I was in shock the rest of the evening

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2005)

For everyone who said this was not as good as the first, I disagree. It may not be as astounding in the same way, due to the fact that the first one did a fine job of desensitizing you to Jigsaw's ways, and because with four times the characters this time, you can only grow so attached to each of them to certain extents. That said, this will do everything the first one did to you (other than surprise you) even worse.
The gore, like in the first one, is about 90% in your mind. The films both do great jobs of only showing a bit of gore, yet putting a shocking, vivid, and highly disturbing image in your mind of what is happening. This film also takes twisted and wrong to the next level. If you thought the barbed wire room, the reverse bear trap, and the candle guy were horrible, you should probably go to this movie on an empty stomach.
I would be lying if I said this movie's most important plot piece isn't fairly predictable, but that doesn't mean that the other 99% of the movie won't catch you completely off-guard. Like the original SAW, the ending completely ties everything together in a brilliant twist that has your mind mulling it over for the next few hours.
Basically, this doesn't reshape the world of psychological horror the way SAW did, but--unlike most sequels--this keeps everything on a sure, steady footing. 8/10 with the highest recommendation