Nicely Done

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2005)

Anytime a low budget ($4 Million) horror film beats the box office pants off all the expensive stuff is cause for rejoicing, even when it is being pushed by a major distributor (Lion's Gate).
It is hard to understand the negative reviews of "Saw II". Sure its target audience is the lamest segment of the teen market (the ones who rushed to see "Dukes of Hazard" and avoided "Serenity"), and braving the Halloween crowd at my local mega-plex required the self-infliction of a large dose of local drones and wigger girls snorting like pigs throughout the film. But this sequel is a much better movie than the original (insert "Aliens" here). Although not on the level of the more subtle "The Hole", it delivers a nice package of suspense and misdirection, plus a cute ending. And even tripling the original's budget did not make it so big that the good qualities of the original were lost to expensive effects and computer generated nonsense.
The "Saw" franchise is an idea born out of the need for low cost production design. They continue to make do with an industrial rest room and the interiors of an old house (or apartment complex) and warehouse. Which fortunately fit the atmosphere and texture that they want. Acting and action are secondary to this psychological thriller/horror film despite vast quantities of blood and gore (insert the snorting of wigger girls here). It is much better on the big screen than at home because the audio is extremely important to the whole effect.
Three characters return from the original. This time Tobin Bell has a major role as a kind of low-key Hannibal Lexter (the franchise owes a lot to "Silence of the Lambs") and Shawnee Smith reprises an expanded Amanda role. I was shocked that I actually recognized a slimmed down Beverly Mitchell in the cast, maybe not as shocked as I was at seeing a virtually unrecognizable Donnie Wahlberg. The last I recall of him was "Southie" (1998) and the seven years since have not been kind.
To really enjoy "Saw II" you have to be willing to cut it some slack in the credibility department, although not to quite the degree as was required by the original. Although several of the performances are poor (Dina Meyer-the third returnee and Frankie G especially) none are on the clinker level of Danny Glover's in the original. Likewise the plausibility factor never hits deeply into negative, there is no repeat of anything as inane as the original's family menacing scene.