Saw II (2005)

(---SPOILER---- though there are few spoilers, it is hard to explain some points without mentioning spoilers from first film, so read with caution)

Which is better Saw or Saw 2, its a damn close race.

The first film, Saw, was a movie that drew me in, i was hooked and at the end i was on edge of my seat, an effect that very few movies have had. Saw was a fairly low budget, semi art house film that used implied violence rather than all out violence and grim scenes (bar the razorwire scene, which was pretty tough going).

Saw 2 follows the story of John (aka Jigsaw) a cancer patient who captures victims and puts them in situations which they have to over come or they will die, in attempt to make them value their life. An interesting narrative within Saw 2, is that Jigsaw is caught by a SWAT team and detective Eric Matthews. Matthews had previously been called out by jigsaw with a message left on on of his traps. When they find jigsaw he tell Matthews that he has something that might interest him. He guides him to a set of monitors that reveal he's trapped a group of people in a room, with deadly gas being aired into the room. If he doesn't follow his rules, they will die in 3hrs, one of those people, is Eric Matthew's son, Daniel.

What's interesting about this narrative is that it takes a very mainstream approach. a group of people in a situation having to work together, is very much a blockbuster teen-horror movie narrative. This is huge departure from original saw, and it does feel, sometimes like they sold out. Not only in the teen-horror mainstream narrative, but also with the traps. The traps were actually a very small part of Saw, only about 4 traps were featured, Saw 2 jumps up the traps count. It does feel like they called a meeting and said "nobody cared about the subtle parts of film and want traps, make more traps, make more money." However, it isn't just traps, just alot more. In a way you can very easily seperate the film into two parts. The main trap of people in house is your money making hook, but the scenes with jigsaw and matthews are more of a throw back to original. IMO the best bits of the films come from those scenes, tense cat and mouse between the two, sharp script and brilliant intensity, in those scenes, makes the movie. Grizzly out right violence is plentyful (though not quite much as Saw III) and has more narrative importance than Saw III. With references to original saw , horror movie influences ("Last house on the left") it adds depth to what could be a pop corn sequel.

In fact, though more mainstream, the scenes with jigsaw and matthews are so rich in intensity and top notch cinetography, pulls this into a cut above the rest. My favourite of Saw movies often swiches between 1 & 2. Acting apart from Tobin bell (jigsaw) & Donnie Wahlberg (Matthews) is bit shakey but they were people stuck in a room with little effort to explain deeper character attributes, so they did pretty well. The editing and cinetography is top notch and not much of a difference from Saw. Just more of fast edits and music video style cuts. All in all, not as subtle as Saw, but as sequels go, i really really liked it. High intensity, hooks you in just as much as first one..the ending, well its awesome and just as good as Saw. I very much recommend this, but see Saw 1 first.