Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010)
"Saw 3D" (original title)

As a deadly battle rages over Jigsaw's brutal legacy, a group of Jigsaw survivors gathers to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen, a man whose own dark secrets unleash a new wave of terror.

Director:

Kevin Greutert

Writers:

Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan

Stars:

Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tobin Bell	...	Jigsaw / John
Costas Mandylor	...	Hoffman
Betsy Russell	...	Jill
Cary Elwes	...	Dr. Gordon
Sean Patrick Flanery	...	Bobby
Chad Donella	...	Gibson
Gina Holden	...	Joyce
Laurence Anthony	...	Rogers
Dean Armstrong	...	Cale
Naomi Snieckus	...	Nina
Rebecca Marshall	...	Suzanne
James Van Patten	...	Dr. Heffner
Sebastian Pigott	...	Brad
Jon Cor	...	Ryan
Anne Lee Greene	...	Dina (as Anne Greene)

Storyline

Detective Matt Gibson chases the psychotic Detective Mark Hoffman while Jigsaw's widow Jill Tuck tries to kill him as assigned by her husband. However he escapes and Jill meets Gibson and offers to sign an affidavit listing the murders committed by Hoffman. In return, she requests protection. Meanwhile, the prominent Jigsaw survivor and leader of a support group Bobby Dagen is abducted with his wife and friends and forced to play a mortal game to save himself and his beloved wife.

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Plot Keywords:

survivor | support group | self help guru | topless female nudity | character repeating someone else's dialogue | 

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Taglines:

In Heart-Pounding 3D

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Genres:

Crime | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official MySpace

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 October 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Saw VII

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£3,600,083 (UK) (29 October 2010)

Gross:

$45,670,855 (USA) (26 November 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twisted Pictures, A Bigger Boat, Serendipity Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Had the longest pre-production schedule of any Saw film. The complexity of the 3D process inflated the usual 9 week prep into 21 weeks.

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Goofs

When Bobby finds a copy of his autobiography during his test there is gold writing on the front of the book. In a flashback we see John Kramer at his book signing and John removes the dust jacket to reveal a completely black cover with no lettering at all.

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Quotes

Dr. Gordon: Bravo! To be able to sustain such a traumatic experience and, uh... and yet find a positive in that grizzly act. It's a remarkable feat, indeed. Remarkable... if not a little perverse.

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Connections

Referenced in The Inbetweeners: Will's Dilemma (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Life Won't Wait"
performed by Ozzy Osbourne

User Reviews

enough!

Everything has been leading to this. Or so you'd think. Let's be frank, if we've learn anything from our series of articles revisiting the Saw series over the last week, it's that the franchise is so wrapped up in retcons, flashbacks and time-bending shenanigans that you couldn't really be surprised if this one had turned out to take place in 2003, before even that very first film back in 2004.

At the very least, I assure you that we're not looking at a prequel. This is very much a straight continuation from the end of Saw VI, and some time during the last year, we find Jigsaw's ex, Jill Tuck, has lost a considerable amount of bad ass points from having vengefully trapped Jigsaw's bungling successor, Hoffman, in a reverse bear trap. A year ago for us, moments ago for her, and yet, after witnessing Hoffman's escape, she rushes to the police for protection.

Hoffman begins a reign of terror, taking games into broad daylight and into the heart of the already decimated police force, and he promises his old colleague, Detective Gibson, that the traps will continue until Jill is handed over to him. Ancillary to all of this, we meet self help entrepreneur Bobby Dagen, whose bestselling book about surviving one of Jigsaw's traps gets him caught up in another game. The final game, perhaps.

A stalwart companion, who endured the Saw marathon along with me, came to see Saw 3D last night. Afterwards, he declared it the worst of the series, hands down. For him, this was the most disappointing and dissatisfying ending imaginable after all of the six films and all of the marketing hype around this being the series' conclusion.

There's certainly a group of hardcore fans, who haunt places like the IMDb forums, and who will declare Saw VII to be the very best of the series and a fitting conclusion. However, I personally find it difficult to imagine this being anybody's favorite Saw film.

It suffers from the same symptoms of the franchise fatigue that plagued the fourth and fifth installments. The story structure and the progression of the main game are disjointed and disaffecting, and aside from the opening sequence, the much anticipated public trap seen in the trailers, there's the same old lack of imagination.

Most criminally, there's barely any John Kramer to be had. The series has only survived to this, its seventh installment, because death was not the end for Tobin Bell as Jigsaw. He's the very best thing about this series, and we had a partial return to form with Saw VI because the focus was back on his machinations from beyond the grave.

Here, it's pretty much Hoffman's show, and with how much Costas Mandylor has previously paled in comparison with Bell, that's really bloody boring. More than that, it's a rip-off. Mandylor is reduced to a perpetual grimace as he chases poor Betsy Russell around. She deserved better than this too. Having bided her time as Jill for so many films, she's reduced to the stock scream queen role here, running away and hiding behind cabinets.

Hell, most of the performances are wooden. What would a Saw film be without a little dramatic sawdust billowing around our B-movie players? In my revisit to Saw V, I gave Greg Bryk the dubious Honor of being The Worst Actor In Saw, and for his trouble, he makes a small cameo appearance here in a support group for other survivors of Jigsaw. However, he now gets the bronze as two other newcomers make late, but impressively awful turns.

Firstly, there's Dean Armstrong as Cale. Not to give away what goes on with his character, but he gets a silver medal for some acting that had people in the screening I attended laughing out loud. The new worst actor In Saw, however, is Chad Donella as Gibson. Golly, he's bad. Not since Tommy Wiseau's cult classic, The Room, have you seen overacting this stilted, or this far removed from human behavior.

On the plus side, I really have to praise Cary Elwes. It's been telegraphed by the filmmakers to all and sundry that he's back in this one, finally reprising the role of Dr. Lawrence Gordon to bookend the franchise. He serves almost as the Mount Doom of the series. With him, Saw was made, and only with him can it be unmade. And frankly, he's great in it, despite sounding decidedly closer to his native British accent than the last time he was Dr. Gordon.

As to my friend's reaction, I can't really disagree, except to say that's it's nowhere near the worst of the series. I'd say it's the third worst overall, or to mark it positively, the fifth best. It is a disappointment, though, and a step backwards from the improvements we saw in Saw VI. The writers are just up to their old rubbish tricks, and director Kevin Greutert is on record saying he would rather have been directing Paranormal Activity 2 than another Saw sequel.

With fledgling horror franchises ready to take its place in the form of Paranormal Activity or even Piranha, it goes without saying that Saw 3D should be the last gasp of a franchise that's been running on fumes for a while now. It suffers from the same problems as the worst of the sequels, but enough has been learn that it's more watchable than those earlier films.