JB & The Chop Do: Saw II (2005)

Today we return with a look into and offer valuable insight on Saw II.  Will we enjoy it more than the irritating (IMO) first one? Will anyone saw off their own foot?? Will there be a mention of cockatoos and corpse desecrating in this post??? Read on at your own risk!

SYNOPSIS: A detective and his team must rescue eight people trapped in a factory by the twisted serial killer known as Jigsaw. – via IMDB

Picture this, you and your Beloved are paddling down a nice Venetian river, admiring the clouds, the warmth of love and tenderness enveloping you like your grandmother’s hugs.  Time, as it is, seems stopped as you enjoy the peaceful serenity of an Eden-like paradise. Later, you stroll, hand in hand up the marble steps of the resort, flower petals at your feet, sweet cockatoos walk wildly in the lobby. You are handed flutes of champagne that you sip as you pass the in-house orchestra, serenading you. In your suite, the room service has delivered the finest truffles, the softest lamb, the richest red wine; they have the windows open and the breeze blows the fragrance of roses throughout your room. You turn to the TV set to turn on smooth jazz on your satellite feed and really set the atmosphere. As the TV fires up, you soon realize you left it on the only movie channel in the resort’s network and it turns out it’s playing Saw 2 and you’re at that part where the chick is screaming and writhing around in that pit full of hypodermic needles and your asshole clinches so tight that you may never shit again and your Beloved is horrified and drops his or her glass of wine and throws his or herself off of your fourth floor balcony and as you rush to save him or her you slip in his or her wine puddle and you fall forward and hit your head on the table and break your fucking neck. That’s how I felt when I watched this scene:

Further, we can imagine, you are in Heaven with your Beloved, as well as your ancestors, both forgotten and recently passed.  It is the most lovely feeling you’ve ever experienced. In the distance you see the home you grew up in, you are finally free of the burden of tax paying and hard labor, you no longer need to worry or feel guilt or remorse. Holding your Beloved’s hand once again, you stoop down and wisp away the clouds to witness the disposition of your Earthly remains. You once again see your suite, you see the chamber-person enter the room. He is holding a tray of the finest mint sorbet the country has ever produced. Aha! He spies your lifeless body! He drops the tray in shock! The horror! Then he whips off his belt, yanks down his pants and starts really getting after it, desecrating your corpse, rogering it over and over and over again with the power of a bull, shaking the table, screaming and howling like a Irish banshee; pounding and pounding and pounding until he finally releases jizzes all over the room. The walls, the ceiling, the fireplace, EVERYWHERE! There must be GALLONS!! That’s how sodomized I felt when I watched this scene:

The point here is that I can take a lot – I will ALWAYS turn away when a spider comes onscreen but I do have a thing for needles and razor blades – they freak me the fuck out. So BOTH of these scenes were really effective to a guy like me. It’s not like I got scared and ran crying into the closet but they were both teeth gritting and uncomfortable deep breath making. How about the rest of the movie? I actually kind of liked it – I liked it more than the first, that’s for certain, and I actually thoroughly enjoyed the last ten minutes or so.

I found the camera work less irritating, the dialogues and writing much better, the acting was moderately more believable, I saw some décolletage and it was definitely a lot gorier than the first one. Actually, I think I liked everyone in this except for this guy:

#décolletage

I also liked that we got more of an explanation of why he does what he does even though I still find it illogical that he or his cronies have that much time or money to build such extravagant traps. I also liked how it ended up, back in the toilet. We now know what happened to Adam and Zep!! but still no mention of Elwes.

#looseends

For the record, I thought it was a big improvement over the first one and irritated me much less. I wonder what JB thought??

Alright, and so we move on to the second installment of the grisly Saw franchise. Even as the movie starts, you can immediately tell that they had a much larger budget to work with, and this is evident throughout the film. A big thing that counts in favour of this movie is that it is shorter than its predecessor – not by an awful lot, but by enough to make the movie tighter and quicker than the last.

Saw II definitely goes for glory with the icky scenes, spending much more time on the nasty predicament that each and every one of the people is suffering, as well as their just punishment. The last movie had gore, sure, but not on the same level as this. Saw II wants to make you squirm and feel uncomfortable. This is the beginning chapter of the torture porn that this series is renowned for.

They brought in some plotsies again at the end, but they just didn’t have the same bang that the original did – maybe because you expect it, follow the same formula, keep it going. Eric complained in the last movie that it was loud, not something I took particular note of, but this movie? So. Much. Noise. I won’t even pretend it didn’t bug the hell out of me.

We got to learn more about Jigsaw in this one, but I agree with Chop – it still makes no fucking sense.

Anyway, I don’t have an awful lot to say about this one. I thought it was a decent watch, and a little more reveal about Jigsaw was great. Amanda returning and the end reveals tied this neatly back to Saw. The acting is better here, but again, most improvements here boil down to the bigger budget. Whannell staying on to write more here, and Wan producing meant that there is a certain continuity to it. Definitely not a bad sequel (it’s actually a pretty good one, considering how horror sequels can go), and holds itself well against its predecessor.