Saw III (2006)

Saw III (2006)

Tagline: “Suffering? You haven’t seen anything yet…”

The aftermath of a Jigsaw game is discovered by a SWAT team. The victim, Troy, was meant to rip chains from his body in order to escape from a bomb. Lieutenant Daniel Rigg calls Detectives Mark Hoffman and Allison Kerry to the scene. Kerry, who is guilt-ridden over the disappearance of Eric Matthews, points out that the room’s only exit was welded shut, breaking Jigsaw’s modus operandi of giving his victims a chance to survive. That night, while reviewing the videotape, she is abducted and awakens in a harness that is hooked into her ribs. Kerry 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.

Now bedridden from cancer, John Kramer instructs Amanda Young to abduct Dr. Lynn Denlon from her hospital. She is brought to Kramer and instructed to keep him alive until the other victim has completed his game. As Kramer explains the rules, Amanda locks a collar around Lynn’s throat that connects to Kramer’s heart rate monitor and will detonate if Kramer dies or Lynn moves out of range. The other victim, Jeff, 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.

Saw III (2006)

Jeff’s first test leads him into a meat freezer. He finds Danica Scott, 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. In order to save her, Jeff has to reach through a gap in a wall made of metal poles to reach the key. The key is so far away, he would have to press and freeze his cheek to the pole, grab the key and then tear a large chunk of his face off the frozen poles in order to save her. Danica manages to convince Jeff to help her, but freezes to death before he can retrieve the key.

Saw III is a 2006 American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Leigh Whannell and story by James Wan and Whannell. It is the third installment in the Saw franchise and stars Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, and Dina Meyer. Saw III marks the first appearances of Costas Mandylor and Betsy Russell, albeit minor roles; they would later become major characters in the series.

Development began right after the successful opening weekend of Saw II. Filming took place in Toronto from May to June 2006. Whannell aimed to make the story more emotional than previous installments, particularly with the Amanda and Jigsaw storyline. The film is dedicated to producer Gregg Hoffman who died on December 4, 2005.

Saw III (2006)

Saw III was released on October 27, 2006 and was a financial success, opening to $33.6 million and grossing $80.2 million in the United States and Canada. It is the highest-grossing film of the series in the international market with $84.6 million and the highest-grossing film in the series with $164.8 million worldwide.

Saw III opened at number one on 4,700 screens at 3,167 theaters grossing $33.6 million on its opening weekend, a two percent increase from Saw II’s $31.7 million. It held the biggest Halloween weekend debut for five years until it was beaten in 2011 by Puss in Boots ($34 million). It was also Lionsgate’s highest-opening weekend. Lionsgate’s exit polling indicated that 69 percent of the audience was under 25 years old and 51 percent was male. In its second weekend it placed number four dropping down 56% to $14.8 million, compared to Saw II’s second weekend drop of 47% to $16.9 million. The film was closed out of theaters on December 14, 2006, after 49 days of release.

Saw III opened at number five in the international market with an estimated $6 million. It opened at number one in the United Kingdom to $4.7 million. In Taiwan it placed third and opened to $320,000. For its second weekend it opened to number two with an estimated $9.7 million. In Spain it made $3.1 million, an improvement over the previous films. For its third weekend, Saw III grossed $8 million, including Japan’s opening on 86 screens with $1.1 million. Australia made $4.3 million, Spain grossed $3.8 million and Brazil made $3.8 million. In its fourth weekend it placed fourth place with an estimated $5.6 million from 24 territories. Its best market was a second-place start in France.

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Saw III Movie Poster (2006)

Saw III (2006)

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus MacFadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Dina Meyer, Debra Lynne McCabe, Donnie Wahlberg, Costas Mandylor, Barry Flatman, Leigh Whannell
Screenplay by: Leigh Whannell
Production Design by: David Hackl
Cinematography by: David A. Armstrong
Film Editing by: Kevin Greutert
Costume Design by: Alex Kavanagh
Set Decoration by: Liesl Deslauriers
Art Direction by: Anthony A. Ianni
Music by: Charlie Clouser
MPAA Rating: R for strong grisly violence and gore, sequences of terror and torture, nudity, language.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: October 27, 2006

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