If you enjoy insane amounts of blood, gore, bodily dismemberment, head scratching twists and skewed sense of morality, Saw is most likely your kind of series. What started as a low budget, contained thriller from the mind of horror visionary James Wan, the franchise has absolutely blown up since the early 2000s. With 10 films, a few video games, comic books and amusement park rides, the series has cemented itself as one of the most profitable horror franchises of all time, with its main killer John Kramer, aka Jigsaw, being recognized as one of horror’s most iconic villains. But how many films about torture devices, pig mask and puppets on tricycles can you squeeze about before attention runs dry? Probably not too long, as the following sequels ranged from okay to bad, with the franchise’s newest addition, 2021’s Spiral, failing to garner great reviews despite trying to change up the formula.

But Saw X attempts to bring it back to basics by maintaining the focus of John Kramer and his dastardly inventions. This works to bring more insight into the man behind the Jigsaw murders and revisit his penchant for horrific torture devices. Yet making your villain the main character comes with some challenges, especially when you try to portray him in a more sympathetic light. This is where Saw X ultimately stumbles, not really succeeding in expanding upon Kramer’s beliefs and reasoning in a meaningful way, while continuing the often blatant lie that he himself is not a killer. The traps are gory fun as always and will most likely leave you squirming in your seat, but truthfully they’ve been much worse in other films. What you’re left with is an okay time that doesn’t do much to expand upon the main idea of the franchise, but if all you’re looking for is the hits to play, then the film has you covered. 

In an effort to go back to basics, Saw X features the return of John Kramer, who in the current Saw timeline, is dead. But this actually turns out to be a prequel, happening in between the first Saw and its sequel. In this film, Kramer travels to Mexico for an experimental surgery to remove the cancer in his brain, only to find out the entire operation is a scam designed to steal dying people’s money. This sets Jigsaw on his usual path of revenge disguised as redemption as he starts to torture those that have wronged him.

This is the first of the franchise to actually focus on Kramer as the main character, giving us even more insight into his twisted mind. Well, kind of. The film attempts to paint Kramer as a product of unfortunate circumstances by putting him up against a group of people literally scamming cancer patients. And you know, you almost feel for the guy. He shows signs of wanting to move on with his life and this surgery was his way out of the world of murderous toy making. But at the end of the day…he’s still a psychopath. I do think it’s funny how the first act of the film almost attempts to humanize and garner sympathy for him, even if this is still an earlier moment in his career. We literally see him imagine sucking the eyeballs out of a guy’s head right at the beginning. And you know, Tobin Bell is doing a decent enough job trying to convey this more desperate, downtrodden version of the character, but by the time we move into the 2nd act, it’s pretty much back to basics. 

If you’re going to have a torturous psycho as your protagonist, who could you possibly put him up against to make us feel anything? Well, the embodiment of all the terrible aspects of big pharma is what we get. Cecilia Pederson is the ring leader behind the surgery scam that has conned Kramer and many others, who ends up getting locked up alongside her white collar cohorts. Each faces a test they must attempt to survive in order to earn their freedom, and as Jigsaw puts it, find a new lease on life. So look, I know this is the 10th film in the series, and I’ll admit I haven’t seen all the films so there may be something I’m missing, but Jigsaw’s whole deal is kind of bullshit, right? He sets up these elaborate traps that force people to face gruesome bodily harm in the crusade to appreciate life more. I get the idea behind it, but when all your traps continue to kill people at the very last second before they complete it, I don’t know, you might just be a murderer. The “we don’t kill people” mantra Jigsaw and his associates constantly repeat is obviously dumb, which I would be willing to accept if this film didn’t try to sell us on feeling anything for John Kramer. Having Jigsaw as the unequivocal villain of the other films keeps his slanted morals firmly in place as antagonistic hurdles for our flawed protagonists to attempt to fight through. Putting him in the role of a hero, or hell, even an anti-hero, just doesn’t work well for me, at least not here. I think a story like this can be given some depth, similar to Prisoners or Big Bad Wolves, but this film seems pretty dead set on making you sympathize with Kramer by more or less telling you he’s like this because of the misfortunes that befell him. Again this works for a villain because you know they are supposed to be wrong even if there’s a bit of truth to them. But no amount of Kramer playing with a kid or staring out at a beautiful sunset will make me feel anything positive about a guy like this.

I’m really not trying to psychoanalyze this series, so let’s just get back to what you probably come to see in these films; the traps. For me, they were honestly a little mixed, yet all of them do more or less deliver on the series’ trademark viscera. You’ve got everything from self amputation to performing brain surgery on yourself, which is just as revolting as it sounds. But then there’s other traps that involve exposure to radiation, being water boarded with blood, and being trapped in a room with poisonous gas that just feel super underwhelming. In theory they’re scary, but in execution they’re honestly pretty boring to watch, which is a shame considering these are the selling points of the series. But I can not deny that practical effects work to bring every severed and mutilated body part to reality. It’s undeniably gross and disturbing, with the pain of each experience really being sold by the actors. It’s really what you came here for, I just wish it made more of an impact on me like it did in the previous films.

Outside of the gore, the technicals here are mostly okay. The film maintains that hectic, erratic editing style that was popularized in the original film, but I do think the film loses a bit of its grunge aesthetic when not shot on that old 16mm film, but the coloring does make it acceptably disgusting to look at. Alongside the gruesome traps is also an exceptionally revolting use of sound design, something that really helps to sell the body horror. The script is mostly so so, but the style of the narrative doesn’t really need it to be all that fleshed out, even if it does leave me with a few questions. How exactly did John Kramer build a bunch of traps in a completely different country with limited resources and assumingly no contacts? Maybe he just stuffed a bit of C4 and a Billy the Puppet into his carry-on. And of course, as Saw likes to do, it ends with a twist that I thought was fairly admirable. Though I do think the ending itself is a bit of a dud, finishing off with an underwhelming trap that ends on such an unsatisfying note, and one that actually made me chuckle by how lame it was. 

Though I have my issues, I did still have a decent time with this 10th installment of a legendary franchise, something I haven’t really been able to do with Scream, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or The Exorcist. It feels silly to put its central villain in a loose anti-hero role, but it does lead to some fun traps and some top notch violence and gore. It’s one of those films that I actually enjoyed a bit more thanks to a bit of switching the ol’ brain off, which usually doesn’t work for me. I’m not a huge Saw fan, but I think most fans will probably have a good time with this one. Curious if those fans feel the same way I do about Amanda’s haircut. Wouldn’t mind the eyeball vacuum after seeing that.

Rating

Mind Melter

Obviously the first thing I thought of after seeing this movie was “Which trap could I best represent in a drink?” The one I immediately gravitated towards was the one where someone basically has to remove a piece of their own brain matter, put it in a dissolving compound, and retrieve your key before a big waffle maker steams your head. So that made me think of heat, bubbles and brains, which eventually led me to the Mind Melter. It’s a simple drink with a bit of refreshing bubbles and a bit of heat, coming together to create something that will surely scramble your brain if you’re not careful. You’ll find the distinct tast of tequila present, yet it’s bite is severely subdued thanks to the additional ingredients. The habenero syrup adds a bit of heat while also interestingly bringing out notes of vanilla from the tequila. It’s not called the Mind Melter for nothing, as the ice brains will slowly melt and add a slight, sweet flavor of pomegranate into the mix!

Ingredients

• 1.5oz silver tequila
• 3/4oz hot pepper syrup
• Dash of absinthe
• Top: Lemon-lime soda
• Ice: Grenadine ice brains

Instructions

1. To make the ice brains, fill a ice brain mold(s) with a ratio of 1/4 grenadine to 3/4 part water. Place in freezer until frozen
2. For the drink, add the ingredients to a glass starting with the absinthe, followed by the syrup and tequila.
3. Add brain ice to glass.
4. Top with lemon lime soda.