Saw II

Saw II (Director: Darren Lynn Bousman)













This is Bousman's first big feature. He wrote the screenplay with original Saw scribe Leigh Wannell, who was also victimized as a character in the previous installment.

The original Saw had some serious promise. I liked the idea that a killer would put his victims in some psychotic puzzle as if they found themselves in Charles Manson's own personal "Games" magazine. The original sort of got away from what made the whole thing intriguing: the premise. It started getting crazy on subplots, and the fun was sort of drained out. Still, there was a good chance that this was merely a good start. The movie grossed above and beyond expectations on the big screen and before it became a big hit on video Lion's Gate was already talking about getting a sequel out by the next Halloween. Could that be the reason this movie sucks so bad?

Briefly: Young, troubled former jailbirds find themselves in a decrepit mansion, breathing in nerve gas, trying to find antidotes by solving what turns out to be not really puzzles at all. Our main villain John (creepy character actor Tobin Bell), The Jigsaw Killer (hey, that's the media's name, pal) is working over corrupt detective Eric Mason (Donnie Wahlberg), whose son is a part of the madness being played out on a video screen. There's some grand plans for the detective, if he'll only listen.

But you're going to Saw II with the hopes that there will be cool puzzles, mindbending hints, clues, devastating missteps...you know, a thrilling horror movie with a unique premise, right? What a con job. This movie, in the year of 2005, is in the running for Worst of the Year. This is saying something, considering the product we've seen this year. But there will be many who come to see this, and I feel, also, many will come out singing its praises once they see the lame-ass trick ending. I admit, it's the best part of the movie. Too bad that by rule the other stuff in this film suffers, and suffers greatly, from it.

The "puzzle" seems to be nothing more than uncovering one room after another, without really ever solving puzzles that they encounter. And ultimately, it doesn't matter whether they do or not. My eyes kept searching for something interesting on the walls, clues to something grand and exciting, something that would make all of this engaging. But noticing that the walls were empty I realized that artistically, this represented the filmmakers' collective imaginations. This is a movie with an ending on its priority list, one that will take an uncomfortable ride in a canoe crossing a waterless expanse to get there. Your hands will be bloody, your arms sore, and it won't be worth it. You would cry, if you had gotten any nourishment to produce tears.