Bringing some much-needed thoughtfulness to a rather grim genre, the first two Saw films managed to combine bloodletting to chill the spine and philosophical ideas to intrigue the mind. Saw III continues this tradition and ends the trilogy on possibly the darkest note of all the films. However, with its quest to delve deeper into its own mythology, this latest offering -- as dementedly entertaining as it is -- runs the risk of ruining the shock and fun of the first two movies. 

Oh, and for those of you who've yet to see Saw II, you'd better turn back now, because I'm about to head deep into Spoiler Country...

When viewers last left Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), a man who has taken it upon himself to ensnare individuals in vicious traps in order to test their desire to live, he had taken upon an apprentice of sorts, a former victim named Amanda (Shawnee Smith). With terminal cancer eating away at him day after day, Jigsaw is now on his deathbed and mostly leaves the teaching of twisted life lessons to his new helper. But being the sickeningly clever madman that he is, Jigsaw's not going to go out with a whimper.

After kidnapping depressed doctor Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), Jigsaw and Amanda reveal their most disturbing test of a victim's will yet: forcing Jeff (Angus Macfadyen), a man still mourning the death of his son, to confront his personal demons and put him in control of deciding the fates of those who let his son's killer go free. The catch? It's up to Lynn to keep a fast-fading Jigsaw alive long enough not only for him to view his latest macabre masterwork but also to save her own life.

Saw III is best described as a movie teeming with genuine creepiness and intrigue while valiantly fighting a mean case of sequelitis. On the upswing, the movie's creative team has come up with a number of ghastly traps to equal those of its predecessors, from a nasty little device attached to a victim's ribcage to a particularly icky mechanism that gives "doing the twist" a whole new, homicidal meaning. Saw III definitely doesn't bore when it comes to gore, which is saying quite a bit in an age when people are reacting to Leatherface impaling some poor soul on a chainsaw with about the same level of fervor reserved for when their favorite pop is sold out at a vending machine. This film comes packed with a cold-blooded vibe that doesn't let up, constantly putting viewers at unease and consistently giving them some blood-laced heebie-jeebies like a good horror flick should.

Saw III also gets some decent dramatic mileage from the dilemma of Jigsaw's latest victim, a man who's thought of nothing but vengeance after his son's tragic death and who's suddenly put in control of deciding if those responsible should live or die. It's an interesting twist on the usual Jigsaw M.O., a "player" in the madman's game having to choose another's fate instead of his own.

But alas, despite a nearly-consistent atmosphere of intensity, Saw III ends up falling victim to a trapping or two of its own design. The "keeping Jigsaw alive" element of the story is something that never really sat well with me, and the big plot twist used to explain it away (which isn't a spoiler warning, since the Saw flicks are as synonymous with twist endings as M. Night Shyamalan at this point) comes across as a pretty clunky device lacking in oomph and impact. 

Being the third in a trilogy of films based essentially on the same idea (how far would you go in order to stay alive?), Saw III doesn't cover too much new thematic material. And, in trying to connect this Saw with its brothers plus make things come full circle in terms of story, it verges on ruining the effectiveness of the first two movies by providing revelations and other information about what "really" happened to certain characters, and this detracts from what made these low-budget ditties so scary in the first place.

As far as acting goes, everyone does an average job,  although for a guy who's been told he has two hours to pass through a series of diabolical tests in a warehouse before he's shut in for good, Macfadyen's Jeff seems to take his sweet time in getting around from place to place.

In the end, Saw III works. It's creepy and effective despite its flaws. After three movies, Jigsaw's blades haven't dulled very much at all.

MY RATING: *** (out of ****)

(Released by Lionsgate and rated "R" for strong grisly violence and gore, sequences of terror and torture, nudity and language.)