Surprise Surprise

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2007)

I am not a slasher fan. I do enjoy a good psychological horror film now and again however. That is why I rented the first Saw.
After viewing the original, I was loathe to rent Saw II. I expected it to be another "part 2 in a trilogy" which usually means the movie is not the best of the three (Empire Strikes Back syndrome). I had rented it and had it sitting here for a week when I noticed Donnie Wahlberg was in it. Generally, I happen to like the pieces he chooses (same with Ed Harris) so I put the movie in.
My friend knocked on the door about 20 minutes into it. I jumped a mile. I was so scared, and she needed to de-stress so we ended up watching it together.
What a movie! We had a ball. It was so much better than the first, which was a 8 star movie in my book. The twists and turns kept coming, yet somehow I kept up. The only time we didn't was toward the end, and you could tell by the film making that we were not supposed to "get it". That is a good director. There is what I call an "MTV" sequence at the end, where things are laid out in a flashback type manner. It was also pulled off well, I didn't feel like I was being force-fed the movie back at me because I was too dumb to "get it" the first time. This is also a sign to me of good film making, which you just don't get in horror films these days.
Finally, I must say I laughed out loud at the reference to Blue Velvet (when Jigsaw was doing his oxygen thing).
I highly recommend the film.