The original provided some genuinely creepy moments despite an increasingly absurd story line; the equally silly sequel defuses much of its tension...

| Jun 28, 2022

If you've bought into the Saw movies, II ups the violence without totally jumping the shark, and is a worthy follow-up to the original.

| Oct 27, 2017

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Saw II is a nasty piece of work ...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 10, 2005

In a fun house like this the elaborate tortures seem to leave behind the real world of pain and suffering for the realm of slapstick; they're the kind of horrors that make you scream and laugh at the same time.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Dec 10, 2005

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 10, 2005

To enjoy Saw II, one must have enjoyed Saw. This is a given. As to which is better, this is a fairly pointless question given how bad both of these movies are.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 10, 2005

This macabre follow-up to 2004's low-budget horror smash can't rival its predecessor's fiendish ingenuity. But it makes up for it with a deliciously devious plot and enough gory shocks for a dozen Halloweens.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 10, 2005

Unable to deliver the single novel concept or unexpected surprise that might justify its existence.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 28, 2005

Quite possibly Saw II sheds enough blood to satisfy horror aficionados.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 28, 2005

As it was in the first Saw, audiences are faced with insane leaps in logic that sabotage the last part of the film.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 28, 2005

Saw II -- better-acted than its predecessor, which isn't saying much -- is so gratuitously, sadistically violent, and to such little end, that it finally falls over dead on the far side of obscene.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/4 | Oct 28, 2005

Saw II has teeth, and this house-of-horrors franchise has legs, though they're manacled to the radiator.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 28, 2005

At the very least, with Saw II, you get what you pay for.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 28, 2005

Even hard-core horror can go too far. Saw II is as punishing as it gets. It's effective, all right, but to what end? Certainly not entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 28, 2005

I saw Saw, I saw Saw II, and I have lived to tell about it. Aren't you glad?

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 28, 2005

Saw II lacks quite a bit of the cutting edge that made the original such a guilty, grisly pleasure last year.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Oct 28, 2005

The makers of Saw II have taken great pains to hide the twist ending to the film. I'd love to reveal it out of spite, only because it hints that I'll be sitting through another Saw sequel next year.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 28, 2005

Saw II goes to great lengths to be smart and not just viscerally but intellectually provocative. An admirable ambition, but it just makes the movie even more silly when it fails so utterly in the effort.

| Original Score: C- | Oct 28, 2005

No point in labeling this a horror film. This is a sadism film, and while all good and great horror films know what sadism tastes like, a sadism film settles for nothing of lasting, imaginative horror.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 28, 2005