Saw II Review Score: 8/10 | Date Posted: February 21st 2006 In: DVD Reviews Starring: Donnie Wahlberg, Shawnee Smith, Dina Meyer Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman Released by: Lions Gate Home Entertainment/Maple Pictures Saw II Review by Vince D’Amato | HNR Special Contributor Like the first Saw film, this new chapter also relies heavily on scenes of planned & constructed horror that work on instilling a lot of infallible tension, as opposed to completely making logical sense in the whole scheme of things. But why do these scenes work regardless? For some reason, the filmmakers can pull an audience into the world of Saw with stunning ease. And this, in my opinion, is one big part of what movie-going is all about. In this new chapter, the devious serial killer from the first Saw is back, this time he’s kidnapped the teenage son of a burned-out detective (Wahlberg) and has trapped him inside a house with six other kidnap victims. One of these victims also happens to be Amanda (Shawnee Smith), the only survivor of the serial killer from the first film. If the trapped victims can’t figure their way out of the house that’s puzzled with bizarre booby-traps in less than 2 hours, the nerve gas they’ve been breathing will kill them in a bloody, gory mess (of course). Meanwhile, Wahlberg and his partner (Dina Meyer) track down the killer known as “Jigsaw” in the first ten minutes of the film – no surprise, after the first movie, we already know who this killer is, so there’s no twist there. Instead, the movie works simply on building the ever-mounting tension of the group of victims trapped in Jigsaw’s death-house. And it works. Of course, there are a few booby-traps that seem a little ridiculous, and a couple that wouldn’t seem overly frightening if it hadn’t been for the over-stylized editing – but most of the expected gags in the movie just work on pushing the buttons of that squeamish pit in your gut. (Try not cringing when Amanda is thrown into the pit of hypodermic needles). Really, my only complaint with this whole scenario is that as part of the puzzle-solving, all of the victims discover that they’ve previously been in prison – and then most of their back-stories are simply dropped & forgotten about. I’m sure this was tight for pacing, a pretty important aspect in a movie like this – but I found myself craving a couple more answers, regardless. This over-stylized editing I mentioned is not actually limited to a couple of the gags – it’s pretty much throughout. And though not a huge fan of this myself, I was very pleased to find that not only did this not detract from Saw II – in fact, it did the job that any good editing is supposed to do for a film – it enhanced it. All in all, this is a pretty damned decent horror movie, and though it might not be impressively genre-bending – it still gets the job done, in spades. DVD Bonus Features: Audio commentary with the director, Wahlberg and co-star Beverly Mitchell (the blonde daughter from 7th Heaven). Individual featurettes on each of the killing gags set up in the film, and looks at the props, costumes and concepts. Trivia: Director Darren Lynn Bousman tried for years to get his script picked up – then called The Desperate – while producers would call his screenplay Too Saw-ish. He then received a call from a couple of producers who asked him to change the title of his story to Saw II – and then put him in touch with original Saw creator Leigh Whannel, who helped Bousman twist his script into a true Saw sequel. The original promotional artwork for Saw II (the two fingers) was rejected by the MPAA as being too graphic.

.