Inevitable and inevitably of poorer quality

Rating: 2/10 (10 November 2005)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
A crooked cop (Donnie Whalberg) becomes the latest target of the twisted Jigsaw (Tobin Bell.) A S.W.A.T. team has tracked the elusive killer down and has him stationed. But they've burst in at just the worst time- he has another group of victims trapped, including the cop's wayward son, in a room that's slowly filling with a deadly nerve gas. If he wants to see his son alive again, the cop had better just listen carefully...
A sequel to a successful horror film is an inevitable but also inevitably worse thing. As, once again, is the case here with the follow-up to last year's box office Cube rip-off hit Saw.
It has a few of the problems it's predecessor had. It's still very much a rip-off of Cube, a little known independent film that's developed a bit of a cult following, as well as elements of Phone Booth. Throw into the equation some stereo-typical characters (the heavy smoking, hard-edged bent cop, the wayward son, the pushy female character) and a lack of actual effective scares, as well as the obligatory rock song playing over the closing credits, and you don't have a searing film experience. The poor box office performance indicates Saw 3 might not be hitting us quite so quickly and when it does it may just be the start of a straight-to-DVD franchise. *