Saw II (2005)

Elevator Pitch: As a result of a bizarr execution the police are led to a factory site where Jigsaw awaits them, and Detective Eric Matthews finds that his son is one of a group of eight people who can be seen on video screens attempting to escape from a ruined house and obtain antidotes to a virus which will kill them in two hours. As the members of the group are dispatched in a variety of unpleasant ways Eric is forced to co-opertate with Jigsaw in the hope of keeping his son alive.

Content: No sex, nudity, drugs or drinking but a whole load of unpleasant events which result in people dying. There is a lot of tension as the victims explore the house and come across deadly puzzles. Sort of Crystal Maze with attitude. The detectives watch the events on the video screens and some of the time we are in the space with the eight people. We cannot imagine how it will all end.

A View: This outing received mixed reviews as we would expect but as usual the numbers say it all, and make us wonder about the future for the human race. It cost $4 million, made $31 million on its first weekend and $148 million world wide. Not surprisingly there are more of them about. I had to take care with the photo used to illustrate this critique, but if it lights your fire it might be worth the price of a download.

Additional Info: One of the traps is a pit full of used hyperdermics. A group of assistants spent four days altering 120,000 syringes so that they would not be dangerous.