Second time's a charm! 'Saw II' Review

Posted on October 26, 2005 - 11:44pm by michael I came into Saw II with pretty low expectations, since the first film was so good, but only on the first viewing, and franchises these days tend to go precipitously downhill with every sequel, especially horror films. The opening sequence in Saw II is some of the most brutal stuff I've ever seen in a horror film, so needless to say, gorehounds are going to get exactly what they want, and it just gets more and more painful from there. Other than the first film, I don't think I've seen a true horror film, in the classic sense of the word, come out since Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, which as far as completely ignoring all modern, accepted forms of aesthetics, even has something on the Saw films.

One of this film's strongest elements is not, however, the brutal goriness for which the series has now come to be known, but the way it maintains a steady level of unpredictability. Immediately after that vicious opening scene, police detectives burst into Jigsaw's place only to find him sitting there calmly, inviting them to come sit down and have a chat with them. A lesser horror film would concern itself with the pursuit of a madman, but Jigsaw is so well prepared that he can allow himself to be caught and then, from captivity, deliver his message that those who do not sufficiently appreciate life don't deserve it. And in a way, I can agree with the guy. Ingratitude has always been one of my biggest pet peeves, although I don't know that I would ever resort to inflicting grievous injuries and death in order to teach people a lesson.

At any rate, here you have this decrepit old man, dying of cancer and unable to stand under his own power, constantly having to breathe through a respirator, and surrounded by able- bodied police officers and investigators who are completely powerless to do anything to do anything, despite the fact that they're all heavily armed and they are watching people dying on television screens all around them. No matter how cringe-inducing the torture scenes become, you can't take your eyes away from this thing, and that's one of the marks of a good horror film.

Despite a massive overuse of wild clichés like "Shut the eff up" and "I'll rip your effing head off" and other such nonsense, as well as something of a cheesy twist at the end of the movie, Saw II not only equals, but quickly and decisively passes up its predecessor. I remember watching the extra features on the DVD of the original film, and I was really surprised to see that it was just a couple of guys, about my age even, who had sat down and written the movie, which had become so successful.

[caption id="attachment_61482" align="alignright" width="362" caption="Hehehehehe, best knock knock joke ever!"]