Saturday, November 29, 2014

Saw II

And here we go... The second movie is centered on a group of people who are locked in a house, and who we learn are inhaling a nerve gas that is slowly killing them. One of the people in the house is the teenage son of Detective Matthews, who receives a personal invitation from Jigsaw and soon meets up with him at his lair. Jigsaw won't tell him where his son is until they sit down and have a conversation. Of course, with Jigsaw it's mostly babbling about how one should appreciate their life and none of it amounts to much while they watch the people in the house try to figure out how to get out of the game.

And as usual in these types of movies, they all start turning on each other. When in a stressful life or death situation people always turn against each other and it becomes about surviving longer than everyone else, whether that's the name of the game or not. This is human nature, or maybe horror movie writers just assume it is. I will discuss this more when we get to Saw V, where another group of strangers are thrown together in one of Jigsaw's games.

For now, though, I will say that I enjoyed the second movie. It has suspense, mystery (how do these people know each other, and why has Jigsaw chosen them), and a sense of urgency since they're all slowly dying from the nerve gas. The acting is decent, and the puzzles are fun and a bit less gory than the ones to follow in the next movies.

As for continuity, this one brings back Amanda from the first movie (Jigsaw's victim who survived) and she is the one who tries to help the others through the maze in the house (or does she?).

I would like to know, however, how one builds an impenetrable fortress in a house that obviously has windows - I kept seeing light coming through and wondering why they didn't try to just break out. But like I always say, it wouldn't be a movie if the characters were smart enough to escape in five minutes. I recommend this one as a fairly enjoyable horror flick, even on its own if you've never seen another movie in the series.

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