Sick and twisted

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2005)

If you think movies like Friday the 13th or Scream are exploitive then it would be wise to avoid this movie at all costs. Since lots of blood has slowly but surely become acceptable in the theatres it's the job of sick minds behind the camera to come up with new ways to shock audiences. In the 80's, heads were being lopped off, people were stabbed and what not, and it all just seemed to get old real fast. By the time the 90's came there were very few movies that actually tried to be creative or reinvent some of the old ideas; the hit Scream movies did this, and also a little movie called Se7en. The victims in Se7en were actually not-so-great of people and were more or less tortured to death by a killer who felt completely justified. Now, we have the Saw movies, and not only are they pushing the envelope, they're cutting it apart and setting it on fire. 20 years ago you'd have to find a movie like this in the pornography section with all the other Hammer films, but today it's number one at the box-office.
The appeal is pretty clear: modern audiences aren't really shocked by simple killings anymore. Now we need to see people being tortured and mutilated to actually feel alive. What also helps is that aside from that, it is pretty absorbing. People like twists and turns, and Saw II is not too much unlike watching an episode of CSI. What is really interesting and grabbed my attention was the fact that this evil "Jigsaw killer" was not some superhuman zombie that kills senselessly, but an old man. An old man with cancer, at that! And he doesn't just randomly kill, he hand-picks his victims, and really takes time to think his sadistic plans through. A sick mind proves to be more dangerous than any machete, which is pretty frightening.
Saw II was not really much better or worse than the first one. It's bigger: there's more characters, much more blood, but probably an equal amount of twists. Personally, I prefer the first Saw. It had that indie film charm, where it's just these two guys in a room with a puzzle to solve. The game in Saw II plays out as less of a puzzle, more of a fun-house of horrors. Just like the first, there is a final "end twist." It was more believable than the first film's twist but not as scary or shocking.
I like to think I'm fairly desensitized to movie violence, but I'll admit that Saw II had me cringing at more than a few points. So for all intents and purposes, Saw II's verdict is: mission accomplished. My only concern is wondering where we'll find horror/gore films in the next ten years. How far can you go?
My rating: 6/10