Saw II

Saw II is a 2005 horror thriller film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and co-written by Bousman and the first film co-writer Whannell. It stars Donnie Whanlberg, Franky G, Glenn Plummer, Beverly Mitchell, Dina Myers, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Erik Knudsen, Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell. Smith, Bell and Myers are the only actors to reprise their roles from the frist film. It is a sequel to 2004's Saw and the second installment in the seven-part Saw film series. Saw II was producer Gregg Hoffman's last film to see released after dying on December 4, 2005.

The film features Jigsaw being apprehended by the police, but trapping the arresting officer in one of his own games while showing another "game" of eight people including the officer son in progress on TV monitors at another location. It also explores some of Jigsaw's back story, providing a partial explanation for why he chose to become Jigsaw.

After the financial success of Saw, a sequel was immediately green-lit. Leigh Whannell and James Wan were busy preparing for their next film and were unable to write or direct. Bousman wrote a script called " The Desperate" before Saw was released and was trying to find a producer but many studio's rejected it. Hoffman recieved it and showed it to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules, and decided that with some changes, it could be made into Saw II. Whannell became available to provide re-writes with the script. The film was given a larger budget and was shot from May to June 2005 in Toronto.

Saw II was released on October 28, 2005 and was a financial success grossing $31.7 million and $87 million in the United States and Canada. It has remained as the highest grossing Saw film in the United States and Canada. The film recieved mixed reviews from critics. Bell was nominated for "Best Villian" at the 2006 MTV Movie Awardsfor his role as Jigsaw in the film. Saw II topped the home video charts it's first week selling more than 3 million units and became, at the time, the fastest selling theatrical DVD in Lionsgates's history.

Plot
Michael (Noam Jenkins), a police informant, awakens to find two halves of a spike-filled mask locked around his neck. A videotape informs him that the he must use a scalpel to retrieve the key to his trap behind his right eye; he fails to do so and the mask closes around his head. Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is called to the scene after a message for him is found. Later, he follows a SWAT team led by Officer Rigg (Lyriq Bent) and Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer) to an abandoned steel factory, where they find John Kramer (Tobin Bell), weakened by cancer. Computer monitors show that eight people are trapped in a large house: among them are Daniel Matthews (Erik Knudsen), his son, and Amanda (Shawnee Smith), Jigsaw's only known survivor. The victims have two hours before the nerve agent filling the house kills them, but John promises Matthews that he will find his son safely if he talks with John for a while, which Matthews reluctantly agrees to in order to buy time for the tech team.

The eight victims are told that antidotes can be found around the house to save them from the gas. Gus (Tony Nappo) is shot dead by a booby-trapped door via a gun through the eye-hole. The search continues to the basement, where the group learns that one of them, Obi (Timothy Burd), was an accessory to the kidnappings; he had kidnapped Laura (Beverley Mitchell). Obi is burned alive when he accidentally activates a furnace trap while attempting to retrieve two antidotes. Jonas (Glenn Plummer) then leads them to a door, which Xavier (Franky G.) and Addison (Emmanuelle Vaugier) are attempting to break through. In the room is a pit filled with thousands of needles and syringes; a key to an antidote is hidden within. The trap is intended for Xavier, but he throws Amanda into the pit instead; she retrieves the key, but Xavier fails to unlock the door in time. Frustrated with the group's lack of success, he abandons the others.

Meanwhile, John makes seemingly idle conversation with Matthews, eventually explaining his story. When the tech team arrives, John further reveals to Matthews that the seven victims aside from Daniel are criminals that Matthews himself framed for various crimes; should Daniel's identity be discovered, he will be in great danger.

Xavier returns to the first room, which contains a safe housing an antidote, and discovers a colored number on Gus's neck; he connects this to their first clue and realizes that one colored number is on the neck of each victim. He subsequently kills Jonas, then begins searching for the other victims. In another area of the house, Laura finally succumbs to the nerve agent and Amanda and Addison learn of Daniel's identity. They both abandon him, but Amanda quickly returns when she discovers Xavier advancing on them. Meanwhile, Addison finds an antidote in a glass box with arm sockets lined with razor blades, which her wrists get trapped in; Xavier finds her, reads her number and leaves her to die. Daniel and Amanda retreat to the first room, where they discover an underground tunnel that leads to the bathroom of the first film. Daniel collapses upon entering. When Xavier arrives, Amanda points out that he cannot read his own number; he cuts off a piece of skin from the back of his neck, then advances on the two, upon which Daniel attacks and slits his neck with a hacksaw, having only feigned collapse.

After seeing Xavier chase Daniel and Amanda, Matthews forces John to take him to the house at gunpoint. The section that John was sitting in is revealed to be a lift, allowing him and Matthews to escape. Simultaneously, the SWAT team follows the signal of the video feed to another house, which contains VCRs playing back previously recorded images of the eight victims; Kerry realizes that the events of the house took place before the factory raid. Matthews enters the house and eventually reaches the bathroom, where he is attacked by a pig-masked figure. The two-hour timer expires in John's lair and a large safe opens, revealing Daniel breathing into an oxygen mask. Upon awakening, Matthews finds himself chained by the ankle to the pipes; a tape recorder left by Amanda reveals that she is John's protegé. She appears in the doorway and seals the door to the bathroom, leaving Matthews to die.

Cast

 * Tobin Bell as Jigsaw/John
 * Shawnee Smith as Amanda- Smith was 4 months pregnant and only told Bousman a few weeks into filming.
 * Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Eric Matthews- In early versions of the script his last name was Mason.
 * Erik Knudsen as Daniel Matthews
 * Franky G as Xavier
 * Glenn Plummer as as Jonas
 * Emmanuelle Vaugier as Addison
 * Beverly Mitchell as Laura
 * Timothy Burd as Obi
 * Dina Myers as Kerry
 * Lyriq Bent as Rigg
 * Naom Jenkins as Michael
 * Tony Nappo as Gus

Development and Writing
Saw II was immediately green-lit after 2004's Saw successful opening weekend. James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the director and writer of Saw, was working on Universal Pictures's Dead Silence when producers needed a script for a sequel. In 2004, music video director Darren Lynn Bousman had just completed a script for his first film "The Desperate" and was shopping it to studios but was getting reactions that the script was very similar to Saw. A German studio eventually approached him and was willing to produce the film for $1 million. As they were looking for an American cinematographer, David A. Armstrong who worked on Saw arrived; he asked Bousman if he could show the script to Saw producer Gregg Hoffman. Hoffman read the script and called Bousman interested in producing "The Desperate", but after showing the script to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules, the two decided it would be the perfect opportunity to turn "The Desperate" into Saw II. Two months later, Bousman was flown to Toronto to direct.

Whannell, with input from Wan, came in and polished the script in order to bring it into the Saw universe, but keeping the characters, traps and deaths from "The Desperate" script.[9] Bousman said, "But you could read the script for "The Desperate" and watch Saw II, and you would not be able to draw a comparison". Wan and Whannell also served as executive producers. All the previous film's crew members returned: editor Kevin Greutert, cinematographer David A. Armstrong, and composer Charlie Clouser. Only cast and crew members that were involved in the film's ending were given the full script; the rest were only given the first 88 pages and if a page went through a rewrite, the old page was shredded. They were also required to sign confidentially agreements to not release any plot details. About "four or five" alternate endings were reportedly shot in order to keep the ending a surprise. Bousman gave freedom to the actors to change the dialogue in the script. He said that 95% of the time the actors went by the script, with about 5% being adlibs, which he said "made all of the difference in the world".

Filming and Post-production
Saw II was given a larger budget of $4 million, compared to Saw's $700,000. The first shot was done on April 29, 2005 in Toronto which involved filming police cars and a SWAT van driving around the industrial docklands outside the soundstage. After two months of pre-production, principal photography was done for 25 days from May 2, 2005 to June 6, 2005. The ending was filmed on May 25 and 26. Music and sound was done in July and Saw II was locked on July 16, and was completely finished by September 9. Visual effects were provided by C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures.

Trap designs
David Hackl, the film's production designer, took three weeks to construct 27 sets on a single sound stage. The puppet Billy used in the series to give instructions to Jigsaw's victims was created Wan by for the first film out of paper towel rolls and papier-mâché. Given the larger budget for the sequel, he was upgraded with remote-controlled eyes and a servo-driven mouth. One trap involved needles ("The Needle Room"), in which Smith's character Amanda gets thrown in a pit of needles to find a key. In order for this to be done safely, four people in a span of four days removed the needle tips from syringes and replaced them with fiber optic tips. In the end they had 120,000 fake needles, however, this was not enough and the pit had to be filled with styrofoam and other materials to make it appear to have more needles. The needles that stuck into Smith were real syringes but with the pointy tips clipped off and stuck them in padding under Smith's wardrobe. A fake arm was used that had real needles placed in.

The "Hand Trap" that Vaugier's character Addison was trapped in was Bousman's idea that someone could stick there hands in some sort of a vessel and get stuck. It proved to be a challenge and after much discussion, Hackl, property master Jim Murray and art director Michele Brady came up with the trap design. They designed a glass box hanging by chains from the ceiling which had a hypodermic needle with the antidote in the middle and two hand holes on the underside. Once she stuck her hand in the holes razor blades closed in on her hands and she would not be able to remove them, bleeding to death. In order for this to be done the prop builders made the handcuffs move inside the box and the fake blades would retract from her hands, thus being able to slide her hands out. Hackl mentioned that the character did not have to put her hands in the trap, as there was a lock with a key on the other side box that would have opened the contraction.

For "The Furnace Trap", the original idea came from the house being a crematorium at one point; though unless they made the house into a funeral parlor it did not make sense and it was decided the furnace would be part of the house's boiler system. The furnace was firstly created as a computer model so Bousman could better understand how shots could be filmed. Using the computer model as a guide, the furnace was constructed in three days using cement board and tin with removable sides and top so Timothy Burd (Obi) could be filmed crawling inside. The furnace used real flames and a stunt man replacing Burd crawled in the fire using a fire-retardant gel.

Crew

 * Darren Lynn Bousman – director, screenwriter
 * Gregg Hoffman – producer
 * Mark Burg – producer
 * Oren Koules – producer
 * Leigh Whannell – screenwriter
 * David A. Armstrong – cinematographer
 * Kevin Greutert – editor
 * Charlie Clouser – music composer
 * David Hackl – production designer
 * Michele Brady – art director
 * Liesl Deslauriers – set decorator
 * Alex Kavanagh – costume designer

Release
Saw II was released in New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom on October 28, 2005; and November 17, 2005 in Australia. The original teaser poster which showed two bloody severed fingers was rejected by the Motion Picture Association of America. Since the poster was already released and managed to "slip by" the MPAA, they issued a release stating the poster was not approved and was unacceptable; Lionsgate removed the poster from their websites. The image was used instead for the film's soundtrack cover.

Sound Track
The Saw II soundtrack was released on October 25, 2005 by Image Entertainment. The video for "Forget to Remember" was directed by Bousman.

Home Media
Saw II was released on DVD, VHS and Universal Media Disc on February 14, 2006 through Lionsgate Home Entertainment. It debuted as the number one DVD selling 2.5 million units in its first day. It went on to sell 3.9 million units its first week, becoming the fastest selling theatrical DVD in Lionsgate's history. On October 24, 2006, an Unrated Special Edition was released and an Unrated Blu-ray edition was also released with various special features on January 23, 2007.

Box Office
Saw II opened with $31.7 million on 3,879 screens across 2,949 theaters. The three-day Halloween opening weekend set a Lionsgate record. It became at the time, the widest release in Lionsgate history and one of the best opening weekends ever for a horror sequel. For its second weekend it fell 47% making $16.9 million. The film was closed on January 5, 2006 after 70 days of release.

Saw II opened in the United Kingdom with $3.8 million on 305 screens, 70% larger than the fist installment. It opened in Japan on 67 screens with $750,000. Opening to $1.3 million on 173 screens it was the number one film in Australia. The film grossed $87 million in the United States and Canada and $60.7 million in other markets for a worldwide total of $147.7 million. The film is the highest-grossing film of the Saw series in the United Stats and Canada. According to CinemaScore polls, 53% of the audience were males under 25 years of age. The poll also indicated that 65% of the audience were familiar with the first film.

Critical reviews
The film received generally mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 35% of 116 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.6 out of 10. The site's consensus was, "Saw II is likely to please the gore-happy fans of the original, though it may be too gruesome for those not familiar with first film's premise". On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 40 based on 28 reviews.

Robert Koehler of Variety gave the film a negative review saying, "Cooking up new Rube Goldberg torture contraptions isn't enough to get Saw II" out of the shadow of its unnerving predecessor". Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B minus saying, "Saw II is just barely a better B flick than Saw" and that that both films are "more clever and revolting". He praised Bell's performance as Jigsaw saying, "As the droopy-lidded maniac in the flesh, Tobin Bell is, for all the film's gewgaws, Saw II's sturdiest horror, a Terence Stamp look-alike who calls to mind a seedy General Zod lazily overseeing the universe from his evildoer's lair". He ended his review saying, "Where Saw II lags behind in Saw's novelty, it takes the lead with its smoother landing, which is again primed to blow the movie wide open, but manages a more compelling job of it than the original's cheat finish".

Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review calling Saw II a "worthy follow-up to its grisly predecessor". He said the story was "much more focused on an endgame than the original film. There are fewer credibility gaps and there are plenty of reversals to satisfy fans". He criticized the use of numerous flashbacks saying it, "rob[s] us of the pleasure of actually remembering for ourselves". The New York Times's Laura Kern gave it a mixed review saying that Bousman, "delivers similar hard-core, practically humorless frights and hair-raising tension, but only after getting past a shaky beginning that plays more like a forensics-themed television show than a scary movie" and called Greutert's editing "crafty". She called the sequel "more trick than treat" and that it "doesn't really compare to its fine predecessor - though it still manages to be eye-opening (and sometimes positively nauseating) in itself".

Accolades
Tobin Bell was nominated for "Best Villain" at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards for his role as Jigsaw, though the award went to Hayden Christensen for his role in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.