There are moments in most of the biggest horror franchises where you either keep the funk alive and breathe life into it, or you simply help expedite its death. While Nightmare on Elm Street 2 practically killed the franchise before it got going, part 3 revived it and in total, we have 9 Freddy films. Friday the 13th was set to be content with just 4 films, but part 4 was so goddamn good that they had to run it back again, suck horribly, and still have enough momentum to give us part 6 which allowed the rest to be made. I feel that the franchise got revived twice and in total has 12 films. Halloween 3, those two words are enough to cause a goddamn riot in the right circles of horror fans, but fortunately, part 4 brought back Michael and we now have 11 Halloween films and I believe #12 is on its way. This list goes on and on, the TCM remake, Bride of Chucky, Phantasm III, Exorcist III, and so on. The other fate is that your films just progressively get shittier. Hello Children of the Corn, Leprechaun, Insidious, Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn, Hatchet, etc.
So why the history lesson, right? We’re only on Saw II. You can’t revive a franchise on part 2 a year later. You need to have a failure first, don’t you? Here’s the thing. Saw didn’t leave enough meat on the bone to make a simple carbon copy for a sequel That would have abjectly failed. So this franchise was set up for failure until they decided to keep half of what worked and reinvent itself, and that is how this film saved the franchise.
Speaking of game-changers, let’s talk about my Roku Ultra. So I am watching these films late at night. It’s hot as a mother fucker out there. That means AC and or loud fans. That means the volume has to increase. Well, it is night time and I don’t think that this would be appropriate to play loudly at 4 AM. Some of the Roku models have a headphone jack built into its remote control. So now, I can contently play any of these loud, blood curdling screaming movies and not upset any of my 70-year-old neighbors. Roku, you done changed the game, that’s what you did, playa.
With all of that being said, it’s time to get going with my personal favorite Saw film, and the film that got me to rethink and rewatch the original and see it differently. We no longer had Gordon, Adam, Tapp, or Sing involved in this one. Some of our other friends return and we get a New Kid on the Block who play I Dudditz in Dreamcatcher. That’s right, Donnie Wahlberg, who I happen to think is a damn good actor.
Start Film
A man wakes up in a chair with a mirror in front of him. His one eye is bloody. He is in what can best be described as an iron maiden bear trap for the head. Ohhhhh, there’s my puppet and he wants to play a game with Michael. Yes sir. And I am already invested. Michael has followed others, he’s a snitch. Oh yeah, it’s basically a venus flytrap. That would have been the smarter description. The key is right before his eyes. He has to dig behind his eye for it. He starts the timer in a rag. He finds a scalpel. He tries to cut his eye. The struggle is real. He can’t force himself to do it. He cries for help. And he’s a dead motha fucker now.
There’s Donnie. He’s playing the role of Detective Eric Matthews. I think he’s a detective. Wait, I recognize that name, as should anybody in their late 30’s or older. Corey’s older brother on Boy Meets World was also Eric Matthews. Clearly, this can be no coincidence. Eric has to go to jail to pick up his son, Daniel, who likes to steal shit and gets into too much trouble. Daniel is kind of a dick and Eric is a bit of a hothead. So Daniel goes back to his mom’s because he doesn’t want to stay with dad. He calls Daniel but gets no response. Hey, there’s Kerry again. Kerry brought Eric into ID Mike. Eric notices the jigsaw pieces. Michael was an informant that was working for Eric. On the ceiling, it says “Look Closer Detective Matthews”.The plot is already thickening. Eric and Kerry used to be partners and Eric is all whiny about his life.
The SWAT team is going to bust up the joint. There’s John eating breakfast. How many mother fucking times are these dumbasses gonna say “go go go go”? They break into this place. It’s a big caged in place. They set the tripwire and there’s my puppet. One officer is down and like 3 or 4 of them just got fucked up. They finally get to John and he is hooked up to some IVs or some other shit of that nature. They apprehend him. Eric asks him if this is close enough. Eric says to get john out of there. John says that he will have to stay. He alludes to something in another room.
Well, there is a big canvas or blanket covering something. Oh, a bunch of monitors. The plot has just thickened. Eric sees his son along with like 10 other people. Eric is all kinds of pissed. Eric has 2 hours to figure out where Daniel is or else the gas in his nervous system will cause him to bleed out every orifice. “There will be blood,” Eric asks John where Daniel is and John assures him that he’s in a safe place. There’s a clock. Eric tries to call Daniel, but John has recorded over the voicemail message.
Inside the building where Daniel is, we get to meet some people. We’re about to meet a lot of people. Xavier is the hothead, Jonas is the black dude, Addison is brunette, Laura is blond, Obi is a guy that you can’t quite confuse for anybody else, and that maybe it. Keep track or watch the black police officer that is with Eric and Kerry. He seems potentially important.
Oh yeah, there’s also Gus, who is the uptight middle-aged white dude. I really like Jonas as the calm voice of reason, but Xavier is also great. Oh, the girl who was on the ground has woke up, and it’s Amanda from the original. She freaks out about being there. Obi is simply lurking as Amanda is in a panic looking for something, the recorder. If they earn salvation than in 3 hours, the door to the house will open. Unfortunately, they only have 2 hours to live because of the nerve gas. The only way to leave is to get one of the antidotes that are littered throughout the house. There is one in the safe in front of them and the combination is in the back of their minds. The order of the numbers can be found over the rainbow. Once they realize why they are all there, it may make sense. Once again, X marks the spot. There is a note saying not to attempt to use this key to get past the door. Xavier naturally says fuck this. Gus thinks it is a good idea, Amanda says it isn’t. They turn the key and Gus looks through the peephole and Gus gets a bullet in his bubblegoose. Jonas asks Amanda how she knows all this stuff about Jigsaw and she reveals that she’s played the game before.
Eric is superfly pissed and Rigg (the black officer) told Kerry to get a tech team there soon. Eric asks John what he wants with him. John says that he wants a little bit of Eric’s time. Eric doesn’t have time to give, apparently. John just wants to talk to Eric and everybody else must leave. Not the building but just the immediate room. If Eric agrees to this, then he will see his son again. Eric threatens to rip John’s head off and John puts him in his place by saying that he’s a cancer patient and he’s already experiencing maximum pain. Rigg wants to fuck up John, but Kerry says otherwise. She suggests that they humor him.
Back at the trap house, the door opens and everybody is extremely paranoid, for good reason. Xavier takes the lead and the baseball bat with nails. There’s a door that has exit painted on it. Addison is already coughing up blood. Xavier tries to get through the exit door, but can’t and gets pissy and tosses away the key that he has. Jonas picks it up.
Eric has taken off his badge and gear and cleared the room so they can talk. John wants to play a game. He just wants to sit down and talk and listen to him. If he does this long enough, he will find his son safe. John doesn’t really like the Jigsaw monicker. This scene is one of the best of the whole franchise. John knows a lot about Eric’s history.
“The only door that you know how to open is the one between your legs.” That was Xavier talking to Addison. Great line. Jonas is figuring out that some of them have served time. Laura found a door that leads to a basement. They find a dummy with Obi’s name on it. They find another tape. It’s about how he’s burned people with his lies and cheats. There are 2 antidotes in the device in front of them. One is a gift for him for helping to capture everybody and the other is for someone else. “Once you’re in Hell, only the devil can help you out.” Laura remembers Obi in her car. Xavier and Laura are the hotheads here. I love Obi’s calm demeanor. Xavier is threatening to kill Obi, and Obi is a badass. Laura collapses to the ground. Obi agrees to go into this device, which is fairly obvious what it is.
Obi has crawled in this oven, I may be to cremate people. He gets the first one easy enough, as Jigsaw suggested. The second one closes the door and starts the fire. Xavier can’t open the door. There is an image of a devil and it says to twist this nozzle. Xavier and Jonas can’t get him out and the girls are useless and just crying and screaming. Xavier uses his bat on a window, but it’s too late Obi, now it’s too late. Xavier is pissed that he didn’t get the needles. Amanda picks up something, maybe a shovel. I don’t know.
John is just talked to Eric about the will to survive. Eric keeps thinking that John wants something and John just wants to talk and ask questions about cancer and Eric’s relationship with his son. John says that learning when your dying would shatter your world, and I absolutely believe that. We see when John got his diagnosis with Dr. Lawrence Gordon. He says that not knowing when you’re going to die really stops people from living their life. The cancer isn’t what started John on his work. It’s when he decided to end it that he started his work. John drove himself into a car crash and seriously hurt himself, but he tested himself to survive. Eric gets too pissy and gets up and walks away like an idiot.
Back at the death house, Laura is all whiny and Daniel tries to talk to her. She’s beyond useless. Amanda just found a rope under a couch. Daniel asks her why he chose her before and it’s because she was a junkie who liked to cut herself. Amanda talks about getting arrested. I kinda dig Amanda’s hair in this one. Jonas has found a new door. Everybody is coughing up blood at this point.
Xavier tries forcing open a door that has a string and timer that he just unknowingly started. There is a very secure door and a timer in there along with a recorder. Oh, now it’s time to play a game with Xavier. He’s a former drug dealer. His task is to crawl through the same squalor as he has dealt. He has to find a key before the timer runs out. Where is the key, you may ask? Oh, just somewhere in a pit of fucking syringes. This is the single worst trap, in my opinion, in Saw franchise history. These needles all look gross. Xavier is a coward, naturally. He picks up Amanda throws her in the pit. She has needles just stuck in her. Ugh, Amanda just digging through the needles, just thinking about it. Daniel says that somebody needs to help her but never offers to help himself. With 5 seconds remaining, she finds it. Xavier is too slow and the door locks. Xavier gets pissed off at Amanda, naturally. Laura admits to having done time. Jonas is still trying to solve the puzzle, Xavier is the fucking Juggernaut.
Rigg is insistent on doing something different. Kerry suggests that Eric talks to John about his work. That will possibly get to John. Eric starts destroying all the paperwork. That ain’t gonna help him save his son. Eric thinks that threatening John’s life is something that John fears. There’s something that John wishes to show Eric and tells the people listening on the walkie talkie to check the desk drawer. It’s a folder with info on all the people that are in the house with Daniel because Eric is the guy who put them away.
Back at the Legion of Doom, Xavier is back in the first room with Gus. He notices a number on the back of Gus’ neck. Jonas just puked up way too much foul shit. Jonas is trying to be peaceful. Gus has a red 2. Well, Xavier and Jonas come to blows because Xavier asked him to turn around. Jonas whooped his ass until the poison weakened him. Xavier gets the spiked bat and buries it in Jonas’ skull. That was brutal. Jonas has a 16, looked kinda green. Laura collapses again. Laura sees the X that marks the spot. It’s ib a picture frame. It has a picture of Daniel with his father. And here we fucking go. Laura is convulsing and choking and is dead. Addison can’t trust anybody. Xavier is now hunting Daniel and Amanda. He doesn’t even give a fuck about Addison or Laura. Obi had a green 11. So I don’t know what color was on Jonas. Xavier claims to have found a way out. Laura has a blue or violet 8. Xavier finds Eric and Daniel’s picture. Addison’s nipples are hard for some reason. Amanda and Daniel are now running away from Xavier.
Eric sees this and is pissed. Kerry tries to stop him but Rigg and the other guys aren’t moving. Eric starts beating the hell out of John as the rest of the team watches. John taunts Eric more and Eric snaps John’s finger.
Addison, just now, finds a new room. Inside if a fish tank hanging from the ceiling an antidote syringe inside. There are 2 holes to slide your hand up through. As you can imagine, it’s a trap, a very obvious trap. The holes that you slide your hands up through are one way and are blades that you can easily push up through and they slice you on the way back down. Now, this is just stupid because, with her free hand, she could have easily pushed the blades up and released her hand. Nope, that’s too smart. I love this trap, but logically, it’s the easiest to escape. She’s just so dumb. Xavier hears her screams. Amanda and Daniel find Jonas. Xavier pulls back Addison’s hair and finds a green 9 and then he leaves her there and closes the door. I also hated the cinematography of her just standing there screaming.
Eric is now pretending to be The Rock laying the smacketh down on John. Oh, he puts his gun in John’s mouth. John tells Eric that he will take him to the house, just him though. The SWAT team sees that John and Eric have left via the elevator. That was a horrible lockdown on their behalf. They are tracking down the house and have the address. Eric, you should stop punching John. He needs to see to direct you.
Amanda and Daniel are holding the original door shut as Xavier tries getting in. Amanda takes the spiked bat and drives it into the floor to serve as a door stopper. John tells Eric that it’s the last house on the left, which was a nice nod to Wes Craven’s 70’s classic. Amanda notices a door on the floor beneath the safe. Both of them move the safe but the floor door is locked. They need the key that Xavier carelessly threw away. They get in the floor. John gives Eric a key to get inside the house. Xavier has made his way into the room. Eric has entered the house. Amanda and Daniel are running as Xavier gives chase. Eric is searching the house for Daniel. Amanda and Daniel are bad at running. Eric finds the picture on the floor. He’s close. The SWAT team shows up. Sorry, but the pace is crazed as usual, so tough to keep up.
Eric appears to be getting closer. The SWAT team is in the house. Kerry cannot see Rigg and crew. Eric appears to be getting closer. Xavier is still chasing Amanda and Daniel. Slowest chase scene ever. Amanda and Daniel reach a dead-end, wait that is a big sliding door. Amanda turns on the lights and this place looks familiar. The original bathroom from Saw. There is Zep and Adam’s corpses. There’s Gordon’s foot. I like Gordon Lightfoot. We hear plenty of audio from Saw. Eric has gotten to the main room with the floor door. Xavier has made his way to the Saw room. We get the Saw music playing.
Daniel has passed out and Xavier wants their numbers. Amanda says that Xavier still needs the number on the back of his own neck. Xavier man’s up and slices the skin from the back of his neck. Erick moves closer to the room. Xavier’s cut was too perfect, it was silly. Daniel gets up and slices Xavier’s throat with the hacksaw. Eric is just down the hall.
The SWAT team still cannot be seen by Kerry. They are in a room with more monitors. The monitors show the house and this was simply looping the events that were pre-taped. Awww shit. So Eric ends up in the Saw room and there’s Xavier’s corpse. The room is dark. He goes toward Adam’s original tub. There’s a body. It turns over and there is the pig masked robe person again, but it certainly isn’t John….or is it? They inject Eric with a needle.
Kerry sees the clock finish its countdown and suddenly a safe opens and there is Daniel tied up with an oxygen mask on, safe and sound. Eric finally wakes up. There is a recorder. It’s Amanda on the tape. She talks to him about how he framed her for the drug charges. She talks about how John saved her life. She found in John a lather and a teacher. This is all the usual Saw ending montage footage where they tie up all loose ends for people who still don’t get it. The cure for cancer is immortality by creating a legacy. All along, Amanda told the people that she was trapped with that they should play by the rules, and John also told Eric the same thing. All Eric had to do was sit there and talk to him and his son would be “safe”. When Eric ceased playing the game, John brought him to the place. It was Amanda in the tub and Eric is her first test subject. Amanda will carry on John’s work. Eric is shackled and Amanda slams the door saying “Game Over” as Eric is yelling and screaming.
End Film
So if you still don’t get the brilliance of this film, let’s look at it. This film basically allows John to do work until his death while now having an apprentice to replace him and do all of his dirty work. He is still creating his legacy, and that legacy is something that is important throughout the franchise. This allows us to have as many films as deemed necessary. This also allows for us to start having films with just a person being part of a game within a game. You can eat a fat dick, Inception.
Now, I will admit that this film didn’t try to flesh out all of the main characters, namely the ones in the house with Daniel, but they each had their own little story and we found out tidbits here and there, which is more than we get from other horror films. Furthermore, the deaths mostly fit and match the characters with some exceptions. Gus was someone we barely knew and his death set the stage, so no sense in giving us his story. Addison seemed like the character that they wanted to tell us more about, and I would have thought that they’d have her be the one to cut her wrists, but instead, they gave that to Amanda, which I feel was a wasted opportunity. Laura also existed to give Daniel someone to be on screen with the first 2 acts.
We got to know more about Kerry here. Rigg is introduced to the franchise. Eric and Daniel were fleshed out nicely. John and Amanda were the real winners here. I will admit that I still feel conflicted about Jonas’ death, but it was so brutal that I can overlook the tie to his character just because it was awesome.
In a lot of ways, this film allows the rest of the franchise to exist. Spoiler alert incoming. Think about it. We can now focus on cops, so we get Rigg, Hoffman, Kerry, Eric, and so on. We now have the idea of John having an apprentice, which we will see in every film moving forward. John’s illness is a big part of part VI. This set everything up, just right.
I still felt that some of the cinematography was obviously trying to be like everything else, but whatever. It happens with most horror films, as they become a victim of the era. Amanda’s pit trap was an awful experience, but she didn’t die. Addison’s was also bad once she put her second hand in. Most importantly, now more than ever, we are taught how important it is to simply follow the rules of the game.
Final Rating: 7.9 – This film is pure enjoyment all the way through and is, in my opinion, the best and most fun film in the franchise, as of now. I won’t argue with the people that rank the first one higher, but a lot of people rate this as significantly less superior and that is when I have an issue. But everybody is entitled to their opinions.
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