I Just Saw

“You people are f***ing sick…”

You’re telling me. How did the Saw franchise end up spawning 10 films? Why, of all the films to come out of the dark days of “torture porn” in the early ‘00s, did this premise have such longevity?

Well, a few reasons. The most important probably being Tobin Bell as Jigsaw/John Kramer, the civil engineer whose engines are less than civil. The first film (2004) didn’t bother revealing much about Kramer or his motivations because they weren’t really the point, the mystery and harrowing scenario were. The sequels did get into his psychology and persona, however, because they had to have some kind of narrative thread. It was then that Bell started to shine as the true knot of the franchise; his gravelly voice, piercing eyes, and intense aura were the reasons why people kept turning up even after the bizarre decision was made to kill him off.

In this one, set chronologically between Saw and Saw II (2005), we see him as a brain cancer patient who hears of a miracle procedure in Mexico performed by Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund) and her team. But of course, it’s not what it seems and soon those miracle workers end up in a warehouse, subjected for their sins to a new set of traps.

This is easily the best of the Saw sequels in terms of its quality as an actual film and not just an effects reel or funhouse contraption for callow youth. It probably needed to be the best after the contemptible train wreck that was Darren Lynn Bousman’s Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), and X director Kevin Greutert – also behind VI (2009) and 3D (2010) – clearly understands the franchise’s rules for success better than Bousman ever did.

X has all the formula of previous entries but tries harder than any of the sequels to tell a semi-convincing and structured story around its elements, relying on more than just the traps and soap opera twists to generate engagement. The first act is surprisingly well structured, characterised, and involved for one of these films, drawing you into a truly evil criminal scheme that unfolds with a measure of narrative grace.

Of course, as is always the case with these films, the moral philosophy is complete junk. One character who “fails” their “test” in one of Jigsaw’s traps is described as not having had the will to live, but they clearly did, hence why they were hurting themselves to live. What they didn’t have was an endless capacity for pain and self-mutilation.

Furthermore, while no one deserves what happens to them in this film in any case, of the victims that Kramer selects at least two of them I would argue are more victim than victimiser. One of them is a sex worker, and the film does flirt with misogyny by adding her to its scheme, as well as putting her at risk of rape in one scene.

Yes, she and a drug-addicted accomplice participated in an evil scheme, but I’d argue that across their lives they were probably more victims than victimisers, exploited by a rich American doctor who knew how desperate they were as marginalised Mexican citizens. Jigsaw doesn’t brook much grey in his moral judgements.

Amusingly, a third-act twist tries to make Kramer sympathetic by giving him a true innocent to save. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I find it hard to invest emotionally in a character who’s just tortured a sex worker to death. Call me a libtard.

Shawnee Smith shows up as Jigsaw accomplice Amanda and, to put this as nicely as I can given that it’s not her fault in the slightest, she doesn’t look like it’s still 2004, when this is presumably set. Watching this right after the original would certainly be a trip; as if the actress aged almost 20 years in 6 months. Still, her rapport with Tobin Bell is good, and the two of them here are as fun a duo as they’ve ever been. Bell doesn’t appear to have aged at all – he’s probably looked between 60 and 80 since he left his mother’s womb – and his quietly intense charisma remains on point.

Saw X is a fun little shocker, soapy and absurd but with more attention to detail than you might expect. The traps are fun, much of the acting is appropriately ropey, the gore has the OTT feel of old horror comics, and the plotting is better than usual.

Rating: 3/4