SAW WEEK ON IHDB
"SAW 3D: THE FINAL CHAPTER"
released on October 29th, 2010
released on October 29th, 2010
For IHdb's review of the remaining films in the Saw franchise - as well as video extras, trailers, and much, much more - be sure to Follow Us on our Facebook Page during our exclusive Saw Week on IHdb!
Two men, Brad and Ryan, awaken in a metropolitan storefront window, bound at the wrists to opposite sides of a worktable with a circular saw in front of each of them. Their mutual lover, Dina, is suspended above a third saw. As the scene draws attention and police arrive, a puppet informs the men that they can kill each other or let Dina die. They initially fight each other, during which Brad is cut, but ultimately choose to allow Dina to die instead.
Matt Gibson, an internal affairs detective at Mark Hoffman's precinct, is met by Jill Tuck, who incriminates Hoffman in exchange for protection and immunity from prosecution. Gibson, who has distrusted Hoffman ever since Hoffman saved his life by gunning down a homeless man, agrees to her terms. Meanwhile, Hoffman abducts a skinhead gang - Dan, Evan, Jake and Kara - and places them in a trap that kills them all, leaving the reverse bear trap at the scene to incriminate Jill, who is put into protective custody. Hoffman then sends Gibson videos with cryptic clues to the location of a new game, offering to end the games if Jill is given to him.
Matt Gibson, an internal affairs detective at Mark Hoffman's precinct, is met by Jill Tuck, who incriminates Hoffman in exchange for protection and immunity from prosecution. Gibson, who has distrusted Hoffman ever since Hoffman saved his life by gunning down a homeless man, agrees to her terms. Meanwhile, Hoffman abducts a skinhead gang - Dan, Evan, Jake and Kara - and places them in a trap that kills them all, leaving the reverse bear trap at the scene to incriminate Jill, who is put into protective custody. Hoffman then sends Gibson videos with cryptic clues to the location of a new game, offering to end the games if Jill is given to him.
At that moment, Bobby Dagen - a self-help guru who achieved fame and fortune by falsifying his own Jigsaw survival story - awakens in a cage in an asylum and is told that his wife Joyce will die if he doesn't save her within one hour. Joyce is chained at the neck to a steel platform that gradually pulls her down as she watches Dagen's progress. After he escapes the cage, which dangles over a floor of spikes, he begins searching for Joyce. Along the way, he finds Nina, his publicist, in a fish hook trap; Suzanne, his lawyer, in a piercing wheel; and Cale McNamara, his best friend and co-conspirator, in a hanging trap. All three are in separate traps representing the three wise monkeys and are killed despite his efforts to save them. After he removes his upper wisdom teeth to obtain the combination for a security door, Dagen finds Joyce and is forced to reenact the trap he claimed to survive: he must drive hooks through his pectoral muscles and hoist himself up to the ceiling to deactivate her trap. He fails, and is forced to watch as a brazen bull capsule closes around Joyce and incinerates her.
Gibson eventually discovers the game's location and sends a SWAT team, who are sealed in another room and killed by toxic gas. Simultaneously, he and two officers infiltrate Hoffman's command center in the junkyard, where they find Dan's corpse sat in front of several monitors connected to the police headquarters security cameras. He sees Hoffman brought into the morgue in a body bag and tries to warn Palmer, but is killed by an automatic turret gun along with his men. Hoffman kills Dr. Heffner, Palmer, and everyone else in his path to Jill, who briefly escapes before she is caught and knocked unconscious. He straps her to a chair and locks a reverse bear trap to her head; she awakens as the timer starts and is killed when the trap activates, tearing apart her face. With Jill and the rest of the police force hunting him now dead, Hoffman believes he is now safe - but even in death, John Kramer puts Hoffman to one last final test with the help of a previously unknown Jigsaw apprentice!
Jigsaw: Hello Dr. Gordon. You are perhaps my greatest asset. Without you, my work over the last few years would not have been possible. That having been said I have a request. Watch over Jill, and should anything happen to her, I want you to act immediately on my behalf. In return for that, I will keep no more secrets from you. I've shown you a lot of places, but there is one that will be perhaps the most meaningful to you.
Top: Having been left for dead, the sadistic Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) tracks (above) Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) down!
Saw VII was originally intended by the series writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, to be 2 movies, Saw: The Final Chapter: Parts 1 & 2 with Cary Elwes' return being the big finale of Part 1 and then Chapter 2 would tie everything up. After Saw VI (2009) didn't do well at the box office Lionsgate decided that the two parts would be turned into a single film (although it has been hinted at by the producers and writers that lost elements from the original two-part script will be used in future sequels or prequels whenever Lionsgate decides to revive the franchise). On January 25, 2010, news hit that director David Hackl had officially been let go from the film and his replacement was to be series veteran Kevin Greutert, who directed Saw VI and served as editor on all the previous Saw installments. This move was due to the fact that Greutert had signed to direct Saw VII's main competition, Paranormal Activity 2 (2010), which was to be released on the same day. Fearing low box office grosses, Lionsgate enforced Greutert's contractual obligation to the franchise. Greutert then arrived in Toronto on January 28, 2010, to read the script and visit the set, beginning work on the film the very next day. Greutert, along with writers Dunstan and Melton, attempted a comprehensive rewrite of the script in the scant two-weeks before production was to commence.
Series stars Costas Mandylor and Betsy Russell were announced as returning for the final sequel as Detective Mark Hoffman and Jill Tuck, as well as Tobin Bell as John Kramer, aka Jigsaw - who despite receiving top billing and portraying the main villain, Bell only has roughly three minutes of screen time in this film! The producers had frequently approached Cary Elwes about reprising his role of Dr Gordon from the first movie but Elwes always insisted that he would only return for the final entry in the series and on February 22, 2010, Cary Elwes was listed on the Toronto Film & Television's official list of personnel website for Saw 3D. But on March 8 his name along with other cast members were removed from the list, in an attempt to hide the return of his character was returning to the Saw universe, until Lionsgate confirmed his reprisal of the role of Lawrence Gordon, the following month.
Newcomers to series was Sean Patrick Flannery as opportunist Bobby Dagen, and Gina Holden as his wife Joyce. Flannery had been reportedly keen to take part in the film as he was a big fan of the franchise. Joining them were actors, Dean Armstrong, Rebecca Marshall, and Naomi Snieckus as Dagen's co-conspirators Cale, Suzanne and Nina, with Chad Donella also appearing as Internal Affairs Detective Mike Gibson. Gabby West, who won the second season of Scream Queens, plays Kara in the film, and Linkin Park lead vocalist Chester Bennington making a cameo appearance as Evan, a white power skinhead. Bennington met with an acting coach to prepare for his role, stating later, "It was actually a little more difficult than I expected because it took a lot for me to figure out how to portray this guy and what exactly his motives were going to be throughout. I thought maybe I was overthinking it, and I met with this really great acting coach who helped me walk through and make sense of the, 'Motivation' ".
Series stars Costas Mandylor and Betsy Russell were announced as returning for the final sequel as Detective Mark Hoffman and Jill Tuck, as well as Tobin Bell as John Kramer, aka Jigsaw - who despite receiving top billing and portraying the main villain, Bell only has roughly three minutes of screen time in this film! The producers had frequently approached Cary Elwes about reprising his role of Dr Gordon from the first movie but Elwes always insisted that he would only return for the final entry in the series and on February 22, 2010, Cary Elwes was listed on the Toronto Film & Television's official list of personnel website for Saw 3D. But on March 8 his name along with other cast members were removed from the list, in an attempt to hide the return of his character was returning to the Saw universe, until Lionsgate confirmed his reprisal of the role of Lawrence Gordon, the following month.
Newcomers to series was Sean Patrick Flannery as opportunist Bobby Dagen, and Gina Holden as his wife Joyce. Flannery had been reportedly keen to take part in the film as he was a big fan of the franchise. Joining them were actors, Dean Armstrong, Rebecca Marshall, and Naomi Snieckus as Dagen's co-conspirators Cale, Suzanne and Nina, with Chad Donella also appearing as Internal Affairs Detective Mike Gibson. Gabby West, who won the second season of Scream Queens, plays Kara in the film, and Linkin Park lead vocalist Chester Bennington making a cameo appearance as Evan, a white power skinhead. Bennington met with an acting coach to prepare for his role, stating later, "It was actually a little more difficult than I expected because it took a lot for me to figure out how to portray this guy and what exactly his motives were going to be throughout. I thought maybe I was overthinking it, and I met with this really great acting coach who helped me walk through and make sense of the, 'Motivation' ".
TRIVIA: Among those attending Bobby Dagen's victim support meeting, are Mallick (the junkie from Saw V), Simone (the predatory lender from Saw VI), and Addy (the diabetic from Saw VI) can be seen in Bobby's victim support meeting.
Top and Above: Opportunist self-help guru, Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flannery) is forced to play the latest game to save his wife, Joyce (Gina Holden)
Saw 3D was shot entirely in RealD 3D using the SI-3D digital camera system; rather than filming on set traditionally and later transferring the footage to 3D. Before choosing 3D, Burg and others viewed a minute of the original Saw film rendered in 3D and were pleased, which led to them choosing 3D for the seventh film, with all the subsequent traps being designed specially to take advantage of the 3D process. Given the cost of filming in 3D, Greutert said the budget was $17 million (the most expensive of the series), with principal photography beginning on February 8, 2010 in Toronto. Due to the slow 3D process, filming was expected to take 9 weeks as opposed to the usual 6 weeks for previous installments, with Mandylor calling the 3D process "more tedious and longer". Flannery later described the 3D aspect as being "[not] shot in 3D so that you can, per se, see blood coming directly at you. It's in 3D for the texture and the depth, for the architecture, to get a sense that you're in the scene but there's no 'we want to see blood coming at the lens' it's nothing like that. But I think we made a good movie."
Filming of the trap scenes, which were done last, began in March. There is one "trap" scene in the film that producers would not allow in previous Saw films that they described as "too violent", "too disgusting", and "just wrong". Melton later confirmed that was the Garage Trap, which involved a car and sets off a "chain reaction" with other characters. Contestant winner West who was involved in the scene, later told VH1, "They molded my entire face, and basically my entire upper body after my belly button. They put layers and layers of different materials on you and you have two straws in your nose so you can breathe. It was so scary! They put so much of it on, you can't see and they put it in your ears so you can barely hear anything. That was part of the prep for the film, which was really cool, to have a dummy made of yourself. But scary." And for the first time in Saw history, the crew left the sound stage and filmed a trap scene outdoors on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - the last day of filming. This was for Saw VII's opening trap scene, which was filmed at Metro Hall in Toronto, just outside Roy Thomson Hall, requiring over 400 extras.
Filming of the trap scenes, which were done last, began in March. There is one "trap" scene in the film that producers would not allow in previous Saw films that they described as "too violent", "too disgusting", and "just wrong". Melton later confirmed that was the Garage Trap, which involved a car and sets off a "chain reaction" with other characters. Contestant winner West who was involved in the scene, later told VH1, "They molded my entire face, and basically my entire upper body after my belly button. They put layers and layers of different materials on you and you have two straws in your nose so you can breathe. It was so scary! They put so much of it on, you can't see and they put it in your ears so you can barely hear anything. That was part of the prep for the film, which was really cool, to have a dummy made of yourself. But scary." And for the first time in Saw history, the crew left the sound stage and filmed a trap scene outdoors on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - the last day of filming. This was for Saw VII's opening trap scene, which was filmed at Metro Hall in Toronto, just outside Roy Thomson Hall, requiring over 400 extras.
Above: Acting on John Kramer's (Tobin Bell) final instructions, Dr Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) - now Jigsaw's disciple - extracts John's revenge on Hoffman!
On July 8, 2010, in some press materials for San Diego Comic-Con, the
film was referred to as Saw 3D: The Traps Come Alive, which led to the
media assuming it was the final name. However, the following day,
producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules said that "The Traps Come Alive" was
simply a tagline that had been misinterpreted as part of the title.
Koules said that if they included the seventh Roman numeral followed by
"3D" (Saw VII 3D), it would have been "cumbersome" and not made the
impact they wanted. He explained, "It was such a process in 3D, so much
hard work was put in. Saw VII 3D is too much. This is like a new movie.
[...]"
Saw VII was originally scheduled to be released on October 22, 2010, but in July 2010, three months prior to release, the date was pushed back to October 29. Keeping with the tradition that started with the release of Saw IV, Saw 3D was released a day earlier than the US release in Australia, though the New Zealand release was not released until March 3, 2011.
Saw 3D's preview screenings on October 28, 2010 in 2,000 locations and made $1.7 million, before it's wider release the next day in 2,808 locations playing on 3,500 screens, the second smallest release behind the first Saw. The film earned $8,976,000 on its opening day, taking the number one spot from Paranormal Activity 2, and grossed $22,530,123 its opening Halloween weekend, with 92% of tickets coming from more than 2,100 3D-equipped locations. Saw 3D closed on December 2, 2010, after 35 days of release in the United States and Canada, with a respectable gross over $45 million, with another $90 million at the foreign box office, making Saw 3D one of the more successful movies in the franchise.
Saw VII was originally scheduled to be released on October 22, 2010, but in July 2010, three months prior to release, the date was pushed back to October 29. Keeping with the tradition that started with the release of Saw IV, Saw 3D was released a day earlier than the US release in Australia, though the New Zealand release was not released until March 3, 2011.
Saw 3D's preview screenings on October 28, 2010 in 2,000 locations and made $1.7 million, before it's wider release the next day in 2,808 locations playing on 3,500 screens, the second smallest release behind the first Saw. The film earned $8,976,000 on its opening day, taking the number one spot from Paranormal Activity 2, and grossed $22,530,123 its opening Halloween weekend, with 92% of tickets coming from more than 2,100 3D-equipped locations. Saw 3D closed on December 2, 2010, after 35 days of release in the United States and Canada, with a respectable gross over $45 million, with another $90 million at the foreign box office, making Saw 3D one of the more successful movies in the franchise.
TRIVIA: The only film series in history to have its first seven films released in consecutive years from 2004 to 2010. That record was originally held by the Police Academy series, whose first six films were released consecutively from 1984 to 1989.
Top and Above: Director Kevin Greutert on set.
Despite the box office response, Saw 3D was also has the poorest critical rating of the series, with review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes rating the film at just 9%, with the site's consensus reading, "Sloppily filmed, poorly acted, and illogically plotted, Saw 3D leaves viewers trapped in the most lackluster installment of the series." Rob Nelson of Variety gave the film a negative review. He called the film "relentlessly repugnant" that would please fans, but offer no surprise. He went on to say, "Apart from these limb-pulling setpieces, tech credits appear fairly shoddy, as do any 3D effects that don't include flying viscera. The editing relies on lazy flashbacks, while the dialogue remains as horrific as the killings." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mixed review. He said Saw 3D is "consistent both stylistically and thematically with previous editions", but said most of the film's traps lack the "Rube Goldberg-style cleverness that marked the series". Scheck went on to say that it was "unfortunate" the creators killed Bell's character so early in the series and called Mandylor's character (Hoffman) an "exceedingly bland stand-in". He called the visual impact of the 3D "negligible". Alan Jones of the Radio Times gave the film four out of five stars saying, "though the film initially borders on parody, once the ever-ingenious trapping begins – using fishhooks, superglue, ovens and dental equipment – the chills run on turbo drive right through to the greatest hits flashback finale". He implied that the "shock scenarios" were borrowed from sources such as, A Man Called Horse and the work of Lucio Fulci. Jones said the 3D did not add to the experience saying "the CGI blood splatter something of a distraction to the almost Shakespearean crescendo of anguish and carnage".
Although Saw 3D was intended to be the finale for the film series, it was reported in February 2016 that an eighth film titled Saw: Legacy was being developed. The report stated that Legacy would be written by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, with an expected release date of October 17, 2017, with Australian filmmakers, the Spierig Brothers (Daybreakers and Predestination) to be directing. Series composer Charlie Clouser was also announced to return, and described Legacy as a "re-invention" of the franchise that will establish a new story-line and new characters.
For IHdb's review of the remaining films in the Saw franchise - as well as video extras, trailers, and much, much more - be sure to Follow Us on our Facebook Page during our exclusive Saw Week on IHdb!
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 9%
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