Saw II (October 24/05)

Less than a year after the original hit theaters comes Saw II, a decent sequel that's saved by a spectacular denouement. Prior to that point, though, Saw II feels awfully conventional - something that certainly couldn't be said of its predecessor - and it's hard not to wish that screenwriters Leigh Whannell (who wrote the first one) and Darren Lynn Bousman (who also directs) had infused the movie with the same sort of trickiness and ingenuity that was hard-wired into the original.

Instead, the film concerns itself with a pair of concurrent storylines - eschewing the disjointed structure of Saw in favor of a far more traditional and linear vibe. Jigsaw's latest sadistic game finds a group of disparate characters trapped inside a dilapidated old house, where poisonous gas is being pumped into the circulation. They have less than two hours to find a way out before they begin dropping like flies, a task that's exacerbated by the surfeit of traps and puzzles hidden throughout the house.

Meanwhile, grizzled detective Eric Mason (Donnie Wahlberg) - how grizzled? He smokes and drinks, he's been demoted to desk duty for shooting an unarmed suspect, his wife's left him, and his son hates him - finds himself face-to-face with Jigsaw after the killer specifically mentions him at a crime scene. Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) claims that if Mason sits and talks with him for a few hours, his son (one of the hapless inhabitants of the deadly abode) will escape from the ordeal unscathed.

Saw II evidently started out as an original screenplay by Bousman, which certainly explains why the film occasionally comes off like a standard horror flick. To be fair, this really only applies to the sequences set within Jigsaw's cavernous, booby-trap laden dwelling. That the characters are essentially walking cliches - the prisoners include such stereotypes as the slutty girl, the tough guy, the panicky doomsayer, the scared kid, etc - probably doesn't help matters, nor does a thoroughly inexplicable third-act development which finds the survivors chased around by one of their own.

Having said that, there's no denying that the sequences revolving around Mason's interrogation of Jigsaw are extremely fascinating - primarily thanks to a pair of fantastic performances from Wahlberg and Bell. Bell, in particular, deftly steals every single scene he's in, effectively transforming Jigsaw into one of the most deliciously sinister screen villains this side of Hannibal Lecter. And then there's the film's conclusion, which is simply astounding and comes awfully close to matching the original in terms of sheer shock value.

In spite of the film's few flaws, Saw II remains a worthy sequel - if only for Bell's wonderfully entertaining performance and the jaw-dropping finale. And this is certainly one of those movies that'll work a whole lot better amongst as large a crowd as possible, if only to witness their collective horror during the cringe-worthy needle sequence...