lolosleeps

I've been a big fan of the franchise since I was a teen, but this one has remained my favorite for nearly 20 years now. I recently did a marathon of the series and still holds the title. The first one is my favorite, but besides that one, Saw III is the king by a longshot.

The team put their all into this iteration. I mean, you get some of the coolest contraptions, all sorts of varying situations each completely different from the last. The lore throughout the series alludes to this film so often it almost holds the entire (what 10-film) series on its back.

This movie is untouchable in the realm of torture horror. It's creative and well done on so many levels and aside from the original, this is the only other one that is actually just a flat out great movie.

I think this had potential. Lots of it, actually, but Cage was the wrong choice. I don't think he had what was needed to pull this off. I think a Christopher Meloni type would've done better. Someone rougher and tougher. Cage's character is pretty wimpy right off the bat, and I immediately couldn't take him seriously with this sort of a script. Joaquin Phoenix was my favorite in this one though. His character was really fun.

This film played it pretty safe. Considering how much boundary pushing was happening in film around this time, this one could have done something impactful. I was reading that the writer had so much material cut he wouldn't watch the finished film, and that makes sense. It just doesn't reach its full potential. This sort of subject matter would take so much tact to get right, i can understand wanting to play it safe, but i mean... if this is the topic you've chosen to film, go all in. If execs were willing to be rated NC-17 (if that's what it takes) this could've had a bigger impact. The censorship really weighed the film down. I don't think the average person would agree with this statement but personally, such a rating would indicate to me, the viewer, that it's time to take this as seriously as it's advertising itself.

Ultimately, this was entertaining as a film, but the material is very dark. Well-done or poorly-done, this isn't the sort of thing I would call entertaining in and of itself. Comprehensively, it's watchable but it's long and imperfect and you're not missing much if you choose to skip it.

I can't really say this was as impressive as some people found it to be, but this does hit some really big pain points for a lot of us. And if it happens to hit one of those pain points for you, you are likely to be disturbed and reactive to what you see. It's gross, sad, unimaginable. This film will not make you feel good at all. It will turn your stomach.

I know it sounds like I'm saying a whole lot of nothing, but it's because really there isn't much here to have an opinion on. It's atrocious, despicable, atypical, and borderline inconceivable behavior from these parents. There is excruciatingly minimal dialogue, and if I'm being blunt, I don't think this cast had what it takes to pull off what they were going for. I think it could have been done better and I found all actors relatively mediocre except the younger daughter. The father was good too but with such little dialogue, your actors need to have depth that most of these ones did not.

Overall, good. Not Oscar level in my opinion, but if you like that slow, emotional, bleak and atmospheric sort of feel, you may enjoy this.