Donnie darko: Wahlberg jumps for horror role in `Saw II'

By Stephen Schaefer

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Why would Donnie Wahlberg, the Hub homey who gained acting cred in ``Band of Brothers'' and ``Boomtown,'' choose a role in the gore-fest ``Saw II''?

``I never thought I'd do a horror movie , but with `Saw II' I considered all the possibilities,'' Wahlberg, 36, told the Herald last week. ``It could be huge at the end of the day. But on the other side I've always been conscientious with my choices. So I wrestled a lot.''

It came down to three factors:

``First, could we make this as good as or better than the first? I had to believe that to do it.

``Secondly, would it appease the hard-core fans? If you alienate them, you're screwed. It would be like `Blair Witch 2.'

``And three, would I have a good time? I just wanted to do something fun and not feel stressed out. Do something my son Xavier, who's 12, could brag to his friends about. I can't tell you how many times I've turned down a video game being turned into a movie or a remake of a horror movie and he'll come and say after seeing it on DVD, `Dad, did you see that movie? It was awesome.' Now with Halloween after the opening weekend on `Saw II' I'll be the coolest dad.''

``Saw II'' finds Wahlberg as Detective Eric Mathews in a tense showdown with the notorious serial killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), whose fiendishly sadistic scenarios made ``Saw'' a sleeper hit worldwide. This time as the police helplessly watch a video hookup, they see Jigsaw's eight captives slowly poisoned with nerve gas. One of them is Detective Mathews' son.

Despite the over-the-top violence of the ``Saw'' movies, Wahlberg said, ``There's a real thing going on that a lot of people can relate to.''

He was touched by a father's plight in the first movie. ``A family man was locked in that bathroom - and a wife and children were on the other end of the phone. He was trapped, incapable of going to help them. That touches anyone. As a dad, I'm thinking I'd have cut my leg off in two seconds to go save my wife and kid. That's what pulls me in emotionally .

``It's the same thing with the second one. Any parent would be, `Can I sit there and talk to this guy knowing what he's doing to my son? What would I do in this predicament?' That's what makes the `Saw' franchise better than the horror movies out there. `Saw,' if anything, had a lot of guts - and I don't mean that literally.''