Far from ideal but no doubt the franchise's finest hour - 7/10

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2019)

Saw II (2005) - "Saw II" follows on from the hugely-successful 2004 chiller "Saw" and is one of the rare occasions where a decent sequel outshines a decent original. I like the original Saw just fine, it's nothing too special but it has some interesting concepts and ideas besides being extremely unnerving; Saw II is about the same but it approaches things in a way that for me elevates it just ever so slightly above its prequel, making it my favorite of the Saw movies.
In Saw II we once more hone in on the Jigsaw Killer, the enigmatic and insane serial killer who has made it his life's goal to test people's desires to live by putting them through torturous traps and life-or-death games. With a whole new cast of characters forced through the killer's deadly games, including a dirty cop's troubled teenage son, Saw II has a rather-loose and tenuous connection at best to the previous film, shifting its focus more towards the action and police procedural side of things as opposed to focusing on ambiance and atmosphere like the first movie did. While there is a lot of what made the first film so unique and chilling in this one, I do think that Saw II is ultimately the more entertaining of the two due to the change of focus that it employs-although I do think that the police procedural elements were handled somewhat better in later entries in the franchise, the blend of crime thriller and visceral horror truly makes Saw II stand out from the rest. To a degree the movie is also acted pretty well for a horror sequel, with Donnie Wahlberg-Mark's brother-delivering a visceral and intense performance as an unhinged and violent homicide detective, a role that I never would have seen the lead singer of New Kids on the Block playing in a million years. Tobin Bell is great as always as the sick and twisted serial killer; newcomer Erik Knudsen gives a very vulnerable, sensitive performance as Eric's troubled son; and Shawnee Smith takes a terrifyingly realistic turn as a mysterious woman who knows a thing or two about the mysterious situation Daniel and the others have found themselves in.
Saw 2 follows the corrupt Detective Eric Matthews as he tries to rescue his estranged teenage son Daniel from the clutches of the killer and his associates after the latter is kidnapped and thrust into a horrifying game alongside seven strangers who each hold dark secrets. With Daniel in grave danger, Eric desperately races against time to right his wrongs and save his son from certain death, going to any lengths necessary to secure his son's freedom. Having a crooked detective's teenage son forced into a game alongside dangerous strangers with serious criminal records is an intriguing and tense concept, and for the most part, its execution in this film is handled pretty well. Where the film focuses on Daniel trying to survive amidst a motley crew of ex-convicts such as the fearsome Xavier is where Saw II really shines, but what ruins it for me is that much like in the other films there is absolutely no resolution to anything that happens in this film. The lack of resolution to anything in Saw II is a recurring theme of sorts throughout the franchise and leaves me with the impression that the sequels were made as hollow and cheap cash grabs given that they all follow more or less the same structure as the original. Something else that bothers me about Saw II, in particular, is how unlikable a lot of these characters are: the ex-cons Daniel works alongside aren't particularly interesting characters and not much depth is given to them, and Xavier is no doubt the worst character in the film. Eric himself is hugely unlikable at times as a lead protagonist owing to his being a loose cannon to say the least; his relationship with his son or lack thereof is never resolved, almost as if the film is saying he "deserved" it despite their father-son relationship adding a whole new dynamic to it.
In spite of its flaws, however, Saw II is a perfectly passable sequel that raises the bar and the stakes for the franchise after a decent first film. Though it has none of the atmosphere that the original had and doesn't add anything new to the franchise Saw II is well-acted and extremely intense, with numerous harrowing and pulse-pounding scenes of terror. Barring the original Saw II was the franchise's finest hour, shame the series only goes downhill from here.