The Return of the Haunted House

Rating: 7/10 (26 September 2009)

Let the games continue. 'Saw II' had one great thing going for it: it brought back a true "haunted house." Since I don't believe in ghosts, let me explain – the worn-down house in 'Saw II' that the multiple victims need to navigate through is truly a "haunted" house, in my opinion. They seemed to want to up the ante from 2 victims in the first movie to 3-4 times that and have them all solve another puzzle by Jigsaw simultaneously creating a Hannibal/Clarice scene between the now practically on his deathbed, Jigsaw, and the father of one of the test subjects. That's probably a better term than "victims," as anyone who's seen the 'Saw' series, knows there's always a reason the people are there, and if they're victims, they really only did it to themselves. This is their wake-up call. Do I agree to the extreme measures Jigsaw puts these people through? Not at all. But, I didn't create the (now) long-running series. Previously mentioned, I said they up'd the ante, and they did with gore but more importantly, plot twists. Where part 1 almost started up too many twists/turns, this one is practically tripping over themselves to introduce multiple story lines (obviously setting up the inevitable III, IV+) but that's part of its downfall. While it's fun to try and solve the mystery/whodunit, it's almost exhausting to keep up with everything flashed in front of you in music-video-style. That said, I did enjoy the movie, loved some of the revolutions and it was nice to see more of Jigsaw interact, almost to the point of feeling sorry for him and wondering if he's the smartest person in the room. Perhaps he is, but putting ourselves in the opposite character's shoes, it would probably be hard for us to act differently.