Review: Saw II
The first Saw came out of nowhere to be a really damn good thriller/horror film, it had an interesting premise, an original killer and a great twist ending. So a sequel was inevitable. Thankfully the sequel - unoriginally called Saw 2 - is a good film in it’s own right. Nothing on the first but it’s a decent watch.
The plot follows Detective Eric Matthews and his son Daniel, Eric and a team of police officers converge on the location of serial killer Jigsaw with the intention of arresting him. However when they find his hideout they discover that Jigsaw has a group of 8 people locked inside a house, all of them infected by a toxic gas and each of them having to perform dangerous tasks to receive antidote needles, amongst the people is Daniel. The plot is split in two, one half with Eric as he tries to follow Jigsaw’s game in order to get his son back, the second half with Daniel in the house as the group try to find a way out and fall apart as a result.
It’s nothing wholly original and it’s not anything as good as the first one - which kept things nice and simple so we could focus on the characters - but it serves its purpose and the twist at the end is a good one, again not as good as the first one but the way they set it all up is impressive.
The characters were pretty good, most everyone in the house was one-dimensional, just there to get slaughtered. There was Jonas the black guy keeping things calm, and failing, there was Obi the creepy guy, there was Laura the hysterical one with the decent rack, there was the junkie whore I can’t remember her name, she didn’t wear a bra if that helps and there was Xavier, the crazy fucked up Mexican shithouse, he ended up being the villain of the piece - outside of Jigsaw - because he was big and dumb, rather than telling Jonas that there’s a number on the back of his head to open the saef he comes at him with a knife.
Daniel and Amanda fare better, Daniel isn’t much of a character but he’s likeable enough, Amanda returns from the first film, apparently needing to be taught her lesson again, of course that ends up being bullshit and she’s actually practising to take over from Jigsaw when he dies. There’s one interesting scene with Amanda, when someone is dying in her arms she wraps her arm around them and then die, you don’t hear any noise but it’s suggested she broke their neck, either as a mercy kill or something else, we don’t know and we decide ourselves.
Donnie ‘I hate my more successful brother’ Wahlberg is good as Eric, the cop who isn’t clean but isn’t dirty either, he’s in the middle of the road and completely focussed on his work and neglecting his tearaway son. Jigsaw gives him a chance to reconnect if only he can keep calm, but that proves difficult for him.
And Jigsaw proves himself a modern horror icon, a much bigger part than in the last film we learn more about him, his feelings towards his cancer, his suicide attempt, why he’s doing what he’s doing. Despite the films I really like Jigsaw, he’s one of the best horror icons ever and he’s original in his killings.
Darren Lynn Bousman takes over as director and he does a good job, he keeps certain staples of the first film like the brilliant theme tune and the quick, music video style editing - this doesn’t bother me I actually think it fits the film and it’s audience. This film is a lot more fast-paced than the last one, because we have more characters we spend less time with them and things move a lot quicker, that’s not a complaint, in fact because the film is so quick it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. This does mean that people jump to conclusions a lot quicker and things are found with ease but I’m not putting the film down too hard for that.
The traps aren’t really traps, the opening fly-trap was cool but after that it was more just sort of happenstance that they come across each of them, there was the trick door, the furnace, the needle-pit and the box, most people were killed by some outside element, I can’t speak for the other films just yet but I think these are the least impressive kills of the series.
The last few minutes of the film are really well put together, the whole film is editing so well that you don’t see the twist until things start seeming strange. The return to the first film’s bathroom was a nice touch and adding Adam’s decomposing body was a great part for fans of the first film - even better they just show him without bringing attention to who he is, you know who it is already.
Overall, am enjoyable film, fast-paced, decent acting and a good story with another great ending. I’ll say it again, it is nowhere near as good as the first film but it is a good sequel and if you liked the first you’ll like this one.
7/10