Vengeance begets more vengeance. Sometimes it's good to walk away.

Rating: 8/10 (4 November 2005)

As a Christian I always find it funny when people accuse me of legalism, and hypocrisy. For don't we live in a world where everybody expects everybody to do and act the way we want them too? Don't we all at some point ostracize people for being a little off o r out of place? The freaks call the beautiful stuck up, and the beautiful pay no attention to the ugly. We flip off the guy who cuts us off and we hate him because he inconvenienced us for one small moment. We're all guilty of doing somebody wrong, and then when we are wronged we expect the other person to apologize. We want vengeance, and we want the world to think and act just like us. If not we hate them. Trust me we're all guilty at some point, even I am That is just one of the wild thoughts that permeated my mind while sitting through SAW II. Yes, I'll admit it's odd that I would have a somewhat religious epiphany while people are hacking themselves to pieces. But that's the beauty of Horror. It's about processing the horror into something productive, while enjoying the scares.
The Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bond) is back. This time he's locked a bunch of people in a gory fun-house of his own design. The house is slowly filling with a gas that will kill the inhabitants unless they can find the antidote. One of the Jigsaw Killers victims is the son of Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), a local cop. Matthews and the local swat team have the Jigsaw Killer in their grasp. What follows is a psychological game that matches the law with a man whose unafraid to die.
SAW II is one of those rare sequels that works because you get to find out more about the psychopath. In this film we get to delve into the mind of the Jigsaw Killer (who goes by the name of John), see a little more about why and how he operates. Tobin Bond keeps him creepy and yet charismatic enough to be believable. Like a poor mans Hannibal Lecter there is a method and meaning to his madness but he's not a cartoon. He's a man on his deathbed with nothing to lose, and a theory of life that is so practical that if he channeled his concepts into motivational speaking and not murder and carnage he could be a millionaire.
I liked that the movie didn't play fast and loose with the carnage and at the same time realized when enough was enough. In this PG-13 Horror movie world it's so easy to pull back to reach a younger audience. But SAW II is smart enough to raise the bar, and let you process the mystery. Whose holding the cards? Is it the Jigsaw Killer? Is it the cops? I also thought the ensemble in the house worked well together, I just wish the screenplay had given them more to do than just stumble around and scream at each other. I also thought the stunning revelation about "X marking the spot" came far to late for the characters to really care about who was in the picture. When your life is almost over you're not really worrying about who put you in jail.
Director Darren Lynn Bousman tries his dandiest not to make the same mistakes of the first film, by laying off the camera tricks in favor actually allowing the actors to act. Sure he wiggles the camera around a little, adds some quick cuts to places. But he doesn't use those devices to amplify action that's boring. My one little qualm was with the screenplay. I liked the stuff in the house so much more than the police procedural parts. I wished that the movie had delved into the whole numbers thing and the mysteries of the people in the house a little more.
SAW II is engrossing if you let it be. On the surface it could be construed as just another slasher knock-off. But the power lies in the Jigsaw character and how and why he's manipulating the background. It's also a film that explores our own dark side. Jigsaw's real beef with the people in the story is that their wasting their lives. Their killing their bodies, they're hurting other, and their tearing their families apart. But the truth lies in the fact that legalism, and your own pursuit to change another persons thinking can also be skewed. So the next time you cut that guy off, or the next time you cut off that guy. Just think to yourself, I've been wronged but should I really wrong back. Vengeance begets more vengeance. Sometimes it's good to walk away.