Saw 2 (DVD)

Saw II is a 2005 horror thriller film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and written by Leigh Whannell and Bousman. It is the sequel to 2004 s Saw and the second installment in the Saw film series. The film stars Donnie Wahlberg, Franky G, Glenn Plummer, Beverley Mitchell, Dina Meyer, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Erik Knudsen, Shawnee Smith, and Tobin Bell. In the film, a group of ex-convicts are trapped by the Jigsaw Killer inside a house and must pass a series of deadly tests to retrieve the antidote for a nerve agent that will kill them in two hours.

After the immensely successful opening weekend of 2004 s Saw, a sequel was immediately green-lit. 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 looking for a producer but many studios rejected it. Gregg Hoffman received the script and showed it to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules. It was decided that, with some changes, it could be made into Saw II. Whannell became available to provide rewrites of the script. The film was given a larger budget and was shot from May to June 2005 in Toronto.

Saw II was released in the United States on October 28, 2005, by Lions Gate Films. It opened with $31.9 million and grossed $88 million in the United States and Canada. It has remained the highest grossing Saw film in those countries. Bell was nominated for Best Villain at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards for his role as Jigsaw in the film. Saw II was released to DVD on February 14, 2006, and topped charts its first week, selling more than 3 million units. At the time, it was the fastest-selling theatrical DVD in Lions Gate s history. A sequel, titled Saw III, was released in 2006.

Plot

Police informant Michael Marks awakens in a room with a spike-filled mask locked around his neck. He refuses to retrieve the key from his eye and is killed when the mask closes. At the scene of Michael s murder, Detective Allison Kerry finds a message for her former partner, Detective Eric Matthews. Matthews joins Kerry and Officer Daniel Rigg in leading a SWAT team to the factory which produced the lock from Michael s trap. There they apprehend John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer, who indicates computer monitors showing eight people trapped in a house, including his only known survivor Amanda Young, Matthews son Daniel, and six other victims: Xavier Chavez, Jonas Singer, Laura Hunter, Addison Corday, Obi Tate, and Gus Colyard. A nerve agent filling the house will kill them all within two hours, but John assures Matthews that if he follows the rules of his own game, he will see Daniel again. At Kerry s urging, Matthews agrees to buy time for the tech team to arrive and trace the video signal. During their conversation, John reveals to Matthews that one of his main motivations to become Jigsaw was a suicide attempt after his cancer diagnosis, which led to a newfound appreciation for life; his games purpose is to help his victims develop the same appreciation.

The group is informed by a microcassette recorder that antidotes are hidden throughout the house; one is in the room s safe, and the tape provides a cryptic clue. Gus ignores a warning note and uses the key provided with the cassette on the door, which triggers a gun through the peephole that kills him. Once the door opens, they search the house and find a basement, where Obi, who helped with abducting the other victims, is killed in a furnace trap while trying to retrieve two antidotes. In another room, Xavier s test involves digging through a pit filled with syringes to retrieve a key to a steel door in two minutes, but he instead throws Amanda into the pit. She retrieves the key, but Xavier fails to unlock the door in time. Throughout the game, the group discuss connections between them and determine that each has been incarcerated before except Daniel. During his father s test, John reveals their affiliation to Matthews who was a corrupt police officer framing his suspects in various crimes recently.

Xavier returns to the safe room and finds a number on the back of Gus neck. After realizing the numbers are the combination for the safe, he kills Jonas and begins hunting the others. Laura succumbs to the nerve agent and dies, after finding the clue revealing Daniel s identity. Incensed by the revelation, Addison leaves on her own and finds a glass box containing an antidote, but her arms become trapped in the openings which are lined with hidden blades. Xavier enters the room and leaves her to die after reading her number. Amanda and Daniel find a tunnel from the first room leading to the dilapidated bathroom. After Xavier corners them, Amanda taunts him by implying that he will not learn his number because nobody will read it to him. Xavier responds by cutting off a piece of skin from the back of his neck to read his number. Xavier charges them, and Daniel slits his throat with the hacksaw.

Having seen Xavier chasing his son, Matthews assaults John and forces him to lead him to the house. The tech team tracks the video s source and while Rigg s team searches the house, Kerry realizes that the game took place days before they captured John until the timer for Matthews game expires to reveal Daniel inside a safe, bound and breathing in an oxygen mask. Unaware of these events, Matthews enters the house alone and makes his way to the bathroom, where he is subdued by a pig-masked figure. He awakens shackled at the ankle to a pipe and finds a tape recorder left by Amanda, who reveals she had become John s accomplice after surviving her first trap and helped him set up Matthews test during the game at the house, intending to continue John s work after he dies. Amanda then appears and seals the door, leaving Matthews to die as John hears his screams outside and smiles.

Cast

• Tobin Bell as John Kramer / Jigsaw
• Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young
• Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Eric Matthews
• Erik Knudsen as Daniel Matthews
• Franky G as Xavier Chavez
• Glenn Plummer as Jonas Singer
• Emmanuelle Vaugier as Addison Corday
• Beverley Mitchell as Laura Hunter
• Timothy Burd as Obi Tate
• Dina Meyer as Detective Allison Kerry
• Lyriq Bent as Officer Daniel Rigg
• Noam Jenkins as Michael Marks
• Tony Nappo as Gus Colyard
• Kelly Jones as SWAT Member Pete
• Vincent Rother as SWAT Member Joe

Archival audio of Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, and Michael Emerson, as Dr. Lawrence Gordon, Adam Stanheight, and Zep Hindle respectively are heard in the film as well.

Production

Development and writing

Saw II was immediately green-lighted after Saw s successful opening weekend a year earlier. Producers needed a script for a sequel but James Wan and Leigh Whannell, director and writer of Saw, were working on Universal Pictures s Dead Silence. Music video director Darren Lynn Bousman had just completed a script for his first film The Desperate, and was trying to sell it to studios but was getting reactions that the script was very similar to Saw. A German studio eventually approached him with an offer to produce the film for $1 million. Just as they were looking for a cinematographer, the American cinematographer David A. Armstrong, who had worked on Saw, arrived on the scene and suggested showing the script to Saw producer Gregg Hoffman. Hoffman read the script and called Bousman wanting to produce The Desperate. Bousman was initially upset when he heard about his script s similarities to Saw, and feared at first that Lions Gate s call was due to complaints of plagiarism. After Hoffman showed the script to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules, the two decided that The Desperate was the starting script they needed for Saw II and two months later, Bousman was flown to Toronto to direct.

Whannell polished the script, with input from Wan, in order to bring it into the Saw universe, but kept the characters, traps and deaths from The Desperate script. 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 . Bousman s first draft for The Desperate consisted in an X-rated violent film, but after Bousman s agent found difficult to have the script bought because most studios were turned off due to the level of violence, Bousman modified his script to be an R-rated film, which is when the executives of Lions Gate were turned on his potential. Overall, the framework of The Desperate had a similar bleak, disgusting atmosphere and a twist ending, which is why the Lions Gate executives found parallels in the script s style. Wan and Whannell also served as executive producers. All the previous film s crew members returned: editor Kevin Greutert, cinematographer Armstrong, and composer Charlie Clouser. This was to be Hoffman s last film. He died unexpectedly on December 4, 2005.

Only those key cast and crew members who were involved in the film s ending were given the full script; the rest received only the first 88 pages. If a particular page was rewritten, the old page was shredded. Members were also required to sign confidentiality agreements requiring them not to release any plot details. Reportedly, four or five alternate endings were shot in order to keep the ending a surprise. Bousman gave the actors freedom to change 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 . Donnie Wahlberg was allowed to modify some pieces of dialogue, especially those of Eric Matthews interactions with his son Daniel and Jigsaw. For the former, Wahlberg added the line of what was the last thing Eric told Daniel basing it on what he says to his first son before hanging up the phone. For the latter, Wahlberg felt that the relationship between Eric and Jigsaw was too dicey and should emphasize Eric s need to sit with Jigsaw to rescue his son; Tobin Bell agreed with most of these changes, which Wahlberg added after finishing shooting every day, and the two improsived together on set. Hoffman said in an interview with Fangoria that they listened to fans suggestions. For instance, instead of only showing the aftermath of a character violently dying in a flashback, they would allow it to unfold as it happened. This was in contrast to Saw, in which most of the violence was implied off-screen.

Casting

From the first film, Tobin Bell returned to play Jigsaw even though he wasn t obligated to return. Bell found it fascinating to reprise his role, but played the role like any of his, feeling that he needed to put himself on Jigsaw s side to get into character and play him properly. Shawnee Smith similarly returned to play Amanda Young even though she never imagined ever reprising the role as she didn t expect the first film to be such a hit. Bousman served as a stand-in for the hooded figure who places a key behind Michael Marks eye, who the fans immediately theorized to be the first film s protagonist Dr. Lawrence Gordon, to add flavor to the performance, though Bousman didn t intend the figure to be Gordon. Saw 3D eventually retroactively confirmed the figure to be Gordon.

Donnie Wahlberg was cast as Eric Matthews out of attraction to the character and the script. With sixteen years old, Erik Knudsen was cast as Daniel Matthews in his first major feature film appearance; Knudsen auditioned hard to get the role and was excited upon being notified that he had won the part, as the first Saw was one of his favorite horror films along with the Scream series.

Beverley Mitchell was cast as Laura Hunter despite her dislike for horror films and her inability to watch the first film full until trying for the fifth time, but she accepted the role nonetheless because she was looking for a challenging and frightening part to push her limits, which she found in Laura physically due to the requirement to play sick and coughing. Lyriq Bent originally auditioned for the role of Xavier Chavez, but was cast as Daniel Rigg instead out of fear for racial stereotypes of casting an African-American as a drug dealer, leading to Franky G s casting as Xavier, though Bent still found stereotypical of making the character Puerto-Rican.

Filming and post-production

Saw II was given a larger production budget of $4 million, compared to Saw s budget of a little over $1 million. The marketing budget was an additional $2 million. The first shot, which involved shooting police cars and a SWAT van driving around the industrial docklands outside the soundstage, was filmed on April 29, 2005 in Toronto. After two months of pre-production, principal photography took place over 25 days at Toronto s Cinespace Film Studios from May 2, 2005 to June 6, 2005. The film was initially given 21 days to be shot. The nerve gas house scenes were shot in an abandoned warehouse in Toronto and the actors who played the Jigsaw victims there worked sixteen hours each day. At the time of filming, in addition to having an on-set tutor for two hours, Erik Knudsen caught the flu, so he filmed his part while sick, which he mused that actually worked due to his character s apparent poisoning throughout the film. The ending was filmed on May 25 and 26. The music and sound was recorded in July and Saw II was locked on July 16. It was completely finished by September 9. Visual effects were performed by C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and post-production services were provided by Deluxe.

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 originally created by Wan out of paper towel rolls and papier-mâché. Given the larger budget for the sequel, Billy was upgraded with remote-controlled eyes and a servo-driven mouth. In one trap, The Needle Room , Smith s character Amanda is thrown into a pit of needles to find a key. In order for this to be done safely, four people, over a period of four days, removed the needle tips from syringes and replaced them with fiber optic tips. They modified a total of 120,000 fake needles. However, this number was insufficient and the pit had to be filled with styrofoam and other materials to make it appear to have more needles. The needles that were apparently stuck into Smith were actually blunted syringes stuck into padding under her clothing. For certain shots, a fake arm was used.

Bousman came up with an idea whereby a character s hands would get stuck in some sort of vessel, and this resulted in the Hand Trap . It proved to be a challenge, but after much discussion, Hackl, property master Jim Murray and art director Michele Brady came up with a suitable design. They arranged a glass box suspended by chains from the ceiling which contained a hypodermic needle with the antidote and which had two hand-holes on the underside. As soon as Emmanuelle Vaugier s character Addison Corday puts her hands into the holes, razor blades would close in on her hands, and any attempt to withdraw from the trap would cause her to bleed to death. In order for the trap to be used safely, the prop builders made the handcuffs move inside the box and fake blades that would retract from the actress s hands, thus allowing her to slide her hands out. Hackl subsequently commented that the character did not have to put her hands into the trap, as there was a lock with a key on the other side of the box that would have opened the contraption.

The original idea for the Furnace Trap came from the house having been a crematorium at some point, but this would have involved turning the house into a funeral parlor, so it was instead decided that the furnace would be part of the house s boiler system. The furnace was visualized in the form of a computer model so that 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 s character Obi Tate could be filmed crawling inside. The furnace produced real flames and, in place of Burd, a stuntman using a fire retardant gel crawled into the fire.

Soundtrack

Saw II: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	October 25, 2005
Genre	Industrial metal heavy metal alternative metal nu metal
Length	54:46
Label	Image Entertainment
Producer	Mark Burg (exec.) Gregg Hoffman (exec.) Oren Koules (exec.) Jonathan Platt Jonathan Scott Miller Martin Shore Stu Song
Various artists chronology
Saw: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2004) Saw II: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2005) Saw III: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2006)

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

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Artist	Length
1.	Irresponsible Hate Anthem (Venus Head Trap Mix)	Daisy Berkowitz Madonna Wayne Gacy Marilyn Manson Twiggy Ramirez	Marilyn Manson	3:39
2.	Sound Effects and Overdramatics	Quinn Allman Jeph Howard Bert McCracken Branden Steineckert	The Used	3:28
3.	Forget to Remember	Chad Gray Ryan Martinie Matthew McDonough Greg Tribbett	Mudvayne	3:33
4.	September	Chris Hamilton Mike Kennedy Nick Rowe Kyle Sanders Tim Williams	Bloodsimple	3:38
5.	Blood (Empty Promises)	Dave Buckner Tobin Esperance Jerry Horton Jacoby Shaddix	Papa Roach	2:56
6.	REV 22:20 (REV 4:20 Mix)	Maynard James Keenan Danny Lohner	Puscifer	4:47
7.	Pieces	Sevendust	Sevendust	3:06
8.	Rodent (Ken Hiwatt Marshall/DDT Mix)	Al Jourgensen Skinny Puppy	Skinny Puppy	5:00
9.	Burn the Witch (UNKLE Variation)	Joey Castillo Josh Homme Troy Van Leeuwen	Queens of the Stone Age	3:04
10.	Holy	Shaun Bivens Tony Providence Allen Richardson	A Band Called Pain	3:43
11.	Three Fingers	Buckethead Dan Monti Saul Williams	Buckethead and Friends & Saul Williams	3:00
12.	Home Invasion Robbery	The Legion of Doom	The Legion of Doom	4:10
13.	Caliente (Dark Entries)	Daniel Ash Kevin Haskins David J Peter Murphy	Revolting Cocks, Gibby Haynes & Al Jourgensen	4:28
14.	Step Up	Andrew Gerold Jim Kaufman John Travis Ron Underwood	Opiate for the Masses	3:24
15.	Don t Forget the Rules	Charlie Clouser	Charlie Clouser	5:00
Total length:				54:46

The film s score was released on October 25, 2005. In November 2017, Lakeshore Records released a two-volume compilation album of music from all eight Saw films. Tracks nine through eighteen of Volume One consist of selected tracks from Saw II.

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 showing two bloody, severed fingers, representing the Roman numeral, II, 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; Lions Gate Films removed the poster from their websites. The image was used instead for the film s soundtrack cover. Lions Gate held the second annual Give Til It Hurts blood drive for the Red Cross and collected 10,154 pints of blood.

Home media

Saw II was released on DVD, VHS, and Universal Media Disc on February 14, 2006 through Lions Gate Home Entertainment. The DVD debuted as number one 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 Lions Gate s history.

On October 24, 2006, an Unrated Special Edition was released, while an Unrated Blu-ray edition was also released with various special features on January 23, 2007.

Reception

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 Lions Gate record. It became at the time, the widest release for Lions Gate and one of the best opening weekends for a horror sequel. For its second weekend it fell 47% making $16.9 million. The film was closed out of theaters 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 first instalment. 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 2nd highest-grossing film of the Saw series, only behind Saw III and Lions Gate s fourth highest-grossing film in the United States 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.

Release date (United States)	Budget	Box office revenue
		United States/Canada	Other markets	Worldwide
October 28, 2005	$4,000,000	$87,039,965	$60,708,540	$147,748,505

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 37% of 122 critics have given the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.59/10. 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. 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, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale.

Robert Koehler of Variety wrote, 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 both films are more clever and revolting than they are actually chilling . 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: 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 called 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 that it rob us of the pleasure of actually remembering for ourselves . Laura Kern, writing for The New York Times, said 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 . Empire s Kim Newman gave the film three out of five stars. He said that the film improves upon Saw s perverse fascination with Seven-style murders and brutally violent puzzles and that Jigsaw s intellectual games make Hannibal Lecter look like the compiler of The Sun s quick crossword . He ended his reviews saying, Morally dubious it may be, but this gory melange of torture, terror and darkly humorous depravity appeals to the sick puppy within us all .

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 as Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
Directors Guild of Canada	Outstanding Sound Editing - Feature Film	Rob Bertola; Tom Bjelic; Allan Fung; Mark Gingras; John Laing; Paul Shikata; John Douglas Smith	Nominated
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards	Best Villain	Tobin Bell	Won
MTV Movie Awards	Best Villain	Tobin Bell	Nominated
Saturn Award	Best DVD Special Edition Release	—	Nominated
	Best Horror Film	—	Nominated
Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie: Scream	Donnie Wahlberg	Nominated
	Choice Movie: Thriller	—	Nominated

Condition

New

Publisher

Vidmark/Trimark

Age Group

Adult

Rating MPA

Not Rated

Recording Studio

Vidmark/Trimark

Format

DVD

Brand

Vidmark/Trimark

Amazon ASIN

B00AQ6AC24

UPC / EAN

031398189558

Year

2005

ReleaseDate

2005-10-28

RuntimeMins

93

RuntimeStr

1h 33min

Awards

Awards, 4 wins & 11 nominations

Directors

Darren Lynn Bousman

Writers

Leigh Whannell, Darren Lynn Bousman

Stars

Donnie Wahlberg, Beverley Mitchell, Franky G

Produced by

Peter Block, Mark Burg, Jason Constantine, Greg Copeland, Daniel J. Heffner, Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules, Stacey Testro, James Wan, Leigh Whannell

Music by

Charlie Clouser

Cinematography by

David A. Armstrong

Film Editing by

Kevin Greutert

Casting By

Stephanie Gorin, Amy Lippens

Production Design by

David Hackl

Art Direction by

Michele Brady

Set Decoration by

Liesl Deslauriers

Costume Design by

Alex Kavanagh

Makeup Department

Damon Bishop, François Dagenais, Sarah Fairbairn, Stephanie Ingram, Pamela Mills, Robbi O Quinn, Candice Ornstein, Patrick Baxter, Matthew Dewilde, Sheilagh McGrory, Neil Morrill

Production Management

W. Michael Beard, Greg Copeland

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Brian Backman, Dave Bene, Darrin Brown, Stephen Bélanger, Greg Copeland, Elizabeth Scherberger

Art Department

Rupert Blab, Dave Bracken, Hamish Buchanan, Anthony Buckmyre, Jamie Burke, Erika Caceres, Carlo Cesta, Steven Ciancamerla, Michael Cole, Gord Craig, Rae Crombie, Deirdre Dodds, Mike Dutkowski, Rick Fernandez, Joanne Filleti, Geoff Flint, Jeff Flint, Lino Frutti, David Fuji, John Galbraith, John Jay Gilmore, Eric Goldberg, Michael Harvey, Dwight Hendrickson, Ron Hobbs, Suzanne Hoffman, Matthew Howlett, Leandro Illescas, Michael Irving, Rod James, Michael Johnston, Stephanie Kelemen, Grant Kilroy, Takashi Komai, William Kucheran, Laszlo Latorcai, Keith Lewis, Jason Lunn, Michael Madill, Kim Maticiw, Gord Maynard, Mike McCullough, Brent McGillivray, Patrick McKenna, Jonathan McKenzie, R. Mellott, Mario Moreira, Alan Moy, David Murray, James R. Murray, Zoran Naumovski, David Nicholson, Rick O Brien, Enrique Patritti, Tereza Radman, Dave Rice, Stewart Robertson, Wayne Rodriguez, Larry Saunders, David Smith, Shaun Smith, Mike Stanek, Norm Stott, Dennis Stroud, Derek Taylor, Mark Tindale, Alejandro Torres, Marcelo Torres, Stephen Travis, Adrienne Trent, John Wareing, Chris Williams, Tim Young, Michael Zaharuk, Joe Zeiney, Anthony Pearce

Sound Department

Steve Baine, David W. Barr, Tom Bjelic, Roberta Bratti, Robin Crumley, Keith Elliott, Allan Fung, Mark Gingras, Jamie Gould, Gina Gyles, Jason Hopfner, John Laing, Matthew McKenzie, Colin McLellan, Jordan O Neill, Michael Paterson, Rick Penn, Jason Perreira, Peter Persaud, Eric Putnam, Paul Shikata, John Douglas Smith, Andrew Tay, Mark Zsifkovits, David W. Barr, Ian Elias, John Sanacore

Special Effects by

Sean Armstrong, Jason Ehl, Tim Good, Colin Penman, Glen Roemer, Jasmine Gorett Vala

Visual Effects by

Naomi Anderlini, Kris Brockman, Bret Culp, Tony Cybulski, Paul DeOliveira, Maria A. Gordon, Daniel Lee, Chad Malbon, Tina McGill, Samara Melanson, Roubina Messerkhanian, Joe Raasch, Mahmoud Rahnama, Carrie Richardson, Russ Robertson, Tracey Vaz, Ken Walker, Alphonso Young, Candice Day, Yoga Kurniawan, Natasha North

Stunts

Wade Eastwood, Brian Jagersky, Darren McGuire, Alison Reid, John Stoneham Jr., Dave Van Zeyl

Camera and Electrical Department

Peter Battistone, Eric Beaulieu, Craig Black, Jan Brunton, Phil Calambakas, Marty Carriero, Joseph Chan, Mike Curtis, Rick Dubeau, Cinar Eryasar, Chris Faulkner, Tyler Faulkner, Greg Gayne, Brian Gedge, Stewart Grayburn, Michael Johnson, Hal Kay, Hans Kooij, Danielle Leblanc, Kevin LeBlanc, Don LeClair, Alex Lisman, Kevin McKague, Rahul Parekh, Dana Perry, Geoff Pope, Dave Sansford, Darren Spriet, Harry Stroud, John Stubbings, Scott Tremblay, Chris Watson, Toofun West, Kit Whitmore, Steve Wilkie, Jeremy Settles, Kit Whitmore

Casting Department

Stephanie Laffin, Jane Rogers, Janelle Scuderi, Kathleen Howell, Karen Williams-Posival

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Karen Eppstadt, Les Handrahan, Leslie Kavanagh, Jennifer Lantz, Stephanie Lees, Shelley Mansell, Adam Smith

Editorial Department

Gary Brown, Nick Iannelli, Ahmad Ismail, Trevor Lewis, Chris Lohbrunner, Rui Martins, Tom Mayclim, Dave Muscat, Nick Paulozza, Valoen Power, Ryan Ruskay, Danny St. Pierre, Chris Wallace, Bob Wenokur, Ron Wisman Jr., Motassem Younes, Arthur Montreuil

Location Management

Ralph Bruzzese, Roger Lumyoung, John Sinopoli, Thomas Vencelides

Music Department

Mark Berrow, Rob Bertola, Richard Bissill, Rachel Bolt, Wes Borland, Charlie Clouser, Peter Davies, Peter Freeman, Paul Kegg, Danny Lohner, Steve Mair, Yvonne McDonald, Jonathan McHugh, Jonathan Scott Miller, Jonathan Platt, Chas Smith, Tony Stanton, Allen Walley, Bruce White, Jonathan Williams, Nick Wollage, Gavyn Wright, Warren Zielinski, Joel C. High, Jim Kaufman, Thomas D. Mahoney

Script and Continuity Department

Lisa Burling

Transportation Department

Eddie Bowman, Mike Bowman, Dave Murray, Steve Warren

Additional Crew

Christine Barclay, Angelo Barillaro, Troy Begnaud, Bill Bibert, Laura Blaney, Laura Boccanera, Anne Marie Boysen, David Carter, Miguel Casillas, Dominic Chenier, Chad Cole, Bailey Corneal, Cristin L. Cornett, Bernadette Couture, Kym Crepin, Gewan Dass, Stephanie Denton, Brent DiCaire, Rob Dobier, John Doyle, Gary Eisler, Ryan Eldridge, Yon Elvira, Andrew Finch, Shyama Friedenson, Roberto Gammino, Sarah Greenberg, Lisa Gyorfi, Lauren Hassard, John Hegeman, Wendy Jaffe, Chela Johnson, Armen Kazazian, Jane Kim, Brigitte Kingsley, David Kinnersly, Eda Kowan, Amy Lennie, Steven Lewis, Roy London, Roger Lumyoung, Dahla MacKenna, David C. Malcolm, Chava Mandlsohn, Darren Martin, Nick Meyer, Ashleigh Millar, David Mintz, D. Jim Mirkopoulos, Steve Mirkopoulos, Tracy Mulholland, Tom Ortenberg, Tim Palen, Anne Parducci, Scarlett Pettyjohn, Pauline K. Quong, Mag Sarnowska, Elizabeth Kim Schwan, Victoria Serrajean, Sat Sidhu, Carla Spizziri, S. Corissa Stuckey, Bob Tarantino, Charles Taylor, Will Taylor, Lisa Vella, Dan Walton, Charlyn Ware, Greg Wessendorf, Roger Williams, Kris Wood, Christopher W. Yan, Sergei Yershov, Heather Dawn, Alex Franklin, Jesse Korosi, Pete Nilson, Al Vrkljan

Thanks

Tracy Mulholland, Christopher W. Yan

Genres

Horror, Mystery

Companies

Twisted Pictures, Evolution Entertainment, Got Films

Countries

Canada, USA

Languages

English

ContentRating

R

ImDbRating

6.6

ImDb Rating Votes

251138

Metacritic Rating

40

Short Description

Saw II is a 2005 horror thriller film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and written by Leigh Whannell and Bousman. It is the sequel to 2004 s Saw and the second installment in the Saw film series. The film stars Donnie Wahlberg, Franky G, Glenn Plummer, Beverley Mitchell, Dina Meyer, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Erik Knudsen, Shawnee Smith, and Tobin Bell. In the film, a group of ex-convicts are trapped by the Jigsaw Killer inside a house and must pass a series of deadly tests to retrieve the antidote for a nerve agent that will kill them in two hours.

After the immensely successful opening weekend of 2004 s Saw, a sequel was immediately green-lit. 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 looking for a producer but many studios rejected it. Gregg Hoffman received the script and showed it to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules. It was decided that, with some changes, it could be made into Saw II. Whannell became available to provide rewrites of the script. The film was given a larger budget and was shot from May to June 2005 in Toronto.

Saw II was released in the United States on October 28, 2005, by Lions Gate Films. It opened with $31.9 million and grossed $88 million in the United States and Canada. It has remained the highest grossing Saw film in those countries. Bell was nominated for Best Villain at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards for his role as Jigsaw in the film. Saw II was released to DVD on February 14, 2006, and topped charts its first week, selling more than 3 million units. At the time, it was the fastest-selling theatrical DVD in Lions Gate s history. A sequel, titled Saw III, was released in 2006.

Box Office Budget

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$31,725,652

Box Office Gross USA

$87,039,965

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$147,748,505

Keywords

Serial killer,vcr,trap,torture,police officer