Film’s frights lack story, but plenty of gore

Suspense. Gore. Three dimensions. Saw 3D has all the makings of a great horror film — all except originality.

In the Saw franchise’s seventh and supposedly final film, audiences are left with more of the same, as the complexity and goriness of the traps take priority over a solid and original story line, making the series’ latest addition more of an homage to the previous six than a new chapter.

Saw 3D follows Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery), a self-help guru who is promoting a book he wrote about his supposed encounter with the infamous Jigsaw killer. Bobby is revealed to be a liar and is caught and put in a very intricate trap constructed by former police officer and Jigsaw apprentice Mark Hoffman.

Bobby wakes up in a cage hanging from the ceiling of an abandoned hospital and realizes that he has been put in an actual Jigsaw trap. He begins a path set forth for him by Hoffman, intended to drastically improve Bobby’s lying character by forcing him to try and save the lives of those closest to him, who have all been placed in less complex traps of their own.

This idea seems all too familiar, as it is very similar to the plot of Saw III, where a man seeking vengeance for his son’s death wakes up in a meatpacking plant and is forced to try to rescue different accomplices in his son’s demise, all of whom are also in Jigsaw traps.

One thing that Saw 3D lacks is the same thing that the last three Saw films have lacked: the chilling performance of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw. Though his character has technically been in all seven films, Jigsaw was killed in Saw III, diminishing his appearances to only flashbacks.

Hoffman is played by Costas Mandylor, replacing Bell and his character as the new leading psychopath for the thriller series. Viewers accept that Mandylor’s character must be an emotionless madman, but the actor’s performance simply makes Hoffman come off as apathetic and dull.

While Bobby goes on his horrifying journey, Hoffman is also stalking Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), Jigsaw’s widow and the woman who tried to kill him in the end of Saw VI. He also begins to lead Detective Matt Gibson (Chad Donella) on a wild goose chase in hopes of distracting him and his duty to keep Tuck in witness protection.

Both Bobby and Gibson have their fair share of dramatic scenes, but the casting of unfamiliar actors and a regrettable use of stereotypical “slasher dialogue” simply make these attempts at drama laughable.

If that weren’t enough, a poorly timed use of heavy metal background music makes these scenes even more confusing for viewers trying to decide whether to take the actors’ dramatic attempts seriously.

By far the most impressive part of this film was the performances of characters caught in Jigsaw traps. On Bobby’s twisted journey to find his girlfriend and survive, he encounters several people trapped by Jigsaw, all of whom played a part in his undeserved rise to fame.

In classic Saw fashion, each trap is gorier and more terrifying than the last. But what keeps viewers’ eyes glued open and stuck to the screen is the pure terror that the characters are experiencing.

Though some deaths are a little repetitive — one can only witness so many deaths by buzz saws and bear traps before they lose appeal — some of the new Jigsaw traps of Saw 3D are so gruesomely realistic the viewer almost feels guilty for watching.

Pointless scenes of gore can only take a movie so far. Though the film is filled with terrifying death scenes, it lacks the very thing that drew Saw fans to the franchise to begin with: a purpose.

The original Jigsaw chose his victims by finding people who did not value their lives and showed them the error of their ways by putting them in deadly situations. In contrast, this most recent film is much more concerned with body count than a solid plot.

One thing that fans of the series can be grateful for is that this final chapter ties together most of the major loose ends from the past six film, bringing the story full circle.

Though viewers who have not seen the previous chapters might be lost in some of the backstory, they can still be sufficiently entertained by the suspense and terror of the film.

What Saw 3D lacks in originality, it more than makes up for it in gore, scares and even some laughs. Though this film might not be winning any Oscars, it is a thoroughly exciting and enjoyable horror film and a proper homage to the Saw franchise.