By Logan Wofford
Saw is a horror movie franchise that has been on the decline with the releasing of their series Saw – yet they might have just been saved by their tenth movie that was recently released in theaters, Saw X.
“I want to play a game” says the famous puppet Billy from the infamous horror series “Saw.” Just this past Friday Saw X was released in theaters. Saw is a well known horror franchise that’s had its ups and quite a bit downs in the last decade, but I am happy to say that the tenth movie might just save this dying franchise. So what is Saw? The Saw movies follow a serial killer by the name John Kramer – played by Tobin Bell – also known as Jigsaw who has taken it upon himself to “save” people by putting them in life or death scenarios. Kramer’s philosophy is that if you aren’t willing to do anything you can to survive, then you shouldn’t live. In order for his victims to survive they must do something insane typically involving self mutilation. These scenarios are known as the traps, and are the franchise’s main gimmick. So, with all that being said, what makes Saw X so good?
First off I would give Saw X a 4/5. The movie takes a new approach to the franchise we haven’t yet seen. Instead of following a protagonist that’s a cop or a victim of an elaborate trap, we actually follow Kramer himself. This allows for us, the viewer to really understand why Kramer does what he does. At the beginning of the film we see Kramer at the hospital where he’s told that he doesn’t have much time to live because of his cancer. Desperately, Kramer looks for a way to cure his cancer when he stumbles upon a secret research group that has a miracle cure. With the hope of curing his terminal cancer Kramer flies to Mexico to get this miracle cure, but after treatment finds out that he’s been scammed. To get revenge and teach the scammers a lesson Kramer and Amanda (a recurring character in the franchise debuting in Saw) begin capturing and trapping victims.
As stated before, in this movie we follow Kramer which allows for a better understanding of his character. Kramer is not a good guy; this much is obvious, but it’s hard to not to find yourself at least a little sympathetic toward him. There’s also Amanda, the first person to survive from one of Kramer’s traps and the victim of the fan favorite “reverse bear trap.” As a survivor of one of Kramer’s traps she feels a lot more sympathetic for the victims, but she believes that Kramer is actually saving them like he saved her.
To give some context, Amanda was put in a trap because she was a drug addict which makes Amanda even more sympathetic for the girl Gabriela – played by Renata Vaca – since she is also a drug addict. Then there’s the antagonists who funnily enough are the people in the traps. There’s not much to say since their characters find themselves either screaming, crying, or dead in just about every scene they’re in, but one does stand out. Cecilia – Synnove Lund – the lead doctor in the whole scam organization plays her part very well as being a cunning money hungry scammer, but to avoid spoilers I won’t say more.
To give the movie a bit more variety, there is also quite a bit of high intensity horror besides the traps. There are a couple of slow building scenes that create so much tension that you’ll find yourself at the edge of your seat. In one scene, Amanda, wearing a pig mask, invades Cecilia’s house. We follow Cecilia as she searches her house for the intruder. There’s no music, only footsteps. The scene is horrifying in theaters, and probably even more scary at home because of the themes of home invasion.
The film has cinematic parts that help the story well. The cinematography is well done; there are a couple of great shots, especially the ones showing Kramer looking down on the people in the traps. The cinematographer, Nick Matthews is careful to reference the original films, aka the high octane shots that do a 360 around a character at breakneck speed.
Saw X was definitely great and I recommend any fan of the Saw franchise to see it in theaters. If you’re not a fan of Saw it’s good to know what you’re getting into. The film is very gory and not for the faint of heart, but if you can push past that it’s a horrifyingly good time.