Did you like the first Saw movie? You enjoyed its jump-cut array of clever puzzles, decrepit settings, and inventive butchery? Me too. So I watched Saw 2 without any notion that it could be an improvement on the original. It isn't.

Nor is Saw 2 even in the same weight class of the first. How could it be? The powerful wallop of the first movie was packed into a fistful of originality so it's no wonder that round two lacks that sucker-punch effectiveness. But, come on, this is a sequel! People go to them to have their expectations fulfilled and if that's what you want in Saw 2, your wishes are granted.

More intricate puzzles, more feculent buildings, more blood and more fodder for Jigsaw's slaughter. The main premise revolves around 7 people waking up in a locked room. Some of them we know. Some of them are purposeless other than to be ground up into bloody bits.

Some are just plain idiotic. In fact so witless that you wonder how such a single-minded moron could reach adulthood and it's unfortunate that a great deal of the tension of the movie relies upon this cretin being an uncooperative mountain of muscle. You'll see what I mean.

The scares are not up to the standards of the first Saw which formed a deep knot of unsettling dread in my guts that lasted for days afterward. Saw 2 does not even come close to any sense of worry and the director (Darren Lynn Bousman) seems to know it so he tries to compensate by tossing off some of the lamest over-the-shoulder "boo!" frights ever committed to film.

It's never a good sign when the audience laughs aloud at the on-screen stupidity of the victims. You know you've gone wrong when human suffering is met with cackles and snickers rather than sympathetic gasps.

The de rigueur twist ending somewhat redeems the film and invites another sequel but was set up in such a way that I didn't mind. At least it made more sense than the last 10 minutes of High Tension.

Final word: In Saw 2 you get what you pay for. You're not going to be surprised in any way. You'll be painfully aware that you're watching a movie with characters that play by the same tired horror-movie rules. But if you're into inventive gore you'll go anyway. But don't expect to be disturbed by what you see. Or saw.

SAW 1 - ALTERNATE ENDING?
Does anyone out there recall seeing an alternate ending to the original Saw? I watched the movie in Japan and remember a short flashback scene that takes place in between the time when Dr. Laurence crawled footless from the toilet chamber and Adam was locked in by Jigsaw. This is at the very end.

I watched the DVD and it doesn't match my memories of what I remember from the Japanese theatrical version.
I recall seeing (in flashback) the moments leading up to the beginning of the film. Short flashback scenes of Jigsaw setting up his own faked death and placing Adam in the bathtub with the penlight keychain.

Then Jigsaw "kills" himself to make it look like suicide thus placing himself at the centre of the room between Adam and the Doc. Only moment after Jigsaw gets into suicide position on the floor, Adam wakes in the bathtub (which is the beginning of the movie).

After locking Adam in the toilet, I remember Jigsaw stalking a footless Doc. Laurence down the corridor. Then the movie ended.

Has anyone seen this or am I going crazy? I only recall it because I watched the Saw DVD this week and when it ended I wondered, "Hey, what happened to the other bits I saw in the theatre?" Figured they might be on the extras but no dice.

Perhaps the extra bits I remember are in the recently released "unrated Saw" DVD? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

pic from home.overflow.net.au