► Saw 3D | C

If it's Halloween time, you know it's time for another Saw movie. Saw 3D marks the seventh and final installment of the popular franchise.

The movie starts, shockingly enough, with the murders being committed outside in the open while bystanders just watch on the sidelines. This type of opening makes you slightly excited from the get-go, as it is so different from the settings of any of the past Saw movies. But that thrilling sensation only lasts a few moments before the camera cuts to the dark, damp torture chamber that we've grown used to with the Saw saga.

The movie then jumps to two of the antagonists from the last film, Hoffman (Costas Mandylor, Picket Fences) and Jill (Betsy Russell, Chain Letter), when Jill is escaping Hoffman's clutches and Hoffman gets ready for the next "game," which centers on Bobby (Sean Patrick Flanery, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day), a man pretending to be a survivor of the Jigsaw murders. After doing a lot of self-promotion, Bobby finds himself in the same situation that he allegedly "survived" from. And so begins the gore and torture-fest that the Saw movies are infamous for.

As with the previous six films, Saw 3D leaves you questioning what's morally right. Do you save the lives of others or yourself? Bobby must confront this kind of question — but he doesn't have much time to think about the answer. He's given 60 seconds to perform tasks that obviously can't be completed. And as if the movie wasn't lacking already, the ending was left almost at a cliffhanger. This leaves you wondering if this is really the end of the franchise.

Saw 3D wasn't completely horrendous. The writers tried to add something to the movie by providing a medley of flashbacks that helped to tie the various aspects of the plot together. For example, several flashbacks give insight to Bobby's past and why he felt motivated to lie about his involvement with the Jigsaw murders. There are also flashbacks that help you understand the slight twist that the movie takes at the very ending with Hoffman and one of the characters from one of the previous movies.

However, the problem is, the Saw franchise had no business in reaching a seventh movie. Once the original Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, Mississippi Burning) was killed, the movies should have stopped. Moreover, the movies have started becoming a bit predictable. In order to give the movie an edge, it was made in 3D, but there was no need for it. There were barely moments where the 3D effects were used, and when there were 3D effects it was just blood and knives. The movie is a good watch for fans of the previous movies, but to those who haven't been avid fans, the movie might not seem worth the money.