How do you make a sequel to something that wasn’t intended to have a sequel? Gaslight the hell out of your audience. That’s basically what the Saw franchise does. It makes it seem like the patchwork was always there, you just weren’t paying attention.

The first Saw was indie glory, made for just 1.2 million, and obviously turning a profit.The sequel, coming from a studio, had more than double the budget. It also had a larger cast, instead of focusing on two men in a room, it had a bunch of strangers waking up together, learning they really need to interpret Jigsaw’s rules rather well. Fo course, one of them that wakes up is Amanda (Shawnee Smith) who was briefly in the first film. She is aware of the situation, and shaken to be returning. While all of this is happening, a detective (Donnie Wahlberg) finds John (Tobin Bell) and is having a conversation with him. Why? Because one of the people in the room is Wahlberg’s son. Plot twist. That’s not the only twist, but I won’t reveal the others.

The Jigsaw victims are knocked off one by one, and some you’ll feel sorry for more than others. Darren Lynn Bouseman stepped in for James Wan as the director, and does a formidable job with a follow up, one that maintains the intrigue of who lives and who dies, the crafty nature of the traps, the overdone gore, and pulling off a twist ending just a smidge less amazing than the one in the original. This one, I could see people guessing, but the first one, I’m fairly certain no one saw coming.

There aren’t really memorable, nor are there bad performances here. Probably Tobin Bell does his best work as a man with nothing left to lose, and who verbal threats wouldn’t matter. He doesn’t care if he’s caught, which makes him more dangerous.

Donnie Wahlberg is fine based on the material given, and Shawnee Smith works well as Amanda. prior to my binge of the franchise, this was the last Saw film I bothered to see. I didn’t have as memorable of an experience with Saw II, but I knew I had seen it. And, revisiting the traps, some 20+ years later was just as fine and creative, if not occasionally disgusting. I think Saw II is not a fully worthy sequel, in that it matches the original, or surpasses it, but rather an adequate one, which is often the best fans can hope for. I’ve already seen the rest of the series as I write this, and much worse awaits fans of the franchise.

This does have audio description, which I believe was still Descriptive Video Works, narrated by Paula Hoffman. I thought it did a good job of managing the gore, and Jigsaw’s little clues along the way.

Saw II manages to keep the contained thrilling vibe of the first one, stick to Jigsaw’s skewed rules of the game, and present a rather surprising finale following a film that has one of the most memorable twists ever.

Fresh: 7.1/10