Development and writing After the success of
Saws (2004) opening weekend, a sequel was quickly
greenlit. Since director
James Wan and writer
Leigh Whannell were occupied with
Universal Pictures'
Dead Silence (2007), producers were searching for another writer and director. Around this time, music video director
Darren Lynn Bousman had written
The Desperate, which studios rejected for being too similar to
Saw. A German studio offered to produce it for $1 million, but before that moved forward,
Saw cinematographer
David A. Armstrong suggested Bousman's script to producer
Gregg Hoffman. Impressed, Hoffman contacted Bousman with interest in producing it. Bousman learned instead that Hoffman and his partners,
Mark Burg and
Oren Koules, believed
The Desperate could serve as the foundation for
Saw II. Within two months, Bousman was brought to Toronto to direct the sequel. Whannell revised Bousman's script, with input from Wan, to integrate it into the
Saw universe while retaining the characters, traps, and deaths from
The Desperate. Reportedly, "four or five" alternate endings were shot in order to keep the ending a surprise. Producer Hoffman stated in
Fangoria that the filmmakers considered fans' feedback. For example, instead of only showing flashbacks of a character violently dying, 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 Tobin Bell reprised his role as
Jigsaw from the first film, despite not being contractually obligated to return. Bell found it fascinating to return, but played the role like any of his, feeling the need to understand the character's perspective in order to portray him effectively.
Shawnee Smith similarly returned to play
Amanda Young, later noting that she had not anticipated reprising the role, as she did not expect the first film to be successful. Smith received $150,000 for her performance, with an additional $100,000 bonus contingent on the film grossing over $50 million. Bousman served as a
stand-in for the hooded figure who places a key behind the character Michael Marks' eye, a role that some viewers speculated was Dr. Lawrence Gordon (
Cary Elwes) from the first film, though Bousman later stated that this was not his intention.
Donnie Wahlberg was cast as
Eric Matthews after expressing interest in both the character and the script. At sixteen years old,
Erik Knudsen was cast as Eric's son, Daniel Matthews, in his first major feature film role. A fan of the first
Saw film and the
Scream franchise, Knudsen said he actively pursued the part. He would later star in
Scream 4 (2011).
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. She accepted the role as a personal challenge, noting the physical demands of portraying a character who is being poisoned and frequently coughs.
Lyriq Bent initially auditioned for the role of Xavier Chavez but was cast instead as Daniel Rigg. According to Bent, the change was made to avoid the stereotype of casting an African-American actor as a drug dealer. Then the role was given to
Henry Rollins, who originally accepted, but backed out due to scheduling conflicts. The role of Xavier was ultimately given to
Franky G, though Bent later remarked that casting a Puerto Rican actor in the part was also stereotypical. 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 "made all of the difference in the world". Wahlberg was allowed to modify some pieces of dialogue, particularly in scenes between Eric Matthews and his son Daniel, as well as those with Jigsaw. For the former, he incorporated a line based on something he had personally said to his own son. For the latter, Wahlberg sought to emphasize Eric's desperation to sit with Jigsaw in order to save Daniel, which Bell supported. The two actors improvised several of their interactions on set, with Wahlberg often adding changes after the day's filming had concluded.
Filming and post-production Saw II was produced on a budget of $4 million, compared to the little over $1 million budget of
Saw. Some exterior shots of police vehicles at the industrial docklands next to the Toronto soundstage was filmed on .
Principal photography took place over 25 days at Toronto's
Cinespace Film Studios from , to . The film was initially given 21 days to be shot. The nerve gas house scenes were shot in an abandoned Toronto warehouse, where the cast portraying Jigsaw's victims worked sixteen-hour days. Knudsen filmed while ill with the flu, noting that it suited his character's poisoned condition; he also continued with an on-set school tutor for two hours daily during production. Music and sound were recorded in July, with the film
locked on and completed by . For the "Needle Pit" trap, in which Smith's character Amanda is thrown into a pit of syringes to find a key, the production team modified 120,000 syringes by replacing their metal tips with fiber optic points over a four-day period. As this amount was insufficient to fill the pit, styrofoam and other materials were added to create the appearance of additional needles. Syringes that appeared to pierce Smith's body were blunted and attached to padding beneath her clothing, and a prosthetic arm was used for certain shots. . Bousman conceived the idea for the "Hand Trap", in which a character's hands become trapped inside a container. Hackl, property master Jim Murray, and art director Michele Brady developed the final design: a glass box suspended by chains from the ceiling that held a hypodermic needle containing an antidote, with two hand openings on the underside. When
Emmanuelle Vaugier's character Addison places her hands inside, retractable razor blades closed around them, giving the appearance that any attempt to withdraw would cause severe injury. For safety, the prop was built with movable cuffs and blades that retracted away from the actress's hands. Hackl later noted that the character could have been avoided the trap entirely, as a visible lock and key on the opposite side of the box would have opened it. 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. A computer model was created to help Bousman plan camera angles, and the set was constructed in three days from cement board and tin with removable sides and a top. This allowed Timothy Burd's character Obi to be filmed crawling inside. The furnace generated real flames, with a stunt performer coated in fire-retardant gel used in place of Burd for the sequences involving fire. ==Release==