Saw II
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Writer: Leigh Whannell, Darren Lynn Bousman
Sequel to: Saw
Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg, Erik Knudsen, Franky G, Glenn Plummer, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Beverley Mitchell, Timothy Burd, Dina Meyer, Lyriq Bent, Noam Jenkins, Tony Nappo
Seen on: 21.9.2025

Plot:
Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) has been hunting Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) for a while – and finally, he has him. As he and the SWAT team make the arrest, Jigsaw reveals that he saw them coming – and has made plans accordingly. Matthews finds that there are eight people in a ramshackle house fighting to survive and to get free. And one of the eight is his own son Daniel (Eric Knudsen).

Saw II focuses more on the police side of things than the first film and continues to build up the Jigsaw mythology. It does have a nice twist or two, but it doesn’t really rise above middling.

After having recently re-watched the first Saw movie, and then finding that the rest of them would soon be leaving from my streaming service, I figured that I would give the entire series a run-through. So, a lot of Saw is coming and not much of it is particularly good. Saw II is probably among the better ones, but it isn’t really good, either.

There is a lot going on here and choosing Matthews as the focus point is an issue because – am I supposed to feel for him? That’s a big no from my side. Even more problematic is the sheer number of people in Jigsaw’s trap. There are too many for us to get to know them and/or care for them, and the reasoning behind why some of them are included is not just the twisted Jigsaw reasoning, it’s just illogical.

That being said, there are some nice traps in the most fucked-up sense of nice. And the film hast wo really good twists that took me by surprise which is not that easy to come by. So, it definitely gets some things right.

It just isn’t enough to make me feel that the movie is actually any good. The second film in a series is often a weak point as everybody has to figure out what makes the series work. There is still hope that the rest of the series finds its stride a little better.

Summarizing: okay.