*** out of *****

Jaws wired shut, obscene amounts of blood, and saws flying toward your head — it’s everything viewers have come to love in a Saw movie, but this time the gory mess is enhanced by 3D images that bring the blood and guts to life.

Saw 3D was released in theaters Oct. 29, just in time for the Halloween weekend. While the 3D effects did give a new aspect and feel to the movie, I found that they were completely unnecessary.

The preview showing on TV is nothing like the actual effects in the movie, so don’t be deceived when you go to see it. There were only a few parts that actually made me jump, but the fake blood squirting at my face did not add to the experience of the movie.

Being the seventh and final Saw movie, I feared that there wouldn’t be any plot to the movie; after all, in most horror films, the plot is basically secondary to the visual effects. However, I was pleasantly surprised that, not only was there a story line, but it was a compelling one.

The movie starts out in the middle of a city, where three people, two men and one woman, are attached to table saws in a glass cubical, clearly victims of serial killer Jigsaw’s latest “test.” Though the two men don’t know each other, the woman dangling above a saw most certainly does, as she’s apparently been two-timing them. The men are forced to make a decision to either sacrifice themselves while saving the woman or to team up and kill the woman. To make things worse, all of this goes on while being watched by hundreds of people. The two men come to a decision, and the unlucky loser of the scenario ends up with his or her intestines on the floor in a bloody heap.

Only after this gruesome scene is the audience introduced to the main story line.

Bobby Dagen, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, wrote a book on how he survived Jigsaw and spends his time speaking on talk shows and holding meetings for other survivors to talk about his experience.

Later on in the story, you discover that his deep, dark, secrets could get the best of him as he fights for “survival” once again.

Though Jigsaw is dead, his games of cruel morality are still being played, so in between scenes of Bobby’s life, police search for the sick mind behind these death contraptions.

Even though everyone comes to these movies purely because of the promise of death and gore, the best part actually comes from the plot, when the movie comes full circle at the end. Characters and ideas initially introduced in the first Saw movie come back to surprise us and help us make sense of the creepy and sometimes mind-boggling process these movies set up.

For those looking for a movie that will twist their stomachs in knots and make every part of their bodies hurt as they watch these people being tortured, Saw 3D is exactly what they’re looking for.

Though the effects may be cheesy and expected at times, for a Saw movie, I think it was one of the best I’ve seen. This isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but it was never meant to be one.

The only suggestion is to skip the snacks while watching this movie. The images of eyes being poked out is not a good combination with popcorn.