"Once you're in hell, only the devil can help you out."

Rating: 9/10 (3 November 2005)

I came into Saw II with pretty low expectations, since the first film was so good, but only on the first viewing, and movies these days tend to go precipitously downhill with every sequel, especially horror films. The opening sequence in Saw II is some of the most brutal stuff I have seen in a horror film in years, and it just gets more and more painful from there. Other than the first film, I don't think I have seen a true horror film, in the classic sense of the word, since Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, which as far as completely ignoring all modern, accepted forms of aesthetics, even has something on the Saw films.
I was immediately impressed by the opening sequence, but then even more a few minutes later when the police busted into Jigsaw's crazy house and found him sitting there calmly, offering them to sit down and chat with him. It reminded me of the scene in Seven when Kevin Spacey's John Doe walks into the police station covered in blood while Mills and Somerset were in the heat of their search for him. When something like that happens, you have no idea what to expect, and finding yourself with no idea what to expect is something of a treat when it comes to watching a horror film.
Here you have this decrepit old man, dying of cancer and unable to stand under his own power (again, I had no idea what to expect when he apologized for not being able to come to them to talk, since he couldn't get up  I was sure he was sitting on a timer or a detonator or something), constantly having to breathe through a respirator, and he is surrounded by able- bodied police officers and investigators who are completely powerless to do anything to force him to tell them where the house is where the people are dying on television screens before there eyes. This is how you set up a horror film that people cannot take their eyes away from, no matter how cringe-inducing it is.
Despite a massive overuse of wild clichés like "Shut the eff up" and "I'll rip your effing head off" and other such nonsense, as well as something of a cheesy twist at the end of the movie, Saw II not only compares but quickly and decisively passes up its predecessor. I remember watching the extra features on the DVD of the original film, and I was really surprised to see that it was just a couple of guys, about my age even, who had sat down and written the movie, which had become so successful. With the release of the first of what I imagine will be at least two sequels, it has become clear that there is some serious new talent making horror movies in America, which is a good sign that I haven't seen in years.
By the way, just before I started writing this review I realized that in my review of the first Saw I mentioned that it reminded me of some of Wes Craven's earlier films, like The Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left, which is strange because in Saw II, when Jigsaw gives directions to the house where the mayhem is taking place, he gives the last piece of directions as "It's the last house on the left." I have come to think that one of the marks of a good horror film is when it can be effective on its own and still pay homage to the classics without stealing their conventions, even though thematically the films are remarkably similar.