SAW II
***1/2 out of *****

Genres
Horror

2005
Directed by
Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by
Darren Lynn Bousman
Leigh Whannell
Cast
Donnie Wahlberg .... Eric Matthews
Shawnee Smith .... Amanda
Tobin Bell .... Jigsaw
Franky G .... Xavier
Glenn Plummer .... Captain Jonas
Dina Meyer .... Kerry
Emmanuelle Vaugier ....     Addison
Beverley Mitchell .... Laura
Erik Knudsen .... Daniel Matthews
Tim Burd .... Obi
Lyriq Bent .... Rigg
Noam Jenkins .... Michael
Tony Nappo .... Gus
Vincent Rother .... Joe

The film's tagline reads "Oh yes…there will be blood" so I was fairly excited. I love horror movies that have balls enough to take you over the edge. Ones that aren't afraid of a hard 'R' rating and giving you the maximum amount of carnage possible. Saw II almost goes there. It breaks the surface, goes a little farther than the first but doesn't totally reach its maximum potential. Maybe the producers will leave that for the third instalment (already given the green light) or perhaps they were hindered by a tight turnaround time between the release of the first film and this one.

Saw II was shot over 25 days, with a relatively new-to-the-scene filmmaker Bousman, who had written a script entitled "The Desperate". Keep in mind that this was before the first Saw (2004) was released in theatres. It was purchased mainly because it was too similar to Saw and Lion's Gate wanted to capitalise on these types of films in case Saw was a huge success. Well it was, and the writer of the first film, Leigh Whannell came onboard with Bousman to re-write his script into a Saw sequel. As quickly as you can say "Jigsaw" the second film was under the lens for a tiny budget of around $4 million. Released on Halloween 2005, the sequel exploded and eventually grossed a phenomenal $87+ million in the United States alone. Lion's Gate savvy marketing of the picture, along with internet buzz made for one of the biggest openings for a horror film.

With gas prices as high as they are..

There will eventually be an 'Unrated' DVD version with more gore and violence than this R-rated theatrical version has (this is commented on in the audio commentary, but no word on when and if it will be released), so maybe Lion's Gate are holding off for another DVD release. Whatever the case, this film had the capability of exceeding my expectations, but managed to only just match them.

Saw II is certainly better than its predecessor by a margin. It's a tighter paced, more lean film that has some very disturbing torture surprises. Director Darren Lynn Bousman is at the wheel of this sick and twisted ride. The immediate success of the first film pretty much dictated that a sequel would be on the way, but getting one out so quickly after the film's release came as a surprise. Rushing a sequel is never a good idea, often underdeveloped scripts get used, the wrong directors are hired and, in horror especially, they try to capture the feel of the original without really adding anything new. This almost always leads to disappointment.

I watched the first movie among a preview audience and found it a frightening experience, although the film had flaws. Most notable was that the performances weren't great and the script allocated time for us to get to know the characters. While this is generally a good thing, to foster a sort of connection or develop sympathies to characters, in this case it only made these characters seem a whole lot more annoying. Which I'm glad wasn't done in this sequel, we know very little about the victims, it's very clear right from the start that they are there to die, pure and simple, and it's all part of the game.

This is what your doctor resorts to  if you avoid your vaccinations

In Saw II, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is back. He’s a brilliant yet disturbed and sinister serial killer returning for another round of horrifying life-or-death games. He traps his victims and punishes them for their crimes, showing them that they shouldn't take their lives for granted. When a new murder victim is discovered with a jigsaw puzzle piece-shaped bit of skin removed it indicates it's the work of Jigsaw. Detective Eric Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg) and partner Kerry (Dina Meyer) begin an investigation that leads to the rather quick apprehension of Jigsaw. But for Jigsaw, getting caught was just another part of his game.

Mathews discovers that eight more victims are already fighting for their lives in a sealed off house, and h’es part of the game, his son Daniel (EriK Knudsen) is one of those trapped. The eight people must find an antidote that will cure them from a deadly gas they are breathing in. One antidote for each person, but getting them is a lot harder than they think.

Right from the word go, we are thrust into an over-the-top game, where the victim must cut into his eye to retrieve a key that stops a head mask filled with spikes closing on his face. Saw II is filled with moments like this, so it's fair to say that if you have a weak stomach then this film is probably not for you. The best of the traps take place in the house, the eight victims all go through tailor-made traps for them, all of which are memorable and leave you on the edge of your seat.

The needle pit and the hand trap are by far my favorites. Though the hand trap, while very cool, made the character of Addison (Emmanuelle Vaugier) seem like the stupidest person on the planet. She puts her first hand in and it gets caught, and almost immediately she puts her second hand in! All she needed to do was take a minute and figure it out, but what we (as an audience) did not see was that under the box, the blades were hidden (I discovered this in one of the featurettes). A simple cut-away shot could have explained this otherwise ridiculous move on her character's part.

Protein build up on contact lenses  has finally been used in a horror film

This film does have its fair share of characters that just plain get on your nerves; Xavier (Franky G) is just that character, this guy spent the whole movie complaining and tearing shit apart. Not only does that not help matters, but we have to deal with this jerk for almost the entire duration of the movie. Xavier had the potential to be an interesting character but instead the filmmakers relegated him to another throwaway character with a bad disposition.

The different traps, although very innovative are all stumbled upon accidentally. Now I'm not sure exactly how big this house is, but after escaping from the main room the victims search through the premises, how is it that they missed a few rooms here and there? This whole 'stumbling' to discoveries bullshit doesn't fly and I felt it was a weaknessin the film.
I also felt that the traps weren't really used to their full extent, I'd have liked to see the filmmakers go a little farther. Besides which, what serial killer uses a fucking doll to scare the shit out of people? At this point what would your audience not believe? I say push the envelope. I would have also liked to see more traps, there were eight people to start with but not all of them died from traps.

Now aside from these gripes, Saw II was a twisted ride, if you enjoyed the first one then you'll likely get a kick out of this one. The film is well paced and has some nice surprises in store, I especially enjoyed the twist ending and look forward to Saw III next year, if only for the crazy traps the filmmakers will think of next. So until then, wait till dark and give this one a spin, it's not the best horror out there but it sure as hell is a fun one.

Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click here.

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