The 10th entry in the horror franchise puts Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw back at centre stage \u2013\u00a0but has little to offer besides gory fan service. <\/p>
By Kevin Harley\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Thursday, 28 September 2023 at 03:00 AM<\/p>
Released in 2021, Spiral<\/a>: From the Book of Saw was a bold but flawed bid to make a Saw<\/a> movie without \u2013 even in flashbacks \u2013 Tobin Bell as original Jigsaw killer John Kramer.<\/p>\n Duly, the disappointing box office returns for that ninth entry in the horror series provoked the inevitable response for the 10th outing in the series.<\/p>\n Neither on-screen death nor franchise overkill can keep a horror icon down, so Kramer returns for Saw VI and Saw 3D director Kevin Greutert\u2019s Saw X, set in the saga\u2019s timeline between Saw and Saw II.<\/p>\n The calm pleasures of Bell\u2019s unnervingly purposeful performance aside, that sense of inevitability is the main problem with this run around John\u2019s old block of wicked games, pseudo-moral tests and medieval death traps.<\/p>\n After Saw sequels, prequels, near-parodies and spin-offs, the main sell here is a back-to-basics approach. Greutert delivers all the gushing gore and series Easter eggs fans might expect, with a caveat. He\u2019s so busy pleasing the fanbase that he neglects another vital piece of the franchise puzzle: the sense of mystery that helped lift the best Saws above \u2018torture porn\u2019 clich\u00e9s.<\/p> Saw X starts with a declaration of intent, closing in on Kramer\u2019s face as he reckons with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He expects to live for a year, at best, until a seemingly recovered cancer patient informs Kramer of a radical new cure.<\/p>\n Signed up, Kramer visits a secret location in Mexico and pays for treatment. But when he realises he has been scammed, he contacts his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Amanda (Shawnee Smith) and plots revenge \u2013 which, in his troubling thinking, involves devising elaborate torments and tests to \u201creawaken\u201d his victims to an awareness of life\u2019s value.<\/p>\n With Kramer situated as the protagonist, Saw X partly plays into the emotional impact of his confrontation with mortality. Conversely, the opening stretch also peddles a winning line in gallows humour. \u201cI,\u201d says Kramer, pausing for comic-dramatic effect as faux-surgeon Cecilia Pederson (Synn\u00f8ve Macody Lund) asks what he does, \u201chave a few hobbies.\u201d<\/p>\n A look at his grim hospital room sketchbook amuses, too, and there\u2019s a playful pay-off to his gratuitous torment of a thieving orderly that\u2019s too cheeky to spoil.<\/p>\n Once he and Amanda capture the grifters who sold him false hope, however, there\u2019s precious little to spoil. Since we know where Amanda ends up in Saw II, we also know that her fleeting clashes with Kramer over the punishment of drug user and scammer Gabriela (Renata Vaca) are going nowhere.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n As Kramer chains up these cheats in a warehouse and subjects them to cruel \u201ctests\u201d, Greutert instead focuses on amplifying the gross-out factor. Living up to the title, Saw X proves the series can still leave you craving a cold shower afterwards.<\/p>\n Ticking clocks boost the tension as characters hack into limbs to prevent agonising death. One character\u2019s self-administered brain surgery beats the scalping scene in Ridley Scott\u2019s Hannibal for schlock value. Another poor unfortunate\u2019s indignities extend beyond death when their intestines are unravelled and used as rope.<\/p>\n The problem is that there\u2019s no mystery here to tug you in, much less anything to surprise. A nasty late development gives Greutert a chance to unleash gallons of gushing blood, but the best Saw films offered more fiendish puzzle-box pleasures than a crude blood-boarding.<\/p>\n With X being the longest Saw film, the result feels drawn out rather than developed, and then drawn out further still as the revelation of a key character\u2019s inner moral vacuum results in some grim \u2018evil villain\u2019 acting.<\/p>\n When Kramer says, \u201cOur work\u2019s not going to end,\u201d he could be speaking for any horror icon stretched beyond their breaking point, with little new to offer besides gore-spewing fan service.<\/p> \n