Saw II - Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (2005)
Rated R for grisly violence and gore, terror, language and drug content.

Last Halloween, the low-budget, high-intensity Saw took audiences by surprise. Fiendishly graphic and very unique, this taught horror/thriller was an astounding success. So much so, that mere weeks after its initial release, distributor Lions Gate Films announced a sequel was in the works. Halloween has come again and with it the highly anticipated Saw II.

In Saw II, detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is hot on the trails of the Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell). After he realizes an overlooked clue, the police raid the suspected base of the infamous Jigsaw. There, however, they bear witness to a grizzly game of life and death being played out on a set of computer monitors. Now, Matthews must force Jigsaw into giving up the game's location in order to save its participants, his son among them. But is Matthews in control? Or is it all a part of a much larger game?

What I liked the most about the original Saw was its originality. The horror movie industry has been in a slump lately, resorting to Japanese and John Carpenter remakes to fill seats. While not all of these movies are entirely bad, their lack of creativity and toned-down, PG-13 ratings leave much to be desired for many fans. Saw, on the other hand, was violent, thought provoking, and uncompromising. The low-budget feel gave it a sense of realism no longer common in modern cinema. Thankfully, Saw II passes the torch nicely.

Granted, there is a much greater budget this time around (evident in the larger cast, sets, and scope of the story), but the gritty realism and graphic content remained true to the original. Everything about this movie just seemed a little more polished than in Saw. The dialogue improved, the acting was a little better (fewer English accent slip-ups, anyway), and the plot had a few less holes. And although the larger cast takes away from the sense of confinement from the first one, the leading interactions between Jigsaw (Bell) and Matthews (Wahlberg) helps to keep the film localized and emotional.

The main device in the plot, Jigsaw's ironically ingenious death traps, remain intact and disgusting. Quite a bit of imagination has gone into thinking of different ways for people to kill themselves, making this movie as imaginative as it is sickening. And, as an added benefit, the blurry, super-fast motion set to hard rock music montages to show-off the traps have been reduced from the original. It still feels intense, but I think the effect was over-done in Saw.

Finally, as far as conclusions go, Saw succeeded in blowing away many a mind with its shock ending. Saw II had some pretty big shoes to fill, and although it may not have matched the pure stupefaction value of the original, it makes up for it in believability. For the hardcore fans this series now has, as well as new-comers, the last 10 minutes will leave you breathless.

The formula for Saw is so great and so open-ended, I predict this will become the Halloween and Friday the 13th of this new generation. Horror has finally returned to the big screen. I give Saw II 4 severed fingers out of 5.

Rating: 4/5 *Khyron's Choice*