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SAW 2 (2005) Director: Darren Lynn Bousman. Hacktors: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg, Dina Meyer. Rating/5: The lowdown: Last Halloween, a small independent film with a great cast, brilliant word-of-mouth and a revelatory screenplay made horror film fans the world over take notice. Saw was original, genuinely scary and had a script that was near impossible to second guess, creating mystery and suspense throughout as you worked to solve its puzzles. So it was with genuine anticipation that I went to see this sequel, which I hated with a vengeance. To understand why I was so disappointed I need to analyze why I loved the original so much. Sadly, it makes for depressing reading... Good points: Tobin Bell (Jigsaw) is a great actor, and while I feel it was a mistake to flesh out his role as much as it is in the storyline, he does give a sterling performance throughout. That's it folks, move along! Bad points: When I watched Saw in the cinema, I can remember the crowd's intense reaction to the film. There was a constant barrage of screaming, nervous laughter, even people talking to the screen begging for relief. It was intensely memorable. None of that was present with the packed Halloween audience I sat with watching this desperate mess.      Remember how the original focused on two people trapped in a room? That worked, right? Well obviously the producers know better because now there are six people trapped in a house. Obviously the dynamic tension of having characters you care about isn't needed here either, so they are all whining, self obsessed criminal lowlifes. Then remove all of the tension completely, as Jigsaw explains what is about to happen, so you just sit and watch what you already know will go down! True, it is gory, and at times sadistically inventive but as there is no mystery; what's the point? This is illustrated perfectly by the fact that as all of the characters won't help each other, they are doomed to die because of Jigsaw's rules. It's boring.     If, like me, you enjoyed Saw because it was intelligently plotted and challenging to work out, then like me, this feeble mess will leave you seething. At the end there is a deeply unsatisfying plot twist that tries to rival the original's classic ending and fails miserably as it makes no rational sense. None of what made the first film brilliant is here: it just becomes another brainless, insulting horror film made by people who care about one thing only, your cold hard cash. Sadly I have given them mine and I doubt they will give it back, please don't waste yours. DVD Details: Saw 2 is not currently available on DVD. Overall: If you have read any of my other reviews here at Slasherama, then I'd like to think I focus on the positives wherever possible. It is incredibly rare that I dislike a movie, let alone hate it, and that ratio is even less within my beloved horror genre, but this film flat out sucks. My friends all thought the same. The audience as they piled out were all muttering that it didn't make sense and that it was not as good as the original.     I don't want lazy producers milking great films to line their pockets. Sadly this seems to be rampant in a film industry intent on endless remakes and unwanted retreads. This film, while having a bigger budget than the original is done on the cheap. Amazingly, the original script wasn't even related to the Saw franchise! After the initial film's box office success this was rushed into production, modifying a script that had nothing to do with Saw or the Jigsaw character, so no wonder it is a mess. While the first film had great actors like Danny Glover and Monica Potter who were attracted to the roles as written, the casting of Donnie Wahlberg as the lead just smacks of lack of ambition here, along with the rest of the no-name cast.     The Devils Rejects is a perfect example of a sequel that broadens the success of the original film, moving it in a new, but equally memorable direction. Saw 2 is more like the fourth Hellraiser 4: the cheap, shoddy sequel that moves the franchise into direct-to-video territory. You can't say harsher than that. Release Date: Saw 2 is now on theatrical release around the world. Reviewer: Jon Kelly. [Reviews Menu] [Home] © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present