We come for the depravity, we stay to connect the dots

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2005)

I saw the first 'Saw' film with a good friend of mine. She left in tears, crying all the way home.
Naturally, we had no choice but to set off for the second.
What really intrigued me before we even got into the theater was the active carding going on. Since when does this happen? I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I barely knew the concept even had merit in Montreal.
Naturally, I expected the gore to blow my mind.
Interestingly enough, it did not perform such an action. Mind you, this film is truly gruesome when it decides to be. One second you'll have generic paddlin' gore and then the next your eyeballs will feel violated and your skin will crawl for the poor fool on screen.
The gore isn't what matters here though. There's a lot going on in this film. I'd go so far as to say that its very machinations are superior to its prequel in every way, exempting the lack of a consistent "ick" factor and one very depressing aspect of the film...
The characters are horrible. There is no one to love in this film. Well, okay, the most likable character is Shawnee Smith (who returns from the first film to endure some more pain) but it's hard to pay attention to how good she is when everyone around her is attracting your eyes and ears with just how much you wish you were knocking their teeth out.
Oh yes, and Jigsaw is an extremely likable character despite being our featured antagonist.
What I intended to get at (before I decided to ramble) was just how fun it is after this movie, to piece everything together. While watching, certain things will seem foolish or flawed (and as I've told "plot pickers" of the first film, this would be false with one possible exception) but inevitably come together and before you have time to process it, something else will make sense and by the end of all this processing you've still got some thinking to do on the way home.
Awesome Tobin Bell, awesome Shawnee Smith, some lukewarm but welcome Dina Meyer and a whole lot of uncomfortable squirming every time someone is about to get punctured, prodded, sliced, diced or otherwise ripped to pieces by god knows what.
7/10 or 3 and 1/2 stars