Saw 2

Review by Clint Morris

Seeing low-budget goosebump-provoker Saw (2004) go onto box office glory was akin to cheering on a newbie's win at the Brownlow.

It's an admirable win, but at the same time, you know others have played better and that it's merely the hype surrounding the promise of the player that's got him the gong.

Not surprisingly, since Saw single-handedly resurrected its parent studio, a sequel was rushed into production.

And though it's only been twelve months since Aussie boys James Wan and Leigh Whannel's bloody blockbuster was unspooled at theatres, it's amazing what that little bit extra playing time has done for the player.

Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) has discovered the whereabouts of the evil 'Jigsaw Killer' (Tobin Bell), the evil chap whose got a penchant for plucking innocent people from their existence and making them play 'life or death' games.

Yet when the detective and his team arrive, they discover the game is far from over.

They may have their man - who, conveniently enough, is dying of cancer and looks as if he's about to keel over before the credits have even rolled - but he's got one last game to play. The coppers discover some monitors in the villain's lair, and displayed on them are five strangers (one of whom is Matthews' son) are trapped in a room together and pitted against a few booby traps - and each other - in a fight for survival.

What could have been a straight-up facsimile of the well conceived but only adequately executed original is much, much more.

Original writer Leigh Whannel - serving as co-writer - and director/CO-writer Darren Lynn Bousman have obviously sat down and meticulously separated all the pieces in the puzzle to make this an even more exciting jigsaw to put back together. In short, it's much better than it should be. The set-up is priceless, the pay-off is a gem, and the twists and turns are more frequent than the roads leading to Mount Buller.

Best of all, it's more chilling than the freezer room at KFC. If Wolf Creek had you on the edge of your seat, this will have your cowering under it! You'll need a tea towel to wipe your brow afterwards. Take the most unsettling of bits from the first film and Xerox it five times over and you get the picture. But to reveal any of it here would be to flog the icing from the cake, and you know that that's the tastiest bit, right?

Twice as good as the original, Saw 2 is something you never saw coming - a straight-on collision with class. Well done.

4 out of 5

Saw 2
Australian release: Thursday the 17th of November, 2005
Cast: Donnie Wahlberg, Shawnee Smith, Tobin Bell, Franky G., Glenn Plummer, Dina Meyer.
Director: Darren Bousman.
Website: Click here.

Brought to you by MovieHole