A taught thriller that ties perfectly to the first movie.

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2005)

The first two Saw films have certainly found its audience and is inevitably here to stay. I have heard that they are already beginning production on Saw 3. And why shouldn't they? Saw was great tense thriller and the second one was as well. The two films tie in perfectly creating a whole, which is very rare in the horror genre, because most horror movies you can watch each film without having seen the predecessors and still enjoy it.
Saw II begins with a man in a room with a "DeathMask" around his face. Jigsaw, the infamous killer from the first one, appears on a television screen in the room. Just like in the first one, he wants to play a game; he explains the rules to our friend in the chair and then begins the timer. I won't tell you what the game is or what happens, I will leave that to you to discover and squirm in your chair as I did.
After the opening scene we see our main character. He is a detective who does not have the best relationship with his son. He stumbles along some hints that lead him to Jigsaw and soon discovers that he will have to play a game of his own. A game that involves his son and about four or five other people trapped in a house full of lethal nerve gas. They only have two hours to find the antidote to the nerve gas. Each of the antidotes is placed in a trap, so you can image the carnage that ensues. As our hero-the father played by Donnie Wahlberg-plays his game with Jigsaw, which consists of him simply sitting there and talking to Jigsaw while this group stumbles through the house killing themselves through the traps, the intensity builds and I found myself on the edge of my seat just like the first one.
I have been asked why anyone wants to go and see a movie like this. It is a sadistic film, and I have joked about how the writers need to be locked away. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the writers are ingenious. The writers have put together a taught thriller that draws you in and you find yourself biting your nails. That's what a good movie does; it puts you in the fray. I also feel like it is ingenious because it is basic human nature to want to see things like that. We are a curious people and when we here about people being put in situations like this, we want to know how far they will go.
I loved this movie. I loved the first Saw and to see how the two tie together makes them that much better. This is a series that draws you in, makes your heart pound and your fists clench. When a movie has done something like that, then it has accomplished its goal. Allowing you to leave this world for a few hours and enjoy something new altogether.