The Fourth Wall
page 5
Travis Keefer
There are two things that
would put off your average
viewer right off the bat: one, the
director, Darren Lynn
Bousman, is a relatively new
director (not to mention he is
not James Wan, the director of
Saw), Saw 2 beg his first big
exposure film; and two, the film
is a sequel. That being said,
Saw 2 is by far one of the better
sequels that I have seen in a
long time. Leigh Whannell
returns with the sequel’s script,
building upon his experience
from the first film, designing
even more twisted puzzles than
what appeared in the first film.
Bousman takes James Wan’s
work that established Saw and
moves it up another step. Saw 2
accomplishes what a good
sequel should do, with rare
exception: it maintains the tone
and cinematic feel from the first
film, while delivering
something new that an
audience can truly appreciate,
setting it apart from the film’s
predecessor.
The film opens with a
particularly nasty puzzle.
What else would one expect?
The death of the film’s first
victim draws Eric Matthews,
Beth Herbert
Happy Holidays from your
Student Government
Association! Can you believe
that the semester is winding
down? SGA finds it important
for students, faculty, and
administration to know what
we got accomplished
throughout fall semester.
Our biggest
accomplishment by far was the
recent addition to the Penn
Gates: a game room in the
lobby of Penn Gate II. That’s
right folks—after years of
debating with the “big shots at
University Park,” Housing and
Food Services, thanks to Karen
Kreger, okayed the “Game
Room in the Gates.” The
Game Room consists of a pool
table ($.50 to play), a flat screen
T.V., and an air hockey table
(which is on order, but will also
be $.50 to play). The hours of
the game room coincide with
R.A. hours — Sunday -
Thursday 8:00 p.m.-midnight
and Friday - Saturday 8:00
p-m. — 1:00 a.m. If you are a
student who lives in Mont
Alto Hall and thinks it’s unfair
that the Gates got this great new
facility, don’t be so fast to judge.
We have re-surfaced your pool
table and added a foosball
table to your game area! As
mentioned earlier, Karen
Kreger and Housing and Food
Services deserve than%s, along
with Residence Life and
RHC
SGA was looking into
purchasing one, possibly two,
more blue light call boxes (as
talked about in the last Fourth
Wall article). After much
research, it was concluded that
this can not be done this school
year because of insufficient
funds. It was decided to table
this goal for next year, hopefully
saving some money along the
way to do this in the future.
As many of you noticed,
SGA held elections recently for
President. The Executive Board
received a letter of resignation
from its president Darci
Newhouse. Darci is relocating
to University Park for spring
semester. About a week after
Darci’s letter came, Vice
President Nolan Fontaine
announced he will also be
relocating to University Park
for spring semester. This left
SGA with no President or Vice
President for Spring semester.
Since one person applied for the
Vice President position, he
(Bobby Casiano) automatically
won. There were three
candidates for President —
Mark Burnett, Ben Orr, and
Kabura (Teri) Njuguna. After
all three candidates
campaigned and debated, Teri
won the election. Ben and
Mark will both remain
involved in events on campus,
though—Ben is the
Information Technology
Representative for SGA
Executive Board and Mark is
a Mont Alto Hall Senator. On
behalf of the remaining
members of the fall semester,
the Executive Board and
Senate wish both Darci and
Nolan luck at University Park
and welcome Bobby and Teri
to our team!
SGA has also completed
many small tasks this
semester—such as the addition
of recycling bins to the Mont
Alto Hall lobby and trashcans
in the Hall’s bathrooms. We
have also represented the
student body on numerous
campus and CCSG
committees. We recognized
several new student
organizations, and funded
many club activities. We have
also been busy planning a
“Paws Here” program, where
we will ask area businesses to
give discounts to Penn State
students (more to come on that
next semester). In addition, we
have been working on unifying
ourselves in the form of
matching t-shirts. We will be
able to wear these to CCSG
and events around campus—
so people know we are Mont
Alto Student Government.
If there are. any
questions or ideas to improve
the campus, please address
them to Beth Herbert,
blh5014@psu.edu. Good luck
with finals, and we wish
everyone a nice break!
played by Donnie Wahlberg, a
troubled homicide detective
with a criminally active son,
into the story. Matthews is a
stereotypically dirty cop, but
when his son disappears, he
joins the case, leading him to
Jigsaw's lair, quite the Pandora’s
Box just like it was in the first
film. From there, the cops
watch a group of seven people
awakening in a house, all of the
new players having been
infected with a nasty nerve
agent and are given two hours
to find the antidote before they
die. Shawnee Smith returns to
her role as Amanda, one of the
seven in the house. We saw little
of her in the first film, but in
this one, she is a dominating
character, claiming some of the
best acting in the film. Donnie
Wahlberg did an acceptable job,
but as always, I appreciate a
good villain. Tobin Bell,
Jigsaw, receives a
considerable amount of
screen time, which he uses |
wonderfully. His prowess |
as the ‘bad guy’ is }
memorable and reason |
enough to see this film. |
The one serious negative |
surrounding this film is
that there are a large :
number of people trapped |
in Jigsaw’s puzzle. In the |
first film, there were two |
principal characters, a dyad
that provided as much |
psychological terror as their
physical surroundings and |
predicaments provided
visceral terror. For the
second story to progress, I
suppose this arrangement |
was necessary, but if you
find yourself annoyed by
it like I did, don’t worry,
they die pretty fast,
showing the way Survivor
should be played.
I have heard the first Saw
being compared to films
like Seven, and rightly so,
even though the franchise §
contains many more |
characteristics belonging to a
horror film, but Saw 2, like the
first, does not rely on naked hot
girls and high body count to
sell. The two films combined
do not break a body count of
fifteen that the audience knows
of. The story presented is solid,
with more of a gritty look into
the human psyche and how
extreme fear is handled: some
break down, some try to fight,
and in these circumstances,
most die. None of what I have
said means that you will like
this sequel if you did not like
the first film; however, there are
many things in this installment
that set it apart from the first
Saw, while staying true to it.
Saw 2 also provides some
quality twists that are rarely
seen in films today. And, oh
yes, there was blood, and it was
beautiful. Do you want to play
a game?
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