After a gruesome radial saw trap pitting two young men against the woman who was playing them both for suckers, Saw 3D gets off and running with the story of Bobby Dagen, Jigsaw survivor. With a self-help book, talk show appearances, and an upcoming dvd, Bobby is profiting off of his harrowing story of survival, in which he was forced to hoist himself up from a deathtrap using chains attached to hooks pierced into his pectoral muscles. Ouch.
Bobby leads a Jigsaw Survivors' Group, which counts Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes, in his first appearance since the first movie) among its members. Bobby tries to convince the survivors to take pride and value in their survival experiences, in much the same way that Jigsaw intended. Some of the survivors feel the same way, but, understandably, not all.
Naturally, Jigsaw and his disciples don't appreciate Bobby using this story for his personal gain. Next thing Bobby knows, he has been abducted and placed into a complex, multi-faceted trap with several lives on the line. There's a "speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil" theme for most of it, with consequences for success that are nearly as horrible as the consequences for failure. And at the end of the ordeal, Bobby must face a version of the trap that made him famous with his wife's life at stake.
In the meantime, Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill Tuck, informs members of the police's Internal Affairs department that Detective Mark Hoffman is Jigsaw's accomplice and protege. Their part of the story has them investigating a grizzly multiple-murder scene for evidence that will put Hoffman away and hopefully end Jigsaw's reign of terror. It's all a cat-and-mouse game between Hoffman and Jill that brings to mind the tagline of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre - "who will survive, and what will be left of them?"
Like Saw VI with its hammering of predatory lenders and evil insurance company executives, Saw 3D goes for a bit of a "ripped from today's headlines" thing as well. This time, you can draw a parallel between Bobby and James Frey, disgraced author of the fabricated memoir A Million Little Pieces. Of course, Bobby only had to face a series of painful, murderous traps to attone for his falsehoods. Frey had to face Oprah on national television. Now that's torture.
For most people, particularly those who haven't watched these movies, the Saw series is all about the deaths. What gory, nasty ways can the filmmakers devise to make people torture themselves to death this time? This being the final installment in the series, they don't skimp on the traps, in number if not always in ingenuity. There are more than enough Rube Goldberg death machines in Saw 3D to satisfy your basest desires for bloody carnage. Strangely, some are even kindof funny in a Hatchet or Dead Alive sort of way. Some are extremely complex, some are diabolically simple, and there is even old favorite that is given a fantastic curtain call as the series comes to a close.
But more than the traps and the gore, for fans who have followed the series in every installment, the Saw movies are about the twists and turns of the story. It is convoluted and interwoven and maintains continuity far beyond the usual requirements of a horror franchise. And with Saw 3D, most, if not all, of the loose ends are tied up in a nice, bloody bow.
There is still an opening for a return to the series, naturally, but so far it looks like Saw is over and done. If it does all end here, the wrap-up is satisfying for those of us who stuck by the movies through thick and thin. They threw a ton of traps on the screen and a load of blood and guts at the camera (in 3D!!), and generally went out with a bang. That's a lot more than we can say for the majority of horror franchises.
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