Saw II

Well, a pointless and disgusting film now has a sequel that tops the original.

The serial killer “Jigsaw” is at work again. His victims are sealed away in an enclosed space, and are given a “game” or “riddle” to solve in order to survive. In the main sequence, there are eight people locked away together. They can either co-operate in solving the riddle, or be antagonistic to each other and each “wing it” on their own. Logic would say they should co-operate. But when most of them are corrupt people, and the Detective’s son is in the group as well, who’s going to be logical?

While there’s a certain amount of character and plot development, and some surprises and twists, the primary point of this film is to showcase creative ways for people to be killed off.

A secondary point, as in the first film, is to attempt to turn our worldview on its head and justify Jigsaw’s actions. He’s actually portrayed as honorable, and his murders are made to appear as an art form and a valid political statement. While hardly anyone would take this seriously, there’s an unstable person in every crowd. Therefore, the potential for imitative behavior should have been (but obviously was not) a production consideration.

Language is heavy, with plenty of occurrences of f* and all the other standard profanities. And bad attitudes abound among both the victims and the cops.

There’s almost no sexual content. Some of the clothing is a bit immodest (but culturally realistic). The male victims throw some sexual insults at the female victims.

As I said, the primary drawing card is, of course, the violence and gore. The producers are going to show us new ways for people to be tortured and killed, and we know it.

My take: Skip the original, and skip this sequel. No one needs to see this.

Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.