'Saw II' follows the bloody trail of the original

At the movies, Halloween is never just plain-old scary anymore. No, it's gory, gruesome and repulsive. It's about heads getting chopped off, human flesh being devoured and devilish tricks being played with a sharp scythe.

Since the original "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," "Night of the Living Dead," "The Exorcist," "Seven" and "The Silence of the Lambs," we've stepped ever more deeply into the bloody muck of madness.

Lions Gate Releasing 'Saw II' C+ The verdict: Slices and dices just like "Saw." Director: Darren Lynn Bausman Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg, Erik Knudsen, Franky G Run time: 91 minutes Release date: Oct. 28, 2005 Rating: R for grisly violence and gore, terror, language and drug content. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Saw II'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Not that there's anything wrong with gore. "Silence of the Lambs" deserved its best picture Oscar. And if any of the horde of horror films we've seen lately — like remakes of "House of Wax" and "The Amityville Horror" — had a tenth of the cinematic dread achieved in "Alien," we'd be much better off and certainly more scared.

There's a distinctive art to this kind of filmmaking, and, some of the time, these new movies pull it off. They make one queasy, disgusted and often unnerved.

"Saw II," of course, follows the bloody trail of "Saw," last year's jigsaw puzzle gorefest in which Cary Elwes is driven crazy enough to hack off his own foot. The original Lions Gate film cost almost nothing to make ($1.2 million) and earned more than $55 million at the box office.

In other words, the studio immediately ordered up a second round of torturous head contraptions with super-pointy spikes, eye gougings and gleeful bloodlettings.

The sequel keeps the original film's veneer — the urban, industrial, oily, claustrophic and nearly colorless vibe cemented into popular horror culture by films like "Seven."

The story pits hard-nosed detective Eric Mason (Donnie Wahlberg) against the returning Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell), the soft-spoken, self-righteous demon who sets up puzzles that his victims will either solve or die trying.

There's this house, see. And plenty of potential victims plopped into it — victims portrayed by C-list (or, really, D-list) talent like Glenn Plummer ("Speed"), Franky G ("Manito") and Beverley Mitchell (TV's "Seventh Heaven").

There's death by bullet, by fire and, especially, by whomp-up-the-backa-yo-head with a nail-spiked club.

The film's energy is fueled by fast-paced editing, overblown dialogue ("Oh, yes, there will be blood"), the multilayered guessing game (will anybody solve the riddle of how to get out of that house?) and the truly disgusting (hey, let's toss this ex-druggie woman into a big pile of used needles and syringes).

"Saw" fans — and there are plenty — will be pleased.