Saw II Is A Must See

WARNING: Mild Spoilers Below.

If there’s one thing that is clear after seeing Saw II, it’s that this franchise is not for the faint of heart. The original Saw had its gory elements, its in-your-face trauma, and a style of editing that will leave your heads spinning, but the sequel goes far and beyond the horror of the first film. And it was better, too.

The same elements are there. First there’s the madman they call Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) playing a sick and twisted game with people he judges in need of fixing. Then you have the detective obsessed with bringing Jigsaw to justice. And of course you have to have the slew of disgustingly intense puzzles. Yet, the premise of the main game is different this time around. This time there are eight people locked in a house full of traps and the interaction between them and with the obstacles in the house is what drives the film. It is quicker paced and the flow of the story is much more fluid. Once again the prisoners are given clues as to how to save themselves (this time from a deadly toxin), but much of the movie’s mystery comes from figuring out why they are there to begin with. The characters are actually able to feed off of each other as they are given more room to develop and change throughout the film. This is much easier to do in Saw II than it was with the two characters trapped in the single room in the first movie.

The subplot, or at least what we think is the subplot, revolves around Jigsaw’s interaction with a certain Detective Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) who wants to tear his nemesis’ head off when he finds out his son is a participant in the infamous game. Jigsaw obviously intends to test a dirty cop to see how far he would go to save his son. Still, there are plenty of scenes to go around that will make you cringe – even more than in the first film. From the very first scene of the film when a captive is forced to gauge his eyeball out with a scalpel to the scene when a player must find a hidden key in a pit full of thousands of grime-infested needles, you will be uneasy, if not queasy, in your seat.

Director Darren Lynn Bousman also continued original director James Wan’s manipulation of the sequence of events, but the explanatory montage at the end of the film far surpassed the jaw-dropping twist of Wan’s piece. Bousman actually goes as far as to tie in the two films as a single entity. He actually explains certain questions that might have been left unanswered in the original movie. The sequel brings the story full circle and to see the commitment to the elements of the first film is a nice reward for the fans. Bousman actually feeds off of the expectations that the twists and surprises of the first film may have produced and actually makes the audience doubt certain explanations he puts forth. At the same time, this allows him to pull the rug out from underneath you in an even more shocking way.

The acting was nothing spectacular. It is what you would expect from a typical horror or even a slasher flick, but the story-telling more than makes up for it. Saw II grabs you from the gut-wrenching opening scene and doesn’t let go until you leave the theater saying to yourself, “Wow, that was sick”. The film has most of what the other popcorn horror films lack – the gore and guts that are supported by compelling plot development, a suspense-driven intensified desperation, and a twist that will leave you talking about it the whole way home.

Overall Review: A-