "the creativity of the bloodletting but the bleak view of human nature, specifically our talent for ruining the present to avenge the past." "Hardcore horror geeks will love the extreme nature of the bloodletting here, calculated to torture an audience almost as much as those suffering on film," says John Monaghan of the Detroit Free Press.

At screenings in the United Kingdom three people were reported to have fainted at separate movie theatres due to the film's content. At screenings in Australia, people have walked out of the movie in distress and several people have fainted resulting in ambulances being required.

Box office

Playing in 3,167 theaters Saw III grossed a total of $33,610,391 on its opening weekend. With a production budget of $10 million , the film is already considered a box office success. As of November 13th, Saw 3 has totalled $70,770,007 domestically while earning a Worldwide total of $100,770,007.

DVD

Davisdvd.com has stated that the DVD for Saw III will arrive on the 23rd of January, 2007. There is no word yet on what special features will be available. "We were informed that Lionsgate Home Entertainment has slated the Saw III (review) DVD for a January 23rd release. Details forthcoming."

Saw IV

On Monday, October 30, 2006, Lions Gate Entertainment announced plans to produce another sequel for a release on October 26, 2007. Tobin Bell, who played Jigsaw in the first three films, will appear in the film.. Allegedley, according to imdb.com (http://imdb.com/title/tt0890870/) Jessica Alba and Goran Visnjic will have a starring role in the up and coming film. Also from imdb Saw IV is set to be a musical. However, there has been much debate amoungst fans of the francise and this piece of infromation.

Soundtrack

1. All That Remains – "This Calling"
2. Static X – "No Submission"
3. Slayer – "Eyes Of The Insane"
4. Lamb Of God – "Walk With Me In Hell"
5. Helmet – "Monochrome"
6. Disturbed – "Guarded"
7. Blue October – " Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek"
8. Drowning Pool – "No More"
9. Avenged Sevenfold – "Burn It Down"
10. Eighteen Visions – "Your Nightmare"
11. Opiate For The Masses – "Dead Underground"
12. Bullet for My Valentine – "Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do)"
13. Ministry – "Fear Is Big Business"
14. Mastodon – "The Wolf Is Loose"
15. Hydrovibe Featuring Shawnee Smith – "Killer Inside"
16. Hourcast – "Sakkara"
17. Meshuggah – "Shed"
18. The SmashUp - "Effigy"
19. Ghost Machine - "Siesta Loca"
20. Charlie Clouser - "Shithole Theme"

See also

• Twist ending

External links

• Official Website
• Saw IV News
• Saw Trilogy
• House of Jigsaw
• Comic-Con Interview with Cast and Crew at Dread Central
• Saw III Teaser Trailer No. 2 at Yahoo! Movies
• Saw III at the Internet Movie Database
• Saw 3 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Film clips and behind the scenes footage
• More About the Movie and a Review by Michael T. Bannon
• [2]