Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring: Donnie Wahlberg, Beverly Mitchell, Franky G
Kevin’s Rating: 7/10
Saw 2 – 2005
This is a sequel that I’d say wouldn’t stand alone very well. You definitely want to see the first one first. This is more of the same with more people this time. Eight people in a trap house must figure out why they are there and how to escape with their lives. At the same time, there are parallel scenes, flashbacks, clues, death, and mayhem. Gruesome effects and lots of blood.
Leigh Whannell, co-writer and one of the stars of the first Saw movie, is on board again just as co-writer, which I think probably helped with the continuity.
The puzzle and twists and the unexpected are still pretty great in this one, but it had one real flaw for me: I didn’t really care much about most of the characters. They aren’t folks that I was rooting for, and while no one deserves to go the way some of them do, I wasn’t really that sad about it. For that reason, I don’t give it as high of a rating as the first Saw. But on the whole, I say go for it and check it out for yourself.