Saw II

***
Live or die...make your choice.

As a group of various hand-picked "human experiments ripe for the psychological pickings" try to get out of a building alive as toxic poison rages inside them, notorious serial killer, Jigsaw, has his own game with a corrupt detective.




Right out of the chute, the fine folks at Twisted Pictures, capitalizing on us blood thirsty horror fans looking to have our rabid appetite for gore quenched, are provided new victim fodder for Jigsaw--the psychotic mastermind of both torturous and psychological entrapment, seemingly immortal despite kicking the bucket early on in the series (I mean we see his damned autopsy for heaven's sake!)--to initiate obliteration through "a choice". A head smashing device locked around a peeping tom snitch who rats people out can only be opened if the victim reaches into his eyeball socket! Are we entertained!?!? So he is told by Jigsaw in in his own formidable voice through an old Telly in the guise of a creepy doll face that a timer will allow him a minute or so to use a scalpel, located in a rusty toolbox (no squeaky clean cutting instruments in Jigsaw's digs), cut through an eye, and pluck a key from the socket in order to remove the iron maiden head crushing device! Well, he doesn't have the stomach to do it and the timer turns the head device loose to kill the guy. See ya!

Oh, yes...there will be blood

Jigsaw has this antagonistic and seemingly hostile predilection towards cops, him and his minions always taunting them with mind games and harm. Jigsaw's traps often include them, whether they are pawns or direct " pieces" in his diabolique.

Donnie Wahlberg gets the honors of serving a Cancer-worsening Jigsaw plenty of nervous entertainment, knowing he must uncover the location of his estranged son who is trapped in a warehouse deathtrap rigged with poison gas! Jigsaw has the chilling grin that emerges after telling Donnie his son would need to be rescued or else have poison gas filling his body eventually destroying his tissue!

Let the game begin

So an assortment of "sinners in need of salvation" awaken to find themselves in a filthy rathole with a former "rescue" once again trapped in Jigsaw's game (Shawnee Smith) with a horrifying experience to draw inspiration from. She knows there is a tape and player with instructions. A deadly nerve agent will kill them in two hours. Several vials of anecdote are in various areas of the house, including a safe in the room they awakened in. Clues to find them are planted by Jigsaw including hints on the cassette tape Shawnee found. "Back of your mind" and X marks the spot " are put out there to help them.

Remember, Obi, once you're in hell, only the Devil can help you out.

The film offers more people in Jigsaw's game than the previous film. Obi is the first, by name besides Daniel (Wahlberg's son), to be "called out" by the killer. He helped JS gather up the Brood. He also can get antidote for another party. He goes inside an oven to fetch two vials of antidote, one of which yanks a chain that closes the steel door and turns on the flames! A cartoon of the  Devil pointing towards a nozzle which turns off the gas is on the other side of the oven...sucked to be him, right? Xavier, the muscled drug dealer with a short fuse, is supposed to go into a pit of dirty needled syringes to find a key to unlock a door...he decides to toss Shawnee in there instead! Ouch! One of the most shocking, cringe worthy moments in the film.

John Kramer is Jigsaw. Saw II wants us to know him more. Each film is a way for us to understand why he is doing all of this. "Testing the fabric of human nature" after surviving a car plunge off a cliff to attempt suicide, even enduring a piece of metal stabbed in his gut from the wreckage.

Shawnee's dedication, later to be revealed in quite a twist, is certainly put to the test in her trip into the hypodermic needle pit. Wahlberg's son helping her pull out needles certainly identifies her surrender to Jigsaw's salvation. Her Amanda is the great Ace in the hand...totally believable in attaining trust and her vulnerable decent into drugs, needing guidance, Amanda is the perfect pupil for Jigsaw to adopt as his protégé. Daniel, the cop son, doesn't realize that those among him were victimized by his dad, set up for conviction despite being innocent! Quite a lure into the suspense for the film to have this kid a potential lamb among wolves.

Donnie's sins are quite a catalyst in the game in this sequel. Those in Jigsaw's trap are an assemblage of junkies, hookers, drug dealers and the like Donnie's dirty cop, Eric, planted evidence on and beat confessions out of. He is not a nice man...morally destitute and prone to violence or other unpleasant means to get his way, Eric is a right fit to be an example for Jigsaw to teach a lesson. As that door closes, he could very well suffer the very same, exact fate as Whannell did in the first film.

As far as the cast goes, 7th Heaven's Beverley Mitchell was still in the midst of her show's closing run and seems stuck with a rather underwhelming character with little back story. You could say that about most of those locked in Jigsaw's game with her. We're not even sure what she done that was so severe she deserved to be in this game besides her misfortune in being an Eric victim.  Erik Knudsen, of Continuum and Screams 4, has the luxury of being the teen kid in peril as he didn't necessarily need to be developed too much, but he's a sweet boy that fortunately has an ally in Amanda (for obvious reasons). Franky G is a monster, willing to stoop to whatever level he can to survive. The hacksaw to his throat I can only imagine that was celebrated with livid enthusiasm. Glenn Plummer is the urban criminal lifer, having spent plenty of time in the slammer. He puts up quite a fight towards Franky's Xavier, only getting a bat of spikes in the back of the head after coughing up blood as a result of the poison gas. Emmanuelle Vaugier has had quite a busy, Prolific career, including time spent in the horror genre. Her horrible fate reaching in a glass case for a vial doesn't bode well for her...particularly when she attempts to pull her arms out, learning that this trap is tricked out with pointy flesh-tearing hand claws! Xavier leaves her to suffer instead of helping her! I think when you equip a film with twice as many characters, including Tobin Bell and the cops he outsmarts (Dinah Meyer, of Starship Troopers, is a detective who has studied Jigsaw and had an affair with Eric), development has a tendency to suffer.

The ending is clever if far-fetched. Jigsaw's whole entire "gotcha!" trap plot determines on people acting exactly as he anticipates, understanding their human nature and weaknesses to such a substantial degree that they behave as he predicts almost in every way, and that everyone in the film is one step behind him. In order to jive to these Saw films, it takes such forgiveness of implausible plot devices and give yourself over to Jigsaw being able to see all angles and having every obstacle that might interfere usurped even after his demise. Can you do that?

How the sequel ties into the previous film seems forced but it keeps the formula in line...we must not forget that Jigsaw keeps it all close to home. Irony is John's specialty.

Game over.

Well, not quite.