Well, here we are. Part 10. Certainly not the last of the franchise by far but potentially a reinvigoration of it. Saw X comes as an admission from the series that without the character of John Kramer there is no series and there are no stories after the events of Saw 3D worth telling. So despite being called Saw 10, the film is technically Saw 1.2 as it supposedly takes place between the first two films. While a great suspension of disbelief is required in some areas, Saw X is undeniably one of the better Saw films with its complete focus on John Kramer, some creative suspense and of course some inventively gruesome traps.

After learning he only has months to live due to his advancing brain cancer, John Kramer (Tobin Bell) travels to Mexico to a private clinic to receive an experimental treatment. Not long after becoming ‘cancer-free,’ Kramer realises that the whole treatment was a scam to defraud him. With the help of his protégé Amanda (Shawnee Smith), Kramer captures the con artists and tests their selfish and dishonest ways with his signature Jigsaw methods.

The Characters

To appreciate Saw X there are a few inconsistencies that you just have to let slide, such as John and Amanda appearing significantly older than they do in Saw II and the amount of time the film purports is between the original and the second film.

It shouldn’t have taken nine films to happen but it did, we finally have a film about John Kramer. He is the protagonist, he is our surrogate in the plot and he is brilliant. Saw X humanises Kramer more than in previous entries merely by making him the lead. We watch him out in the world, in real-time, uninterrupted by flashbacks (for the most part anyway). We see him in public practising social etiquette and common manners, demonstrating his respect for other people but concealing the standards he has for them and their lives.

Upon arriving at the clinic in Mexico he befriends a local boy called Carlos. The two bond as John uses his engineering skills to fix his bike. You can’t forgive Kramer for his crimes but its scenes like these that make disagreeing with him not impossible but still difficult.

The subjects in Kramer’s game consist of four people who were involved in the scam; Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), Valentina (Paulette Hernandez), Gabriela (Renata Vaca) and Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund), the doctor who arranged John’s surgery.

This isn’t really a spoiler as it occurs near the midpoint however it hasn’t been shown in any of the marketing materials I’ve seen. At one point, Cecilia and her colleagues overpower John, taking him captive and locking him in one of his own devices. As well as greedy and sociopathic, Cecilia has a cunning intellect that is equal to Kramer’s. She almost becomes the Moriarty to his Sherlock or the Joker to his Batman. Overlooking Kramer’s actions and philosophy becomes very easy at this point because we’ve witnessed his capacity for love and compassion. Our empathy outweighs our indifference to him.

Yes the premise is relatively similar to previous entries however by not only making John Kramer a central character but a vulnerable one, Saw X invokes emotions that have never been conveyed in the series.

The Horror

The creative use of suspense I mentioned earlier occurs in the scene where Cecilia is captured. The way it’s shot and edited toys with your eyes and has you frantically scanning every corner of the frame.

Apart from that scene, Saw X is, unsurprisingly, another gore fest. Contrary to what the marketing campaign suggests, the famous ‘eye-trap’ actually plays a very minor role in the film. The bulk of the gore appears in the game John and Amanda conduct. Valentina must sever her leg with a Gigli saw in a nauseating sequence, Mateo has to extract a portion of his brain without anaesthetic and Gabriela has to escape the burning shine of ionizing radiation by breaking her shackled wrist and ankle with a sledgehammer. I found Valentina and Mateo’s tests to be the most difficult to watch.

For an entry that was clearly influenced by the failure of Spiral, Saw X displays a great amount of creativity. It’s not afraid to violate the doctrine established by its predecessors and show us something new. If you can forgive the aforementioned inconsistencies then you’ll get a lot more out of Saw X than you did out of any of the other sequels.

I give Saw X a brave 7 out of 10.  

I’ll be very surprised if this is the last Saw review I put to paper, especially considering how well this latest entry is performing at the box office. While the franchise has absolutely had its low points, having seen them all now I’m surprised by how flexible Saw has proved to be with its formula. Even the awful Saw V and 3D had subplots that could’ve made for great standalone films.

Keep an eye on my Letterboxd profile @DuffyWuffy for my ranking of all 10 films as well as mini humorous takes on whatever I’ve been watching each day.

I was a child when the first seven Saw films were released hence I couldn’t enjoy the annual tradition of seeing a new episode in cinemas every Halloween. However, if Saw X has reinvigorated the franchise as much as some are saying it has, I might be on time for a second wave. That would be wonderful.

Oh, one other thing. I got this out before midnight of October 31st so I don’t have to rip my cock off with a mole wrench.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone.