SAW II (2005). The good news is that this sequel to James Wan's 2004 thriller delivers the visceral gore that gaggles of screaming teens thirst for, and there are some dandy twists. The bad news is, it's far less enigmatic than the original, with a banal backstory about why signature psychopath Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) does what he does. This time, the maniacal mastermind has locked nine persons in a house, the youngest of whom, Daniel (Erik Knudsen), is the son of the strong-headed detective on the case (Donnie Wahlberg). They have to figure a way out before the deadly gas that he's piping in gets them; what's more, the way out is chock-full of lethal traps, incineration and evisceration being just two. Darren Lynn Bousman's direction maintains the edgy, keep-you-off-balance freneticism that made the original a sleeper hit, and Shawnee Smith, who survived Saw, winds up back in the hellacious mix. (91m)

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