Worthy Sequel.

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2006)

"Saw II" begins with another poor victim of the relentless Jigsaw serial killer (Tobin Bell), who is part of another "death trap" that will squash his head like a pumpkin unless he can remove the key - from behind his eyeball. Need I say more? We then are introduced to a group of more victims placed in one of Jigsaw's horrible traps. They each awake in an old, rundown house in a sealed off room. Disoriented and confused, the helpless people don't know what to do. Then, they find a tape player that explains the deadly nerve gas they are slowly breathing in, and how they must find the antidotes that can save them. Among them is a previous victim, Amanda (Shawnee Smith), who is familiar with Jigsaw's games. It then becomes a constant battle of life or death as the unlucky people begin to turn on each other.
I have to admit, this was a pretty good film for being a horror sequel. In most cases, sequels don't even come close to meeting the expectations set from the original movie, but "Saw II" comes really close to it. The thing I liked most about this film was how there were more characters to interact with each other - there wasn't a whole lot of character development per se, but it was interesting how all of them interact and ultimately turn on each other. Just goes to show how much will some people have to save themselves, and how selfish some people are. I really liked that aspect of it.
The acting wasn't bad at all, I thought everyone involved did a pretty good job, so I really have no complaints there. Good performance from Donnie Wahlberg as a cop, and Shawnee Smith as a returning victim (?) of Jigsaw. The script was clever and the ending was a little bit of a shock for me, and the film ended on a note quite similar to the original. There's plenty of violence and elaborate traps for the ill-fated characters (even more elaborate and grotesque than what the original film had featured), so gore hounds should really enjoy this stuff.
Overall, "Saw II" is a worthy sequel that comes close to meeting the standards that the first film set. It was clever (as expected), suspenseful, and cringe-inducing, as this series should be. Fans couldn't have asked for a better sequel. Not bad, not bad at all. 8/10.