SAW WEEK ON IHDB

"SAW 3D: THE FINAL CHAPTER" 
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.

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' ".

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.

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.

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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SAW WEEK ON IHDB

"SAW II" released on October 28th, 2005

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!

Informant Michael Marks (Noam Jenkins)awakens in a room with a spike-filled mask locked to his neck, a video tape informs him that in order to unlock the device, he must cut into his eye to obtain the key, which has been sealed behind it. He sets off the timer and finds the scalpel, but cannot bring himself to retrieve the key and is killed after 60 seconds when the mask closes.

At the scene of Marks' game, Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) finds a message for her former partner, Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), and calls him in. Despite not wanting to be involved with the case, already dealing with a divorce and estrangement from his son Daniel (Erik Knudsen), Eric reluctantly joins Kerry and Sergeant Rigg (Lyriq Bent) in leading a SWAT team to the factory which produced the lock from Marks' trap - where they find and apprehend John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the Jigsaw Killer, calmly waiting for them. Weak from cancer, Kramer indicates several computer monitors showing eight people trapped in a house; among them are Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), the only known survivor of a Jigsaw game, and Daniel. Kramer assures Eric that following his own game, simply sitting and chatting with Kramer, will see Daniel returned to him unharmed. At Kerry's urging, Eric agrees in order to buy time for the tech team to arrive and trace the video signal.

The victims in the house - Xavier (Franky G), Laura Hunter (Beverly Marsh), Jonas Singer (Glenn Plummer), Addison Corday (Emmanuelle Vaugier), Obi Tate (Timothy Burd) and Gus Colyard (Tony Nappo) - are informed by Jigsaw's microcassette that a dealy nerve agent is slowly filling up inside and that he has hidden antidotes throughout the house for them to find; told that one is in the room's safe, and a cryptic clue is provided. They search the house for more antidotes after the room lets them out, with no success: Obi, who is revealed by tape to have helped with the abductions, is forced into a furnace to obtain two antidotes inside, but inadvertently activates the trap and is burned to death before the others can save him; In the next room, Xavier throws Amanda into a syringe-filled pit intended for himself, and though she is able to retrieve the key, he is unable to unlock the steel door behind which the antidote sits before the timer expires and he leaves out of frustration. Throughout the game, they discuss connections between them and determine that each has been jailed before; the sole exception is Daniel, who has nonetheless been arrested before.

Meanwhile, Kramer passes the time with both idle and cryptic chat, eventually telling Eric that his survival of a suicide attempt after his diagnosis is the true reason for his games. With the little time left to him, he wants to inspire in others the new appreciation for life he had found. Eric, not interested in any of this, runs out of patience and returns to the monitors. He destroys several of Kramer's documents and sketches at Kerry's suggestion, but fails to provoke Kramer. As the tech team arrives, Kramer reveals the connection between the victims: Eric has framed all of them for various crimes, and Daniel will be in danger if his identity is discovered. Matthew's watches the monitors desperately as one-by-one the occupants of the house are killed in Jigsaw's trap, leaving only Amanda, Xavier and Amanda alive. Losing patience, Eric brutally assaults Kramer and forces him to lead Eric to the house. As Eric rushes to save his son - who by now, his true identity has been learned by Xavier and is now trying to kill him - he has no idea that just as his son's test is about to end, Detective Eric Matthews' test is just about to begin!

Jigsaw: Greetings... and welcome. I trust that you are all wondering where you are. I can assure you that while your location is not important, what these walls offer for your IS important... salvation, if you earn it. 3 hours from now the door to this house will open. Unfortunately, you only have 2 hours to live. Right now, you are breathing in a deadly nerve agent. You've been breathing it since you've arrived here. Those of you familiar with the Tokyo subway attacks will know its devastating effects on the human body. The only way to overcome it and walk out that door is to find an antidote. Several are hidden around this house. One is inside the safe in front of you. You all posses the combination to the safe. Think hard... the numbers are in the back of your mind. The clue to their order can be found "over the rainbow". Once you realize what you all have in common, you will gain a better understanding of why you're here. X marks the spot for that clue, so look carefully. Let the game begin.

Top:   Using a clue found at a Jigsaw crime scene, Detective's Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) and Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) are led to a warehouse where (above) they find John Kramer (Tobin Bell) waiting for them!

With the enormous success of Saw, both critical and at the box office, Lionsgate immediately green lit a sequel, with a planned release for Halloween the following year. But by then, Saw's creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell were already working on their next picture, Dead Silence for Universal Pictures, and were unavailable. At that time, music video director Darren Lynn Bousman had just completed a script for his first film, The Desperate, and was pitching it to studios - who all told him the script was "too Saw-ish"! After trying for years to get The Desperate made but being told repeatedly that it was too violent, finally a German studio eventually approached him with an offer to produce the film for $1 million because they suspected Saw (which was becoming a hit at Sundance) might blow out big and they wanted to capitalize on its success. Just as they were looking for a cinematographer, the American cinematographer David A. Armstrong, who had worked on Saw, arrived on the scene and suggested showing the script to Saw producer Gregg Hoffman. Hoffman read the script and called Bousman wanting to produce The Desperate, but when Hoffman showed the script to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules, the two decided that The Desperate was the starting script they needed for Saw II and two months later, Bousman was flown to Toronto to direct.

With input from Wan, Whannell briefly returned to polish the script to bring it into the Saw universe, but kept the characters, traps and deaths from The Desperate script. Bousman said, "But you could read the script for The Desperate and watch Saw II, and you would not be able to draw a comparison". Wan and Whannell would serve as executive producers on the sequel, with most of the previous film's crew members also returning, including: editor Kevin Greutert, cinematographer Armstrong, and composer Charlie Clouser. Saw II also began the long standing Saw-tradition where 0nly those key cast and crew members who were involved in the film's ending were given the full script; the rest received only the first 88 pages.

Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, and Dina Meyer reprises their roles from the first film - John Kramer aka Jigsaw, Amanda Young, Detective Allison Kerry respectively - and were joined by actor Donnie Wahlberg playing the main protagonist, Detective Eric Matthews (Wahlberg incidentally would also play a detective in Wan's movie Dead Silence). Henry Rollins was originally cast to play the role of the brutal Xavier, but to scheduling conflicts he was replaced with Franky G. in the role. Actors Emmanuelle Vaugier, Glenn Plummer, Beverley Mitchell, Tony Nappo, and Timothy Burd were cast as fellow house-prisoners, Addison Corday, Jonas Singer, Laura Hunter, Gus Colyard, and Obi Tate. Then 17-year old actor Erik Knudsen was also cast as Matthew's rebellious son Daniel, with Lyriq Bent appearing for the first time as Lieutenant Daniel Rigg.

Jigsaw: Hello, Xavier, I want to play a game. It's similar to the game you play as a drug dealer, the game of giving hope to the desperate. I think we can agree that your situation is desperate, so I'm going to offer you hope. By entering this room, you have started a timer on the door in front of you. When the timer runs out the door will be locked forever, locking away the antidote inside it. If you want to find the key, you will have to crawl through the same squalor that your customers have. I'll give you one hint where to find it.
[Xavier and Daniel move a bed frame, revealing a pit full of hypodermic syringes beneath]
Jigsaw: It will be like finding a needle in a haystack
[laughs]

Top:   Trapped inside Jigsaw's deadly house is a previous survivor, Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith);

Above:   Also trapped with her is the brutal Xavier (Franky G),  hooker Addison Corday (Emmanuelle Vaugier) and arsonist Obi Tate (Timothy Burd)

David Hackl, the film's production designer, took three weeks to construct 27 sets on a single sound stage at Toronto's Cinespace Film Studios, with production beginning on May 2, 2005. With a $4 million budget, the production team upgraded Jigsaw's Billy the Puppet with remote-controlled eyes and a servo-driven mouth (the previous puppet was originally created by Wan out of paper towel rolls and papier-mâché!). In Bousman's original script, he came up with an idea whereby a character's hands would get stuck in some sort of vessel and this resulted in the Hand Trap. It proved to be a challenge but after much discussion, Hackl, property master Jim Murray and art director Michele Brady came up with a suitable design. They arranged a glass box suspended by chains from the ceiling which contained a hypodermic needle with the antidote and which had two hand-holes on the underside. As soon as Vaugier's character Addison put her hands into the holes razor blades would close in on her hands and any attempt to withdraw from the trap would cause her to bleed to death. In order for the trap to be used safely, the prop builders made the handcuffs move inside the box and fake blades that would retract from the actress's hands, thus allowing her to slide her hands out.

Before deciding to place Addison in the razor box trap, the creators and writers discussed (on a DVD commentary) that they had originally intended for her to end up in a different trap. Addison would wake up shackled at the wrists to a chair, with razors planted against her wrists to dig into her flesh if she tried to remove her hands. Her tape would talk about her using her looks to survive (implying she is a prostitute), stating that she would have to sacrifice and scar them if she wanted to escape. The only way to release her hands from the razor shackles would be to burn her face against a waffle iron-like grill that was in front of her. After struggling and cutting up her wrists, Addison would then finally slam her face against the grill, releasing her cuffs and letting her go free, but with a horrendously scarred face. The trap was not used, but a variation was used in Saw IV (2007), with the victim - Cecil Adams - having to push their face through two columns of knives. If done successfully, this would release the wrist locks, but leave the victim with a severely lacerated face.

In Saw II's most memorable trap, The Needle Pit, Smith's character Amanda is thrown into a pit of needles to find a key. In order for this to be done safely, four people, over a period of four days, removed the needle tips from syringes and replaced them with fiber optic tips and coating them with Gelatin and a little water make the syringes more movable and slippery. Eventually, they modified a total of 120,000 fake needles. The creators and writers had originally thought of having Amanda be forced to dig through a bathtub full of the syringes, but decided it wouldn't be enough, instead wanting it on a grander scale, and after thinking of the pit in the middle of the room, they intended for Amanda to land up to her neck in the needles as if it were a pool, but realized that it would be impossible for her to sink into such a pool, along with the fact that getting enough needles would have taken too long as it took the production team a long time to get as many needles as they had. While shooting the Needle Pit scene, a handful of real needles fell into the pit thus causing the crew to halt filming and find the needles before filming could commence. Smith was also pregnant during filming, but had kept it a secret from everyone, including the director and producers. Her daughter, however, gave the secret away one day during lunch with Bousman, who was immensely impressed at Smith's dedication to the project under the circumstances.

[last lines]
Amanda: What is the cure for Cancer, Eric? The cure for death itself. The answer is immortality. By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal. So now we find the tables are turned. It is I who will carry on John's work after he dies, and you are my first test subject. Now you are locked away, helpless and alone.
[Appears at door frame]
Amanda: Game Over.
[She slams to door shut]

Top and Above:   The brutal games begin, with Amanda being thrown into the Needle Pit, and Addison caught in the Hand Trap!

Reportedly, "four or five" alternate endings were shot in order to keep the ending a surprise, before production on Saw II wrapped on 25th May. While locking the picture, Bousman and editor Greutert excised an entire subplot from the final cut, which involved Eric Matthews having had an affair with Detective Kerry, which precipitated the end of his marriage and led to the strained relationship between him and Daniel. The only remaining hint of this back-story is when Kerry remarks that she is not going to let Eric lose his son for the second time; implying Matthew's ex-wife won the custody of Daniel during their divorce. With music and sound recording being completed in July and Saw II  locked on July 16, the final film was delivered on 9th September, literally just 8-months after Bousman's script was first read by Hoffman!

Saw II opened with $31.7 million on 3,879 screens across 2,949 theaters, where the three-day Halloween opening weekend set a Lionsgate record. The sequel eventually grossed $87 million in the US and Canada, with a further $60 million worldwide receipts, the film is the highest-grossing film of the Saw series and Lionsgate's fourth highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada, with over $147 million box office gross.

Above:   Debut writer and director, Darren Lynn Bouseman on set with Shawnee Smith

Saw II received generally mixed reviews from critics, who praised the acting, particularly the performances of Bell and Wahlberg, while criticizing the gruesome nature of the story. Robert Koehler of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "cooking up new Rube Goldberg torture contraptions isn't enough to get Saw II out of the shadow of its unnerving predecessor". Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B minus, saying "Saw II is just barely a better B flick than Saw" and that both films are "more clever and revolting than they are actually chilling". He praised Bell's performance as Jigsaw, saying "As the droopy-lidded maniac in the flesh, Tobin Bell is, for all the film's gewgaws, Saw II's sturdiest horror, a Terence Stamp look-alike who calls to mind a seedy General Zod lazily overseeing the universe from his evildoer's lair". Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, calling Saw II a "worthy follow-up to its grisly predecessor". He said the story was "much more focused on an endgame than the original film. There are fewer credibility gaps and there are plenty of reversals to satisfy fans". He criticized the use of numerous flashbacks, saying that it "rob[s] us of the pleasure of actually remembering for ourselves". Empire's Kim Newman gave the film three out of five stars, writing that the film improves upon Saw's "perverse fascination with Seven-style murders and brutally violent puzzles" and that Jigsaw's intellectual games make "Hannibal Lecter look like the compiler of The Sun's quick crossword". He ended his reviews saying, "Morally dubious it may be, but this gory melange of torture, terror and darkly humorous depravity appeals to the sick puppy within us all".

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:   36%

___________________________________

 

SAW WEEK ON IHDB

"SAW III" released on October 27th, 2006

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!

While investigating the brutal aftermath of another Jigsaw crime scene,  Detective's Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) find out that the room's only exit was welded shut, breaking Jigsaw's modus operandi of giving his victims a chance to survive. Kerry, who is guilt-ridden over the disappearance of Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), is abducted later that night and awakens in a harness that is hooked into her ribs. She manages to retrieve the key from a suspended beaker of acid and unlock it before the timer expires, but it tears her rib cage apart anyway, killing her.

Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen), another Jigsaw victim, awakens in a box in an abandoned meatpacking plant and learns from a microcassette recorder that he must undergo tests which will lead him to "the man responsible for the loss of his child". Jeff has become unstable and vengeful in the three years since his son Dylan was killed by a drunk driver, and is now estranged from his wife and neglects his daughter Corbett (Niamh Wilson). Jeff's first test leads him into a meat freezer where he finds Danica Scott (Debra Lynne McCabe), the only witness of Dylan's death, who refused to testify in court; she is naked and chained at the wrists between two poles which begin spraying ice-cold water at random intervals. She manages to convince Jeff to help her, but freezes to death before he can retrieve the key. His second test leads him to a vat, at the bottom of which Judge Halden (Barry Flatman), who gave Dylan's killer six months in jail, is chained at the neck. The vat slowly fills with liquefied pig corpses, but Jeff reluctantly incinerates Dylan's belongings in order to retrieve the key and save Halden. His third test brings him before Timothy Young (Mpho Koaho), Dylan's killer, who is strapped to a machine that will twist his limbs and neck in turn until they break. The key is tied to the trigger of an enclosed shotgun. Jeff eventually tries to free Timothy, but taking the key discharges the shotgun and accidentally kills Halden, and Jeff is unable to stop the machine before Timothy's neck breaks.

Concurrently, John Kramer (Tobin Bell), now bedridden from cancer, has his apprentice Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) abduct brain surgeon Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) from her hospital. She is brought to Kramer and instructed to keep him alive until the other victim has completed his game, fitting an explosive collar around her neck that is linked to Kramer's heart monitor - if Kramer's heart stop or Lynn moves out of range, the collar will explode. During an improvised surgery, in which Lynn removes a piece of Kramer's skull with a power drill to relieve pressure on his brain, he hallucinates about another woman - his ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) and declares his love out loud, distressing Amanda. She leaves, and flashbacks show her time with Kramer, as well as her abduction of Adam (Leigh Whannell), which left her guilt-ridden to the point she gave him a mercy killing out of guilt some time after his game. Amanda returns with the news that Jeff has completed his tests, but refuses to remove Lynn's collar, revealing that she no longer believes in Kramer's philosophy, and has designed her traps simply to kill, including Kerry's, and also intends to kill Lynn. Kramer repeatedly pleads with Amanda to reconsider, warning her that if she kills Lynn, she will be killing herself - ultimately revealing that Jeff is not the only person being tested, but this is also Amanda's game!

TRIVIA:   In the few short months in between completing Saw II and starting Saw III, Shawnee Smith had had a baby. (She was pregnant during the making of the second film.)

Top:   Now bedridden from cancer, John Kramer (Tobin Bell) tasks his apprentice (Above) Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) to run his "games"

Initially, Darren Lynn Bousman, director and co-writer of Saw II, James Wan, director of Saw, and Leigh Whannell, screenwriter on both, turned down the opportunity to work on Saw III. However, when Saw series producer Gregg Hoffman unexpectedly died just after the release of Saw II, Bousman, Wan and Whannell got together to have lunch the day they heard of Hoffman's passing and came to conclusion that Saw III was going to be made with or without them, so they decided to make the film in dedication to Hoffman - naming Costas mandylor's character Detective Mark Hoffman in their friend's honor. Whannell aimed to make Saw III more emotional than the previous entries in the series, describing the plot as essentially a "love story" between Jigsaw and Amanda, "We have Jigsaw, this character who's been so cold and clinical, he's been presented throughout the previous two films as someone who's very much in control. He's more like a reptile than a human being. In Saw III he becomes a human being. You see him crack. His veneer cracks and that was what was most important to us far and above any sort of gimmick or twist". Whannell also answered questions from previous films that were brought up by fans on the official Saw message board. The final shooting draft of the script was written in under a week in Toronto, and, as with the previous films, the ending was only given to the actors who appeared in the final scene at the time it was filmed.

Tobin Bell would again reprise his role of John Kramer aka Jigsaw, with Shawnee Smith also returning as his apprentice Amanda Young. Bell and Smith would actually spent several weeks before filming getting to know each other personally so the relationship between their characters would appear believable and real. Donnie Wahlberg  - who briefly returns as Detective Eric Matthews - went to great lengths to let on that he would not be appearing in the film, even to the extent of issuing a press release. This of course was just a smokescreen to make his appearance in Saw III all the more surprising. In addition to the appearance of Donnie Wahlberg, Leigh Whannell's cameo was also kept a secret. Whannell was uncredited and there was not publicity of any kind about his character Adam appearing in the film. Dina Meyer would also cameo in Saw III as Detective Allison Kerry, although her character was killed off very early in the script.

New cast members included Angus Macfadyen and Bahar Soomekh as tested married couple Jeff and Lynn Denlon. Soomekh had became close with Lionsgate after appearing in their film Crash (2004) and they wanted her in their next big film, but Soomekh wavered over committing to Saw III as she was not a fan of horror movies (she claimed to have nightmares for the first month that she was on set). And director Bousman didn't even meet Macfadyen until the day the actor walked onto the set for his first day of shooting! Saw III also introduced two (initially minor) characters, Mark Hoffman and Jill Tuck - played by Costas Mandylor and Betsy Russell - who would go on to become major characters later on in the series. Lyriq Bent's character Lieutenant Daniel Rigg would also debut in this film.

[last lines]
Jigsaw: Hello, Jeff. I made this tape as an insurance policy, if you will. And if you're listening to it, then it's time to collect. I was your final test of forgiveness and if you're listening to this, then you've failed. Now you must pay the price. The price for living for nothing but vengeance. Now I will give you something to live for. I told you that you couldn't kill me, Jeff, but I didn't tell you why. The answer is simple. I am the person responsible for the loss of your child. I am the only person who knows where your daughter is. She only has a limited supply of air, Jeff, and if you want to get her back, you'll have to play a game.
Jeff: No!
Dr. Lynn Denlon: Jeff!
[Lynn's collar detonates]

Top and Above:   Jigsaw's latest "test subjects",  estranged married couple Lynn and Jeff Denlon (Bahar Soomekh and Angus Macfadyen), still grieving over the loss of the son to a drunk driver

Given a budget of $10 million, more than double Saw II's, principal photography began at Toronto's Cinespace Film Studios on May 8, 2006, with production expected to last 32-days. Amazingly, Bousmann and his crew filmed 40 set-ups in four different locations on the very first day of shooting! Almost all the transitions from one place to another were not made using digital effects; the transitions were shot on the spot. For example, when the camera moves from Troy's crime scene to Kerry being in the bathtub, Meyer had to run, take off all her clothes, and jump into the tub. Bousman described the hardest scene to film was the Pig Scene, explaining that they had to rush and it involved filming "so many moving parts". The pig carcasses were made out of foam, rubber and latex though the pig props were filled with real live disinfected maggots, attracted to the honey coating smeared on the carcasses (Tobin Bell later said that this was his favorite trap in the entire series).

The script was being constantly added to during production, with Whannell remaining on set throughout filming so he could keep working on it. One climactic scene between Smith and Soomekh was scribbled down on napkins only five minutes before it was shot. Soomekh also had difficulty filming the brain surgery sequence, with scene prop master James R. Murray having to hold Soomekh's arms still for the close up shots because she was unable to steady herself and keep the tool under control.

For The Rack Trap, Whannell originally conceived it as a trap that would fold a person into a box, though it eventually morphed into the twisting of body parts. Bousman wanted to have a trap that involved freezing someone to death since the films have already touched on burning to death, bleeding to death and being cut to death. A body cast was made of actress Debra Lynn McCabe for The Freezer Room trap, but because of safety regulations a person cannot be entombed, so only a front or back body cast could be on the actress at any given time. The scene was made even more difficult as the script called for McCabe to be (almost) completely naked. For the Classroom Trap, J. Larose's character, one of Amanda's first victims Troy, was originally going to be hanged from the ceiling by meat hooks, but it was decided against since he would not have been able to rip the chains out himself (as the script calls for). It proved to be a challenge since it is done with prosthetics and practical effects.

[opening lines]
Jigsaw: Hello, Troy. I want to play a game. This game will take place in a room not much bigger than the room you spent most of your life in. A prison cell. Despite all of the advantages and privileges that you were given at birth, you have returned to prison again and again. More comfortable in chains than you are in freedom. Tonight, we will see how far you are willing to go to break those chains once and for all. Live or die, Troy. Make your choice.

Top:   Director Darren Lynn Bousman on set with Angus Macfadyen;

Above:   Bousman composing a shot on location

Surprisingly, the film's most graphic scene - Jigsaw's wide-awake brain surgery scene - remained completely uncut by the MPAA. The filmmakers argued that it was no different from the kind of thing people could catch on any medical documentary on TV, but still had to resubmit Saw III to the ratings board several times before obtaining the "R" rating, receiving the "NC-17" rating every previous time. Even then, Whannell was reportedly physically sick from watching some of the scenes that were shot!

Nevertheless, Saw III was so anticipated by the fans, that the teaser trailer that was placed in front of the film The Descent was bootlegged and published online on the day of release, on August 4th 2006. On October 10, 2006 Bell, Smith and Bousman appeared at Spike TV's Scream Awards to promote the film and the clip of Troy's trap was shown, the clip having already premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 21, 2006. When Saw III opened at number one on 4,700 screens at 3,167 theaters grossing $33.6 million on its opening weekend, the film had the biggest Halloween weekend debut of all time. Eventually, Saw III would gross over $80 million in the US and canada, and another $85 million worldwide, making Saw III's total gross of $165 million the most financially successful film of the entire Saw franchise.

Despite it's box office success, Saw III met mostly mixed reviews from critics. Variety's Robert Koehler  criticized the use of several flashbacks in the film, saying that it "[...] hinder[ed] the movie, ratcheting down its tension and pace". He explained, "A bigger problem lies with Leigh Whannell's script, which utilizes so many flashbacks and explanatory inserts that the tension, a defining feature of the first Saw, is lost". He praised Smith's performance and called MacFadyen's performance "a strong, almost silent performance that conveys a pained father's dark night of the soul", and Soomekh as "reasonably convincing as the surgeon". The San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub gave the film a negative review, writing, "It doesn't go much of anywhere until the infuriating last 10 minutes, when everything is sort of tied together while still producing more unanswered questions. The movie seems at times to be told in random order, often with flashbacks, and the closest thing to a plot is a weak story about the father who keeps confronting the people responsible for his son's drunken-driving death". He pointed out the lack of realism in the script, saying "One incredibly large and intricate torture device in this movie couldn't have been made without four or five subcontractors, but we're supposed to believe a mentally unbalanced ex-junkie who weighs 100 pounds put it together in, at most, a few months".

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:   28%

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SAW WEEK ON IHDB

"SAW IV" released on October 26th, 2007

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!

A wax-coated microcassette is found in John Kramer's (Tobin Bell) stomach during his autopsy. It reveals to Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), the detective called in to hear it, that the games, including his own, will continue. Elsewhere, two men - one with his eyes sewn shut, the other with his mouth sewn shut - awaken in a mausoleum, chained at the neck to a winch. The blinded man panics and activates the winch while attacking the muted man, who kills him and removes a key from his collar to free himself.

Four days after Allison Kerry's (Dina Meyer) death, a SWAT team led by Hoffman and Lieutenant Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) finds her body, and Hoffman warns Rigg for breaking through an unsecured door to reach her. The scene is also investigated by Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis ), Kerry's FBI contacts, who received a message and a key from her. Noting Kramer's and Amanda Young's physical limitations, Strahm states they are looking for an unidentified accomplice; he soon becomes suspicious of Rigg, who has developed an obsession with saving people in the six months since the disappearance of Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg). That night, Rigg is attacked in his home; he awakens to learn that Matthews is alive and has ninety minutes to save himself, with Hoffman's life also at risk. Meanwhile, he must play his own game to face and overcome his obsession. Rigg finds a pimp, Brenda (Sarain Boylan), bound to a chair in his living room, which he accidentally turns on the trap, which slowly tears apart her scalp. Rigg frees her, but kills Brenda in self-defense when she attacks Rigg with a knife. Rigg is then led to a motel and instructed to abduct the owner, Ivan Landsness (Marty Adams), who Rigg puts in a trap after finding out that Landsness is a serial rapist. The trap blinds his eye with a blade, but it only blinds one eye, and dismembers him. Rigg is led to a school, where he finds a married couple, Rex (Marty Adams), who is already dead, and Morgan (Janet Land), who already has her spikes pulled out of her body. Morgan pulls out her last spike and Rigg gives her a key to save herself. Rigg turns on a fire alarm and goes to the location of his final test.

Meanwhile, the agents alternate between investigating the scenes and questioning Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), Kramer's ex-wife. Jill reveals Kramer's work with civil engineering and property development, and that she miscarried her pregnant son Gideon after seven months when Cecil Adams (Billy Otis), a drug addict, slammed a door into her stomach while robbing her health clinic. At the motel, the agents learn that the room was rented out to a lawyer named Art Blank (Justin Louis), who vanished two weeks prior, and survivor of the mausoleum trap. Blank is revealed to be the man overseeing the game when he stops Matthews's attempts at jumping and gives him a gun. At the school, the agents learn that all three victims, as well as Jill, were Blank's clients. They find a puppet and a tape recorder in another room, which plays a cryptic message for Perez before its face explodes, sending shrapnel into her face. After Perez is hospitalized, Strahm furiously questions Jill, now convinced of Blank's involvement, and how Kramer ended his work with the wake of Blank's depression, and that Cecil became the first victim of Kramer's "games". Rigg connects her story and a prior clue to the Gideon Meatpacking Plant, the location of his final test. As time runs out, will Riggs finally embrace Jigsaw's message and turn his back on his obsessions, or will he be yet another victim that failed Jigsaw's test?

[last lines]
Jigsaw: You feel you now have control, don't you? You think you will walk away untested. I promise that my work will continue. That I have ensured. By hearing this tape, some will assume that this is over, but I am still among you. You think it's over just because I am dead. It's not over. The games have just begun.

Top:   While Jill (Besty Russell) heals after the devastating loss of their unborn child, John Kramer (Tobin Bell) slowly plots his revenge, with his first victim (above) Cecil Adams (Barry Otis) the man responsible for losing his son!

With Saw IV being given the "green-light" before Saw III was even released, screenwriters Thomas Fenton, Marcus Dunstan, and Patrick Melton, faced a fairly difficult challenge; how to continue the Saw series with Jigsaw now dead? In collaboration with series creators and executive producers James Wan and Leigh Whannell, a unique solution was created to make the next Saw installment not so much a sequel, but rather an "extension" of Saw III, with the events of Saw IV occurring concurrently with the last film. Focusing this time on SWAT Commander Daniel Rigg - a character that had appeared in both Saw II and III - his role would be significantly expanded for IV, with the ultimate reveal at the end that Detective Hoffman has taken the late John Kramer's place as Jigsaw. Flashback sequences written into the script would also explore more of Kramer's backstory and how he has been able to manipulate people into continuing his work after his death. At the time Saw IV was announced, series director Darren Lynn Bousman was developing a film adaptation of his 2002 stage production Repo! The Genetic Opera, and stated was not interested in returning to the franchise. Ultimately though, Bousman decided to take the directional duties again when a plot twist in the script took him completely by surprise, something he thought impossible after being involved in the Saw series for three years!

Numerous major (and minor characters) would return for Saw IV, including stars Tobin Bell as John Kramer (aka Jigsaw) and Costas Mandylor as Detective Hoffman. Other returning cast included; Dina Meyer (Detective Allison Kerry), Angus Macfadyen (Jeff Denlon), Noam Jenkins 9Michael Marks), Tony Nappo (Gus Colyard), J. Larose (Troy), Oren Koules (Donnie Greco), Emmanuelle Vaugier (Addison Corday), Betsy Russell (Jill Tuck), and Lyriq Bent as Saw IV's protagonist SWAT Commander Daniel Rigg. Newcomers to the Saw universe were Justin Louis and Billy Otis as lawyer Art Blank and drug dealer Cecil Adams respectively, joined by Marty Adams, Janet Land, Ron Lea, Sarain Boylan as Jigsaw's victims in Rigg's tests; rapist Ivan Landsness, abusive parents Morgan and Rex, and pimp Brenda. Scott Patterson and Athena Karkanis also debut as FBI Agents Strahm and Perez.

Jigsaw: Hello Officer Rigg. Welcome to your rebirth. For years you have stood by and witnessed as your colleges have fallen. You have remained untouched, while Eric Matthews has disappeared. But with your survival, became your obsession. Obsession to stop those around you for making the wrong choices. Thus, preventing you from making the right ones. You wanted to save everyone. TONIGHT, I give you the oppurtunity to face your obsession. Look closely. Eric Matthews is still alive. The block of ice he stands upon, is melting. He has BUT 90 minutes to save himself. Detective Hoffma's fate is linked to Eric's survival. Heed my warning, Officer Rigg. Their lives hang in the balance of your obsession. Will you learn how to let go and truly save them? The choice is yours. 

Top:   Obsessed police officer Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) will soon be forced to face Jigsaw's tests;

Above:   The first test involves pimp Brenda (Sarain Boylan) in The Hair Trap!

Though producers wanted Donnie Wahlberg to reprise his role as Detective Eric Matthews, Wahlberg's schedule made him unavailable and his character was not included in the original script. Instead, Rigg's wife, Tracey (played by Ingrid Hart) was the target of the game and she would be suspended over the ice block trap at the finale, thus providing the motivation for Rigg's to search the city following Jigsaw's instructions. As shooting progressed, however, Wahlberg's schedule freed up and was now able to return, with his character now being written in Tracey's place. But as a result, Tracey's shortened screen-time and then disappearance in Saw IV is never really fully resolved.

Production for Saw IV again returned to Toronto, with principal photography beginning on 16th April, 2007. The seamless transitions between separate scenes in the movie were not created using (digital) visual effects, but were done practically. For these transitions, the sets were build in such a way that two separate scenes could be filmed in one shot without interruption. For example, Betsy Russell wore the same outfit during the hospital scene after which Jill loses Gideon, as she is in the interrogation scene. The camera slowly pans to the mirror to transition into the interrogation scene with Agent Peter Strahm. The sets were right next door to each other and Betsy literally ran to the interrogation set for the transition to work properly. After 5-weeks of production, filming on Saw IV wrapped on 30 May, 2007, and completed post production in as little as 2-months to make the delivery date for a October release.

TRIVIA:    The photos seen in the room where Ivan is tested are of Darren Lynn Bousman's girlfriend, his assistant, and of his lawyer.

Top:   While Rigg's faces his trails, FBI Agents Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Perez (Athena Karkanis) investigate the Jigsaw crime scenes;

Above:   Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is revealed to be alive, with his and Hoffman's (Costas Mandylor) life now depending on if Rigg's has learned anything from Jigsaw's teachings!

Critical reception to Saw IV was mostly negative on its theatrical release. Scott Schueller from the Los Angeles Times called it “a film as edgy as a rubber knife” and said that “if the terrible craft of Bousman's film doesn’t turn your stomach, the borderline pornographic violence will. It’s disconcerting to imagine anyone enjoying the vile filth splashing the screen.” Peter Hartlaub from The San Francisco Chronicle called it “the Syriana of slasher films, so complicated and circuitous that your only hope of understanding everything is to eat lots of fish the night before and then watch each of the previous films, in order, right before you enter the theater, while James Berardinelli wrote that “Saw IV functions as a drawn-out, tedious epilogue to a series that began with an energetic bang three years ago with Saw, then progressively lost momentum, coherence, and intelligence with each successive annual installment. Saw IV is nothing short of a money-grab. Despite a couple of loose ends (that are tied up unsatisfactorily here), Saw III finished the story."

Above:   Directing a Saw movie for the last time, series director Darren Lynn Bousman on set

A less negative review came from Scott Weinberg from Fearnet, who said that while it "is almost certainly the weakest of the series where stuff like plot, logic, and chills are concerned... there's still more than enough here to keep the fans intrigued, entertained, and squirming in their seats" and added that the "Saw-makers are to be commended for actually putting forth this sort of effort. I grew up in an era that offered little more than quick-cash, stand-alone horror sequels like Halloween 5 and Friday the 13th Part 7 — so the fact that these producers actually give a damn about narrative continuity (right down to the smallest detail) is fairly impressive."

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:   17%

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