Oh Yes There Is Blood...Lot's and Lots of Blood

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2005)

Saw II is not a movie for everyone. I mean you have to really like horror films to enjoy this flick. Hell even die hard horror fans might not like it because unlike the usual low budget horror films with a deformed man under a mask who doesn't speak at all, moves at a snail's pace and still manages to catch up to his victims, Saw II is a thinking man's horror film and I know horror fans hate to think. Saw II is a rarity. It's a sequel that is not better than the original but damn good. i think what makes these films so good is the originality in the serial killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). Jigsaw isn't a larger than life superhuman deformed man behind a mask. He's a cancer patient that kidnaps his victims and plays games with them. Unlike Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, Leatherface and Pinhead Jigsaw gives his victims a chance at survival, although it's a slimmer than slim chance. Jigsaw picks the scum of society for his victims. Drug dealers, drug addicts, hookers, etc., etc. basically people that society wouldn't miss. These are people that have done wrong in life and Jigsaw wants to show them the error of their ways. Of course this doesn't mean that what he does is justified, it's just what makes him different. Unlike the first film which had two victims Saw II has five kidnappee's all locked in an abandoned house. One of the victims is a kid named Daniel (Eric Knudsen) who is the son of police detective Eric Matthews (Cambridge's own Donnie Wahalberg, yes the same Wahlberg who is the older brother of Mark and danced on stage as a member of New Kids On The Block). Now Det. Matthews has two hours to save his son who has been notified via a cassette player, as all Jigsaw's victims, that the captives have been breathing in a deadly nerve toxin. However somewhere in the house they are being held in is the antidote. If they can find the antidote they will be alive when the doors open in three hours. if they can't they'll all be dead in two. Now Det. Matthews has to work one on one with Jigsaw or he never see's his delinquent son alive again. Saw II is creepy on a level unlike most slasher films, it could happen. There is a ton of sick people in this world and if someone like this Jigsaw guy exits I'm glad I don't know about it. Saw II like the first one had a twist I never saw coming, which is what I like about it. The victims are your typical victims. There's the sensible one Jonas (Glenn Plummer), the innocent one Laura (Beverly Mitchell), the annoying one Addison (Emmanuelle Vaugier), the expert Amanda (Shawnee Smith) and the jerk who you can't wait to see bumped off Xavier (Fraky G, I hate when actors use dumb names like that) plus the Detective's son Daniel. However the typical horror victims aside Saw II is great. If you like horror films and are begging for something different, something the genre has only done with House Of 1,000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (yes I thought the remake blew the original away, I mean how is the original so scary when you can't even see it because there is no lighting people!!!)then I highly recommend Saw II. If you haven't seen Saw then rent it first. Like the first one Saw II is the perfect hybrid of A Nightmare On Elm Street and Silence Of The Lambs. As I said before this film is not for everyone. It is graphically violent. After all what would you expect from a film that's tag line is "Oh Yes, There Will Be Blood" and has a poster that has two rotted fingers that make the roman numeral for II. On a scale of ten I give Saw II an 8. The original gets a 10. I saw this film with my wife and best friend and both my friend and I loved it while my wife didn't care for it. So there's two opinions in one review.