Very good, but not as satisfying as the first

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2006)

** Minor Spoilers **
I'm not the type that likes shocker horror films - just not my thing. I also loathe "dead teenager movies" where the point is to see how a gaggle of teens can be killed off, one-by-one, in increasingly sensational ways. So after researching Saw I was excited to see something that was more suspense mixed with a little horror - and to my surprise and delight is was a wonderful film, properly gritty with just enough gore (mostly off-camera) to let you know what happened without making you watch it.
Saw II is not that kind of movie. While it has most of the flavor of the first, and even a couple of characters return (both alive and dead), there is much, much, more gore here. In fact, many of the puzzles seem to be to inflict torture and pain than to present any solvable situation - and we get to watch every agonizing moment of it.
The endgame is extremely clever and satisfying - I never saw it coming. So, although glad I watched Saw II, I thought the deliberate bent toward the 'dead teenager' genre a cop-out in direction. Saw III is listed for a Halloween 2006 release - hopefully it will bend more toward the original than this one.