The parade of bloody mutilation continues with ever more outlandish torture machines in this second slash at the Saw franchise from director Darren Lynn Bousman. Now aided by an apprentice, games master Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) offers doctor Bahar Soomekh freedom if she can ease his dying pain for as long as it takes another of his pawns (Angus Macfadyen) to survive his cruel machinations. Of course, nothing is quite that simple in Jigsaw's charnel-house universe. Though some light is shed on the origins of the psychopathic killer and his enthusiastic helper, the flashback-within-flashback framework is just confusing, while the sick violence and horrific gore is ramped up to such extreme levels that it becomes funny rather than scary. Overlong and over-the-top, the once exciting gimmick has now been done to death.

Jigsaw has disappeared. Along with his new apprentice Amanda, the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detective scrambles to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon and Jeff Reinhart are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard.