Saw II

For once the tagline couldn’t be more apt – there is indeed plenty of nastiness in this speedy sequel to 2004s low budget hit. As in the first movie, the Jigsaw killer is doing his best impression of John Doe in Se7en, trying to make people appreciate their existence more by placing them in outrageously unpleasant scenarios which usually involve either their messy demise or some kind of outrageous (usually physical) sacrifice. Imagine, if you will, having a bear trap on your head. The only way to get it off is by unlocking it with a key. But the key just happens to have been embedded behind your eye, and the only way of getting it out is with a rusty scalpel. These are the kind of stakes that the poor participants in Jigsaw’s wicked games face, and if you think that one is bad, there are plenty worse to come.

Jigsaw has been caught. But as he’s about to be dragged in for questioning, he reveals his hideous gambit – the arresting detective’s son has been trapped in a grimy house full of traps, with the only link between father and son the row of video monitors in Jigsaw’s house of pain. So begin the parallel strands, as father desperately tries to save son while son desperately tries to save himself.

Saw II takes the original premise and expands it horizontally – now there are more people in a bigger place and with more traps. While this somewhat loses the pure claustrophobic tension of the first, it does mean that the creator’s perverse imaginations can go into overdrive and think up some particularly revolting ends for their one-dimensional characters to meet. What we essentially end up with is a gruesome slasher film with the simple twist that the killer isn’t even in the building any more. It’s good, gory fun for those with strong stomachs, but for the weak of heart it’s probably best to sit this ride out.

Greg Taylor