The original Saw was one of the more grisly movie-going experiences of my young life, and I loved every second it. None of my schoolyard chums could work up the gumption to join me at the cineplex, so my first viewing of Saw was held in my living room while my then-flatmate hid behind her door as I yelled in awe at the television. Saw was poorly acted and unflinchingly nasty for no discernible reason. Naturally, I couldn't wait for the sequel.

But I've seen enough horror sequels to know that they don't tend to work out for the best, and when I took my seat for Saw II amid a sold-out crowd on Halloween night, I braced myself for the worst. It's a good thing I did, too, for this Saw wasn't just grisly; it was gruesome.

Saw II is, in effect, the exact same movie as the first. A number of seemingly unrelated people are collected together and trapped by a madman in a clown costume. But the things that made the first Saw so cool -- the claustrophobic feeling one got from the film's primarily single-room set, a truly frightening killer, and Danny Glover -- are replaced here by multi-room chase scenes, some old man in a robe and Donnie "I Was the Bad New Kid" Wahlberg.

Making Saw into a chase film kills all the psychological tension of the original. Making the killer not only highly visible but also highly wrinkly is highly lame. And Wahlberg's about as good an actor as he ever was a singer. So, as it turns out, when you strip Saw of everything that justified its unrelenting violence, it is pretty far from enjoyable.

So, uh, yeah. Saw II. Kinda gross.

-- Reviewed by Paul Thompson