"Saw II" horror feature ups the ante second time around

Rating: 8/10 (24 October 2006)

It's truly amazing what the right amount of hype and the right kind of audience can do for a movie; "Saw II" embraces its following so that genre veterans can be full-on prepared for another grisly gore-fest designed to test the human will to simply survive. This time, the Jigsaw killer (Tobin Bell), is out in the open, and does not speak to us through a gruesome-looking puppet or a tape recording.
As we remember from "Saw" (2004), Jigsaw is technically not a serial killer, at least in the traditional sense; he often sets up elaborate methods for his victims to kill themselves (i.e., a man rubbed down in flammable chemicals must find the combination to a safe etched in a wall before the candle he's holding ignites him, or another victim must crawl through a yard of barb wire to an exit before a timer runs out and the door slams shut).
This time, Jigsaw sets up a funhouse for eight unknown people (including Shawnee Smith as "Saw" survivor Amanda, back for round two) who are all somehow connected, and it's up to dogged cop Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) to figure out where they are and save them. As for the poor souls in the booby-trapped house, they have three hours to locate the exit, or antidote, before they are all nerve-gassed to death. They're all the typical undesirables who have to prove their worth if they are to survive by playing Jigsaw's twisted game. Matthews takes it personal because his son is one of Jigsaw's latest victims in the house.
In the director's seat this time is newcomer Darren Lynn Bousman, who shares a screenplay credit with original "Saw" screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who played one of Jigsaw's victims in the first film. "Saw II" is at least clever enough to roughly follow the same pattern as its predecessor, but is even more clever to at least build on those ideas and not repeat itself. Whannell and Bousman's script still has that rare distinction of being simultaneously brilliant and god-awful and the players are still unlikeable, but Bousman is able to keep enough of a firm grip on the material that it never slips into mediocrity or stupidity.
The nightmarish, funhouse tricks & traps scenario is something straight out of an S & M fantasy, highlighted greatly by tripped-out editor Kevin Greutert and David Hackl's twisted, goth-inspired production design. I'm sure that for this casual horror fan, "Saw II" has still provided sufficient, delightful pre-Halloween entertainment, just as "Saw" did two years ago. I would guess that "Saw III" can only bring about a thoughtful conclusion, if that is indeed what Jigsaw has in store for us later this week.
8/10