A decent sequel who doesn't quite match up to the first one but is still pretty well-made!

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2009)

I give this movie a 9.5, not because it's a great movie, but because it manages to stay decent. It doesn't try to go ''Hey I'm better than the original'' like most sequels, but instead it stays true to the original recipe. The film differs a lot from the previous one: Instead of having two men chained to a wall, you have a group of people trying to stay alive by finding an antidote to the poison who will kill them in two hours. Personally, I found this to be a well-made attempt by Darren Lynn Bousman. He manages to give us another twisted story who can be understood through all the gruesome murders, and brings some new, and some familiar characters to the story. The visual effects aren't all great and the characters sometimes prove themselves to be dumb. The acting isn't all great either, except for Donnie Wahlberg, Tobin Bell and Lyric Bent whom we only see for about 10 minutes as a background SWAT officer. But on the positive side, the script is well-written and concludes itself in way as twisted as the original and the confrontation between Tobin Bell and Donnie Wahlberg reminded me of Foster/Hopkins in the Silence of the Lambs, though we can seriously notice a difference in the quality level. People should like this movie, it's the closest thing we get from Saw (besides Saw VI, which I will review sometime later). If you're not lighthearted, this movie is for you, and you really should check this series out. 9.5/10