Nasty as Ever
Jigsaw finally gets to star in his own damn franchise, in one of the better, equally gory ‘Saw’ gross-outs.
Saw X
Director: Kevin Greutert • Writers: Peter Goldfinger, Josh Stolberg
Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Michael Beach, Renata Vaca, Jorge Briseño
USA • 1hr 59mins
Opens Hong Kong September 28 • III
Grade: B-
John Kramer, AKA Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead, that we know from Saw III to Saw IV, but seeing as the Saw franchise has never been afraid to fuck with its own chronology, who really knows when Saw X – yes, the tenth in the pièce de résistance of the largely faded torture porn sub-genre – takes place. More than anything, though, after trying to juice the property with a new cast, new space and new vibe in Spiral: From the Book of Saw in 2021, it’s like the producers sat down in a board room and said, “Nah! Get me Bell on the phone!” So Jigsaw is back with fresh traps, moral quandaries, and whole bunch of bodily mutilations.
For what it’s worth, we pick up mid-stream, I guess, as Kramer wrestles with his terminal cancer diagnosis but well into his vengeful hobby. He already has his apprentice, Amanda (Shawnee Smith), and he’s resigned to his fate when he runs into a fellow cancer support group member, Henry Kessler (Michael Beach), who’s made a remarkable recovery. It’s a Saw movie. You know something’s fishy, and you know at some point Kramer’s gettin’ his blood rage on. That said, this could be the best Saw movie since the 2004 original, and horror hack Josh Stolberg (who penned Spiral as well as towering cinema, Sorority Row and Piranha 3D) gets back to Saw basics. The first film’s editor-turned-director Kevin Gruetert, knows the rules too; he deploys his zooms and broken sequences in all the right places, and knows exactly where to drop Charlie Clouser’s now triggering “Aha!” theme. Saw fans will be pleased.
Buddy just won’t die
Saw X (can we say “Socks”?) gets the blades whirring when Kramer reaches out to cutting-edge (heh heh) oncologist Cecilia Pederson (discount Michelle Pfeiffer, Synnøve Macody Lund, The Girl in the Spider's Web), who’s carrying on her equally cutting-edge father’s work on special drug cocktails for cancers. She spouts all kinds of Big Pharma conspiracies online (how au courant), which gets attention from desperate, dying people. Of course it costs a small fortune – and it’s a massive hustle. As one famous cameo says, “You picked the wrong guy to scam,” an interesting story idea in itself that Stolberg and co-writer Peter Goldfinger never really explore. Too bad.
Before that, though, Kramer’s off to Mexico where the special clinic is hiding from Big Pharma, and after the stupidest “security” measures ever, settles in for treatment. When he finds out he’s been taken for a ride, he rounds up cabbie Diego (Joshua Okamoto), clinic welcome wagon Gabriela (Renata Vaca), nurse Valentina (Paulette Hernández), anaesthetist Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), and surgeon Dr Cortez (Okamoto again), along with Pederson – who’s a pretty good adversary – for some righteous, rule-based vengeance, with all his favourite toys accounted for: the pig mask, the tapes, and the clown puppet. There is lots of gore, blood and viscera – including one that’s a glorious fake-out, but is no less nastily enjoyable for it.
There’s little to be said about a Saw movie: You’re really into this stuff, or you’re really not. For acolytes there are a few callbacks to earlier films, the tone is more akin to the original, and with the exception of the grand finale, the traps are considerably less Rube Goldberg than in later editions. Which isn’t to say they’re not ridiculous, just a little more, erm, believable. The concept of time is decidedly bonkers, like the overall timeline, and so we’re just asked to sit back and assume a few phone calls to allies and a couple of pesos gets Kramer’s grisly lab set up in, oh, 72 hours. But if this is your bag it will come as a pleasure to see Bell back in the title role. The actor has always managed to make the reprehensible, morally questionable Jigsaw into a compelling character, and he finally gets his turn in the spotlight. He’s become a Freddy/Jason/Michael Myers without ever getting his own movie until now, and in Saw X he gets to star in an entry in the house that Bell built. And Bell, until now a classic character actor, makes the most of his time, exploiting his sunken cheeks and red-rimmed eyes for maximum, simmering fury. If you want to pull on the narrative threads that have always lingered in the background – can we get a full Amanda origin story if these are going to carry on, please? – they’re ripe for the pulling, but if you want to just sit back and get grossed out, you could do worse. Much worse. — DEK
*Saw X was reviewed during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, it wouldn't exist.