Perhaps because I’ve been unwittingly trapped by a crazed cancer patient, I’ve decided to check out the Saw films in relatively quick succession. Having already watched Saw a while ago and being moderately entertained, something inside told me that I should take the opportunity to check out the second, third, and fourth instalments of the series as they slid across my desk. Fine.
That means that this whole ordeal begins with 2005’s Saw II. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and given that greenish cinematography by David A. Armstrong, this sequel was rushed to completion and finished in 25 days inside one building save for externals. And believe me, it looks like it was done in 25 days. Using characteristically juddering and garish camera tricks and rapid-fire edits that would make most music videos seem cautious by comparison, Bousman and his Armstrong have concocted a movie that looks and feels really unsightly and meaningless.
Saw II opens with some poor unfortunate soul in a trap, of course. It’s a helmet locked around his head that will close up like a Venus flytrap should the bastard not find the key. Of course, the trap’s been set up by Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and the key is behind the guy’s eye. As the situation ends predictably, we are introduced to Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) and his son Daniel (Erik Knudsen). Matthews and his son don’t get along, which probably has something to do with the fact that the cop can’t talk to anyone without yelling or flipping over a table.
Anywho, Matthews gets called to the scene of the crime with the helmet guy and he follows some clues to locate Jigsaw’s lair. Once there, he discovers a weakened Jigsaw – he has cancer, after all – and the fact that his son has been kidnapped to play one of the killer’s notorious “games.” Daniel is in a house with a few other people and the place is filling up with gas. Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) is among the victims, as she’s been through this situation before. The story follows the people in the house as they bicker and try to find a way out. Meanwhile, Matthews and Jigsaw talk to each other about sports, needlepoint, and how the killer came to hold his worldview.
The Saw franchise is a big hit for a reason, I suppose. I’m told it’s because it appeals to fans of so-called “hardcore horror.” In my mind, there is nothing “hardcore” about Saw II. I found the whole ordeal rather tedious, with the dialogue and the performances doing nothing for the prospect of suspense. The encounter between Jigsaw and Wahlberg’s idiot cop was featureless and woolly, with Bell only sometimes reaching levels of interest. Wahlberg’s character’s basically just a tedious dolt and trashing things appears to be his only recourse when he isn’t yelling idiotically.
The character interaction inside the booby-trapped house is just as dim-witted. The characters squabble uselessly with one another, only half focusing on the actual task at hand. It seems that the writers want to portray these people as morons of the highest order and it works. The problem with such a rendering is that I found myself not caring if they got out of the bloody place or not. As if my apathy wasn’t enough, I found myself wishing for a quicker death once the actors really started hamming it up.
Stylistically, Saw II is a searing turd. Not only does Bousman’s direction grass on any actual sense of surprise with brainless cuts, camera pullbacks, zooms, and slash-and-dash editing, but the movie just looks soiled. I realize that part of the aesthetic is to give things a lifeless, shadowy sort of look. But things in Saw II just look grubby and childish, like subway bathroom grubby and childish. It doesn’t help that Bousman’s direction essentially consists of a mould of reaction shot-pullback-other reaction shot-pullback-zoom, either. After a while, I began to predict what he was going to depict next. I was always correct.
For thrills, chills, terror, and legitimate scares, Saw II just doesn’t cut it at all. It is, instead, a meaninglessly unenthusiastic exercise that isn’t even gruesome enough to make up for its weakness. If this is any indication as to the direction the series is going, I might start praying for that damn bear-trap helmet instead…
0.9/10
Trailer:
February 5, 2009 at 3:18 pm
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