Saw II
The gorefest the series is known about. Just because it’s a gorefest, doesn’t mean it wasn’t made by film students. Un chien andaluz on the opening shot, just to rub it in.
This has a much bigger budget than the original Saw, so they used the resources to have a bigger cast stuck in house filled with death traps. If they cooperate they might be able to survive, but of course they don’t because they have secrets that make them hate each other. This is all neatly revealed in the final flashbacks, and since it introduces new information, there is no way you could piece something out from the start.
Unfortunately, this turns the film into a different genre. Each character in now cannon fodder, just a bunch of people that need to die so that the can renew the cast between sequels.
The plot also goes to ridiculous lengths to connect this to the last film, and that puts some strain on suspension of disbelief. Not that having people survive getting thrown into a pool of used needles is realistic.
The framing device with the cops and all is sparsely sprinkled around. The house escape is the real deal. It wraps up by the end with the requisite double twist.
This has too much of Marky Mark’s even worst actor brother (not Stephen Graham). Worst when paired with a charismatic Dina Mayer wasting her potential.
Beside Saw regular Shawnee Smith, the only actor I know is that homeless dude from The Day After Tomorrow.
This is my place for ramblings about sequences of images that exploit the human visual limitation know as persistence of vision.