Diagnosis: Sick!

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2006)

My review contains some spoilers (and even major ones for SAW, the prequel). This is obviously one of those movies you can enjoy most when you know the least of them in advance. So, if you didn't see it yet and just want to know if it rocks - it does! Go watch it and stop reading HERE.
The surprise is gone. We all know by now, who the Jigsaw killer is. His final entrance in SAW was the last and biggest jaw-dropper of the movie, opening the most brutal ending I can remember - "Game over", and then Adam screaming in the dark - it's not always the most violent moment that gives you the biggest creeps. John's identity no longer being secret is a typical sequel problem and most of us probably were curious, how that would be solved without falling behind the thrill established by the predecessor.
SAW II selects an offensive and very successful approach. By having the police "capture" John early in the movie, by placing him before our eyes right from the start, it makes clear: this is not about finding the killer, this is not about hunting the killer, this is not about someone puzzling about who the killer may be. Which artful discriminates from the prequel, and at the same time leads to the same old well known question: what is this actually all about? So while Eric tries to figure out the location of his son and the imprisoned people try to find their way out or to the cure, the viewer feels, the viewer knows, that there is more beneath the surface, that there's some master-plan behind this apparently simple setting. And, of course, there is. This way, curiosity returns to a seemingly resolved plot.
SAW focused strongly on it's main characters Lawrence and Adam, partially Detective Tapp, made us like them, want them to succeed. Even when watching it these days, I still have to remind myself, that there will be no happy ending, that this is not the kind of movie where the protagonist hugs his little daughter and beloved-again wife in the end, accompanied by top-lofty music. SAW II does not create such feelings. You wouldn't actually grieve, when almost everyone involved (well, probably except Amanda ;)) would be killed. For several reasons.
Eric, the apparent main character, isn't likable at all, even long before we learn, why exactly we should dislike him. When it comes to the people in the house - we're not really given any chance to get to know them. Of course, there are the "rather good" and the "rather bad", but we receive almost no background, no personality, no development. Not even everyone's cassettes are played (or even found). The only thing that seems to matter about them, is some mysterious common ground, which furthermore turns out to be the reason they are here. John on his part wins either way. You're never worried about him. You never doubt, that he did see this coming, exactly like it does.
Such approach to character development can be viewed ambivalent. On the one hand - it serves the purpose. Going other ways than in SAW makes the sequel more than a repeating of the old scheme. And, as we learn later in the movie, most of those were really just meaningless pawns in a game, which itself was just one move in a bigger game - which is probably exactly the feeling the viewer should obtain. On the other hand - not having an attachment figure automatically reduces the tension, takes the possible fear factor. You're not afraid of what could be behind a door, if you don't really care about the one who opens it.
However, SAW II isn't much about being scary anyway, even less than SAW. The genre says "horror" - but this horror is not meant to scare, it is meant to shock. And shock it does. Not because it shows blood and violence, but by showing pain, by showing suffering - corporal and emotional. It's not just "you're hit" and then the one lies on the ground unconscious, covered by soft-focus. It's "you're hit" and then it actually hurts.
It shows hopelessness and desperation. It shows people acting in the face of death so proximate, you're almost past the tunnel and the light. The probably most unsettling sequence in SAW was right before Lawrence starts to saw off his foot. Not the sawing itself, but those seconds, when you see him freak out and know, what is about to come, when you sit there and go like "no, no, please not, please don't do this, don't" (just like Adam by the way). And afterwards, you see his pale skin, you see him shaking, you know he's bleeding to death. Those are the moments when a movie gets to you, when it makes you feel uneasy.
SAW II is full of such moments. Do you remember Dr. Silberman's short but great appearance in TERMINATOR 3 when he finally sees the terminator and flees in horror? Amanda's awakening in the house reminded me very much of that scene - of course without the humorous and with much greater agony factor. And since one identifies with old-known Amanda right from the start, her displayed desperate fear, that "oh no, not again!" feeling directly transfers to the viewer. Gooseflesh, again, when you least suspect it.
And, of course, SAW/II is about twists. So, the last 5-10 minutes turn everything upside down in a literally traditional and surprisingly surprising way. Even having guessed bits and pieces (but mostly discarded them since it seemed just too freaky), I was totally overwhelmed.
A very felicitous sequel and a very good movie. Diagnosis: Sick!