Friday 15th October 2010

Saw II

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Year: 2005
Stars: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg, Erik Knudsen

Another movie that had been sat not being watched by us for a good two years or so. So when Dan came home and said "I'll watch a horror movie if you like", I figured it was finally time to give this one a try. There were two reasons it hadn't yet been watched - the first was that Saw creeped me out, and I didn't want to watch this by myself. The second was that we were both suspecting a lot of gore, and we often watch movies when having our dinner...

Well, neither of these things were a problem. Saw II is considerably less creepy than Saw. I think it's to do with the fact that you see more of the killer (a lot more), and it feels much less claustrophobic - we're no longer confined to one room here. There's also (I think) a lot less gore than the critics would have you believe. That's not to say there aren't some grim scenes, but this doesn't even have the goriness of a Tarantino at his worst.

Having said all this, Saw II isn't a bad movie. It has it flaws (the police scenes slow the action considerably at times, and some of the character's motivations just don't make sense), but the film is a rare example of a horror film that actually manages to redeem some of its credibility with the ending. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before in a horror movie! If you want a creepy, keep-you-awake at night horror, watch Saw. But this isn't the awful sequel it could have been.

Rating: 3 out of 5