Saw IIIis a 2006 Canadian-Americanhorror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Leigh Whannell and story by James Wan and Whannell. Wan and Whannell directed and wroteSawand Bousman wrote and directedSaw II. It is the third film in the seven-partSawfilm series and stars Tobin Bell , Shawnee Smith , Angus Macfadyen , Bahar Soomekh and Dina Meyer . Bell, Smith, Meyer, Donnie Wahlberg and Lyriq Bent reprise their roles from the previous films. Franky G and Tim Burd fromSaw IImake small cameos.Saw IIImarks the first appearances of Costas Mandylor and Betsy Russell , albeit minor roles; they would later become major characters in the series.

The story follows Jeff after his son is hit and killed by a car; he is put in a series of tests by Jigsaw in order try and let go of his vengeance on the man that killed him. Meanwhile a bed-ridden John Kramer has ordered his apprentice Amanda Young to kidnap a doctor named Lynn , in order to keep him alive for one final test before he dies of cancer.Saw IIIalso contains additional back-story about the two antagonists.

Production began right afterSaw II's successful opening weekend. 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 IIIwas released onOctober 27, 2006and 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. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Bell was nominated for "Best Villain" at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards and the film received nominations for a Saturn Award as "Best Horror Film" and Teen Choice Award .Saw IIIwas released to DVD and Blu-ray Disc onJanuary 23, 2007and topped the charts selling 2.5 million units in its first week. It was followed with a sequel,Saw IV, released inOctober 2007.

Minutes after the conclusion ofSaw II, Eric Matthews ( Donnie Wahlberg ) escapes the bathroom by breaking his foot with the remains of a toilet tank lid and slipping it out of the shackle.

6 months later, another Jigsaw victim is discovered by Lt. Rigg ( Lyriq Bent ) and Detectives Kerry ( Dina Meyer ) and Hoffman ( Costas Mandylor ). In his test, Troy ( J. Larose ) had to rip chains from his flesh in order to escape from a bomb; however, the door to the room was sealed, making the trap inescapable. This is observed by Kerry, who feels guilty over Matthews' disappearance; she later awakens in a harness hooked into her ribs. She retrieves a key to the harness from a beaker of acid, but the device kills her anyway.

Jeff ( Angus Macfadyen ), a vengeful man unable to cope with the death of his son, and Lynn Denlon ( Bahar Soomekh ), a depressed doctor, are kidnapped under John Kramer 's ( Tobin Bell ) orders. Lynn is brought before John, now bedridden from cancer, by Amanda Young ( Shawnee Smith ) and is given a straightforward game: keep John alive for the duration of Jeff's game. Should John die, or should she try to escape, the collar around her neck will fire five shotgun shells at her head. Jeff awakens in the middle of an abandoned meatpacking plant and is informed that he must go through several tests, which will lead him to "the man responsible for the loss of his child."

In his first test, Jeff enters a freezer and finds Danica (Debra Lynne McCabe), who witnessed the car accident that killed his son Dylan but refused to testify in court. She is naked and chained between two poles spraying ice-cold water at random intervals; she eventually convinces Jeff to help her, but is frozen solid and totally covered in rime in a matter of seconds before he can retrieve the key. In his second test, Jeff successfully frees Judge Halden ( Barry Flatman ), who sentenced Dylan's killer to only six months in prison and was thus a target of Jeff's rage, from the bottom of a vat being filled with liquefied pig corpses by incinerating his late son's toys to retrieve a key. In his third test, Jeff finds Timothy ( Mpho Koaho ), his son's killer, strapped to a machine that will twist his limbs and neck one by one until they break. He retrieves a key attached to the trigger of a shotgun but accidentally kills Halden when it discharges, and Timothy's neck is broken before he can unlock the device. With his tests nonetheless complete, Jeff moves on to the final area.

Meanwhile, Lynn and Amanda work together to keep John alive. During an improvised brain surgery intended to relieve pressure on John's brain, he begins hallucinating about another woman and declares his love out loud. Distressed from witnessing this, Amanda leaves the sickroom to continue monitoring Jeff. Flashbacks reveal that Amanda continued cutting herself after John became bedridden, and she recollects becoming John's apprentice and kidnapping Adam ( Leigh Whannell ) prior to the events of the first film . Amanda also finds a letter addressed to her, its contents further distressing her. After the surgery, Lynn and John talk privately; Lynn reveals that her ordeal has given her a new appreciation for her family. Amanda returns with the news that Jeff's tests are complete, but refuses to release Lynn; she reveals that she does not believe John's modus operandi and had designed her tests to be inescapable accordingly, including Troy's and Kerry's. She also reveals that she left Eric Matthews for dead and that she had given Adam a mercy killing through suffocation .

Amanda shoots Lynn in the back just as Jeff arrives in the sickroom and he retaliates by shooting her in the neck. John reveals to the dying Amanda that the test was hers: she was being tested on her will to keep someone alive, not knowing that Jeff and Lynn were married. Amanda dies from her wound and John gives Jeff one last test, where he can choose between killing John or forgiving him; John offers to call an ambulance for Lynn if Jeff forgives him. Jeff takes a circular saw, tells John he forgives him, and slashes John's throat. The door to the room seals itself as a dying John plays a tape recorder, which reveals that Jeff has failed his final test by killing John, who was the only person to know the whereabouts of his daughter, Corbett (Niamh Wilson). In order to find her, Jeff must play another game. The tape ends as John dies, and the shotgun collar activates and kills Lynn simultaneously, leaving Jeff trapped with the three corpses as he screams in agony.