Movie Review: ‘Saw X’

Director: Kevin Greutert

Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, Joshua Okamoto, Octavio Hinojosa, Costas Mandylor

Plot: During his murder spree as the notorious Jigsaw Killer, John Kramer sought out an experimental cancer cure. Upon learning that it’s an elaborate scam, he seeks vengeance in his signature method.

Review: It might be difficult to express just how much Saw blew audiences away in 2004. It sold well on the premise of two people in a death trap, but was elevated to the heights of horror stardom by its frantic camera and editing style (a creative way to mask the low budget), grungy aesthetic and insane twist ending. The series became a mainstay with annual releases that included massive blood drives where fans lined up outside nastily themed medical tents set up outside cinemas. Beyond it’s own sequels, it kicked off the ‘torture porn’ trend in cinemas and led to the global spread of real life ‘escape rooms’. James Wan and Leigh Whannell did more than create a hit franchise, they changed horror media for years to follow…up until Wan did it again with The Conjuring.

As with any long running series, the gas in the tank started to run low and the box office and budgets dwindled and gimmicks such as 3D took precedents. A few valiant attempts to kick things back into gear – Jigsaw and Spiral – failed to impress, which could be why Saw X feels determined to give people what they wanted. Among this would be the return of Tobin Bell to a central role, bringing back director Kevin Greutert, who has had more to do with shaping the series than anyone, and revisiting the theme of medical exploitation that contributed to Saw VI being considered one of the best in the series.

Although he’s been a consistent presence through the films, John Kramer (Bell) has rarely been the main point of view we’ve followed. This isn’t the case in Saw X, as we open with Kramer being given the news that his time is running out. Being in the midst of his insane mission to ‘save’ people through homicidal puzzle traps and fearing his work being unfinished, Kramer is disheartened. When a fellow patient tells him about a miracle cure that’s unapproved, Kramer travels to Mexico to undergo the treatment. Upon learning that he’s been scammed and there is no treatment, he sets out to test those responsible in a new series of traps.

By this point you’d think that nobody cares much about the continuity beyond the most ardent fans, but they’ve found a way to add more to Kramer’s story prior to his death in Saw III without engaging with the tangle of flashbacks and retcons. By moving the trap story to isolated rural Mexico and the medical facility operating outside of government regulations, we have an excuse for the police and Jigsaw disciples to be unaware of these events. This shows an attention to detail that some of the gimmick based stories later in the series lacked. We also return to the theme of the Jigsaw avenging himself on those who exploit the sick and dying for monetary gain, which is the only time we’ve kinda seen his point.

The surgical angle on the story lends to some especially nasty traps. Maybe this is a personal thing – surgery wigs me out at the best of times – but the sequence of one victims sawing through their leg with a surgical wire ala Audition is absolutely harrowing. Then again, we have some delightfully ridiculous moments, throwbacks to the series at its most exploitative, with an eyeball vacuum trap.

As despicable as Jigsaw’s victims are in this movie, it is cool to see people in the traps who show determination and intuitiveness in attempting to escape their situation. All early attempt to escape by creating a makeshift rope is…something. It’s not often that people manage to break free of Kramer’s planning. The extra wrinkle of another wronged party stumbling onto the game in progress keeps things feeling a bit unpredictable, not easy in a prequel.

Having gone into this new entry complete blind, avoiding all spoilers and promotional material, it was a real treat getting Amanda Young (Smith) back alongside Kramer. We never got enough of these two sharing the screen in the original series, with most of their time being regulated to seperate flashback stories. This film becomes an opportunity to explore their dynamic before it came to a head in a very final way, and we get scenes of them hashing out their philosophies and approaches. There’s a demented love between them as mentor and student, something that got squandered when their characters got buried under twist upon twist.

If there’s one aspect of this movie that doesn’t work, and was also a failing in Spiral, is that some of the traps are presented as being passable but seem anything but. There’s a suspension of disbelief needed when someone saws their own leg off to escape death as it is, but now we have to accept a person with no medical training performing a self-lobotomy without anaesthetic in under three minutes. Just…no. No-one is cutting into their own skull and pulling out some brain matter without passing out from shock or pain.

What ultimately helps put this franchise back on track is the decision to skew slightly darker in tone. A glibness that had set in feels dispelled in this entry. The musical score and colour scheme skew towards the melancholy, plus there’s a societal transgression toward the end of the movie that escalates the stakes substantially. I’m quite shocked that they did that. Even casting an actor for the scene feels taboo. If the goal was to push the boundaries of the audience, they succeeded.

As a fan of the series, it’s brilliant to have another really solid entry into the series. It feels less like the franchise is fading away and could well go out with a bang.

Rating: EIGHT out of TEN