Starting out in a similar fashion to the first film, Saw II opens with an even more sickening trap before managing to weave a sticky web of intrigue, lies, deceit and death before managing to knock you off your feet once again.
Whilst many people are sceptical to see how the film pans out, I would like to point out that I tried to avoid much of the hype before going along to the first showing in my city, with no expectations.
As with the first film I was shocked by the opening but then found the film slowing to a lull by the mid point. As I tried to pick apart the ghastly clues not wanting to be out smarted a second time I realized that one should not be so quick to dismiss the power of Jigsaw’s mind and once again I was suckered into a trap only to be shocked by the revelations which unfolded before my eyes.
The film is actually no better or worse than the first film; it acts as a great companion piece and is actually more like an extension of the first film.
The traps are wince inducing, the kills are gory, the cast are great and the film is so twisted you wonder how the writers dreamt half of it up.
The film benefits from a gritty aesthetic, cool sets and gory deaths and the tone is very similar to the first film also. I also really liked the fact that they reused many of Charlie Clouser’s cues from the first film to highlight similarities between both films.
OVERALL SUMMARY
In the end, the film left me more than satisfied as it answered all my questions and then some. You can bet there will be haters who pretend to see through it and all the rest of it but it was definitely one of the most impressive pieces of genre cinema I have seen this year and I for one would love to see a third film as long as they keep outdoing themselves a little more each time.