Saw II: Movie & DVD Review (2005)

(Originally posted 2005)

Darren Lynn Bousman’s “Saw II” is an ugly, joyless horror movie that deserves to be tossed into the business end of 1988’s “Woodchipper Massacre.”

From a script he co-wrote with Leigh Whannell, who wrote and co-starred in the first film, the movie is the sequel to last year’s “Saw,” a restroom bloodfest featuring two unlikable types chained at the ankle in a moldering men’s room thanks to the handiwork of a nasty little serial killer zealot named Jigsaw.

For them, the only way out of their unhappy situation appeared to be by dancing through the trickiness of self-amputation--in order to slip free from the chains that bound them, they needed to saw off the lower half of their legs.

The film’s initial scenes of nicely done suspense were ditched in favor of focusing on two characters for whom it was impossible to root. As such, the movie came down to base elements of degradation, amputation, humiliation and murder. Is there fun in that? Maybe for the sadist, or perhaps for those unaware of how effective a great horror movie can be. But really, “Saw” only ever was designed to be gore for the sake of gore, with the increasingly hysterical performances clanging throughout.

“Saw II” begins on a similar note and then supersizes it to the point of implosion. In the opening scene, a young man wakes in a dungeon to find his right eye bloodied and his head strapped to a contraption that resembles a bear trap--albeit one with a few hundred teeth, all aimed at his face.

He’s given one minute to find the key to unlock the trap, which just happens to be surgically implanted behind that bloody eye. Does he value his life enough to dig out his eyeball and retrieve the key, or will fear prevent him from doing so and thus allow the trap to spring loose and pierce his head? For Bousman and Whannell, these are the situations that burn through their minds.

What ensues is the film’s real focus--eight quarreling, previously imprisoned folks locked within an abandoned house. There, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) has rigged the air vents to leak poisonous sarin gas that will rot the lot from within. To stop their lungs from filling with blood, they must either break free from the house, which proves impossible, or piece together a puzzle that will allow them access to an antidote, the likes of which is hidden within a series of death-inducing traps.

With Donnie Wahlberg and Dina Meyer as the detectives on the case, and Frankie G, Shawnee Smith and Glenn Plummer among the house’s scrambling inhabitants, nothing that’s wrong with “Saw II” comes down to the acting, which is fine for what it is. But some might wonder what pleasures there are to be had in a horror movie that eschews suspense and ghoulish humor in favor of unrelenting torture. Is this enough to keep the franchise going? The box office says yes, so expect a third film.

Grade: D-