>>REVIEW
SAW II
STARRING Donnie Wahlberg, Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith
DIRECTED BY Darren Lynn Bousman
Opens Friday, October 28
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Recently, Atom Egoyan failed to get his new film Where the Truth Lies relieved of the dreaded NC-17 rating. It seems that audiences can still be told what’s too naughty for them – in this case, sex – but brutal, disturbing violence raises little to no ire.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating one over the other. That said, Saw II made my stomach turn. A sequel to the first Saw, which saw Carey Elwes saw off his leg in a vain attempt to save himself, the sequel finds another group of doomed souls vying for a slim chance at salvation in the face of creative mutilating traps. Serial killer Jigsaw is up to his old tricks, taunting his prey with that unsettling clown doll and making them fight for their lives, although he makes it difficult.
Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is caught by the cops early on, but not before he can reveal what’s in store for viewers and the poor bastards that have crossed his path. He plans to teach detective Eric Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg) a lesson about being a good cop and a better parent – it seems he’s neither – and locks Mathews’s son with five degenerates in a house slowly filling with a deadly nerve gas. Mathews needs to find out where they are before time runs out, and those locked inside must work together to find the antidotes hidden throughout the house. Among them is Amanda (Shawnee Smith), who was the young woman who escaped death from the jaw-ripping device in the first film (I guess she hasn’t smartened up). Getting at these antidotes doesn’t come without a price. Trust me, the ways in which some of these people get dispatched is truly disgusting.
I won’t ruin the method or plot twists that follow, suffice it to say there’s lots of gore and blood spray, and the ending is as surprising and confusing as the first film (and ensures more Saws to follow). Director Darren Lynn Bousman winds the tension up effectively. More than anything, Saw II is an effective exercise in the importance of editing, and only falters during a pointless chase scene and the obligatory series of cuts that puts the puzzle together for you at the end. Still, if a gory mind-fuck is what you’re in the mood for, Saw II will do. |
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