If the Saw franchise had a talent for anything, aside from concocting genuinely flabbergasting ways for human beings to mutilate themselves, it’s that it had an endless knack for writing itself into a corner.
Lest we forget, the series managed to kill its main antagonist – tumour suffering, self-help sadist, John “Jigsaw” Kramer – as early as the third movie and had been keeping him active via progressively more complex flashbacks ever since until the last two installments (Jigsaw and Spiral respectively) barely had anything to do with him.
However, this has all changed with Saw X – the newest installment in the nearly twenty year history of torture porn’s greatest export – that takes the franchise’s notorious timeline twisting and uses it in a way that brings things mercifully back to their roots.
Are you ready to go back and witness Jigsaw’s missing piece?
Lodged somewhere between the shackled shenanigans of the first Saw and the Donnie Wahlberg baiting of Saw II, we find Kramer gradually feeling the adverse effects of the brain tumour that’s due to end his life in a matter of months. However, a chance meeting with with a fellow cancer sufferer gives the man also known as Jigsaw something he hasn’t experienced in quite a while. Honest to God, hope.
It seems that operating out of Mexico in order to avoid Big Pharma is a Dr. Cecillia Pederson who claims that thanks to a revolutionary new treatment, she can whip the ass of practically any form or stage of cancer you can throw at her and after Kramer approaches her, she manages to squeeze him in as long as he can get south of the by a certain date.
After taking in the scenic tranquility of Mexico and being introduced to Penderson’s staff, John undergoes an operation that, is successful, will not only save his life, but may actually have him hang up the pig mask and tricycle riding puppet once and for all. However, as the law of prequels has already clued us in, things are rotten in Mexico City and when Kramer awakes, he finds that his expensive operation was all a sham and he’s no better off than when he started. Of course, giving Jigsaw false hope is about as wise as letting Jason Voorhees browse in the gardening tool section of B&Q and before you know it, he’s gotten his network of agents hunting down and abducting Penderson “staff” (actually a selection of con artists, whores and addicts) in order for them to all play some of Jigsaw’s trademark games.
Aided by his most trusted acolyte, Amanda, Kramer aims to teach this cluster of surgical shysters the bloody error of their ways, but this is one round of terrible tasks that, for once, isn’t going to follow Jigsaw’s plans to the letter.
While the Saw movies are somewhat known for for its string of rug-pulling endings, possibly the biggest twist that Saw X pulls out of its bag of tricks is that its possibly the most solid entry the series has had in yonks. Bouncing the entire franchise back to a time when Kramer was far more than just an echo in the memories of his far less interesting accomplices may sound like the recipe for more eyeball rolling revelations, but what it actually accomplishes is something that the movies haven’t managed to accomplish since 2006 – making its central “villain” an actual person.
While James Wan’s Saw was a lean, mean, tormenting machine, it wasn’t until the sequel that we met up with John properly, delving into his back story with gravel-voiced gusto. So as a prequel to Darren Lynn Bousman’s Saw II, we finally get to spend much more time with Tobin Bell’s complex creation who still stands as one part Dr. Phil to two parts Grand Inquisitor and while Saw X doesn’t break many molds, it’s still the return to form fans have been hankering for for ages.
It ain’t perfect, not by a long shot, as a couple of character inconsistencies and an odd tone shift may raise chuckles or furrow some brows, but returning Saw sequel director Kevin Greutert – who helmed VI (great) and VII (shit) – keeps things nice and familiar. Yes, it’s very strange that a man as fastidious as Kramer wouldn’t do a thorough background check on his would-be healers and a sudden, third act shift that makes Kramer and Amanda full-on heroes, seems like a weird choice considering where the series eventually goes, however, it’s oddly comforting to have the old status quo back – even Shawnee Smith seems to be wearing a Mr. Spock wig and both she and Bell are noticably older than they should be.
However, it’s weird that I’ve gotten this far into the devide and not gone into the series’ real bread and butter – those insidious tasks that no one seems to have the intestinal fortitude to complete within the allotted time. While they’re predictably gruesome and as viciously inventive as they’ve always been (an eyeball sucking vacuum and a frantic leg hacking stand out as the best of the bunch), they also seem oddly quaint now that the days of torture porn are as old fashioned as slasher movies and J-Horror, but rest assured, once that theme kicks in in the final reel to signify that someone has fucked up real bad, it truly feels like the franchise hasn’t been away.
In the aftermath, it turns out that Saw X’s biggest virtues aren’t the copious gore, endless screaming or even a callback to Billy the Puppet, but instead is a measured trimming of the fat, as the script – much like one of Jigsaw’s victims – carves away at the unnecessary tissue to respectfully streamline twenty years of continuity in order to focus on the basics. While retroactively casting Kramer and Amanda as avenging angels rather that dangerously deluded mutilators will undoubtedly feel a little off when a chronological marathon inevitably sandwiches it immediately between Saws 1 and 2, it weirdly plays far better in the here and now as it feels more like a twisted reunion of old friends – especially considering they’ve been dead as shit since 2006.
Despite being a bit too long and bringing nothing particularly new to the long running franchise, Saw X not only redeems itself with a satisfying, robust injection of some twisted nostalgia, but its uncluttered, meat and potatoes plot and clear focus on its enigmatic villain means that it’s anything but torture to get through.
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