Most people are so ungrateful to be alive.
That is one of the most famous quotes from Jigsaw, aka John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the bitter and vengeful serial killer at the center of the Saw franchise. After a few random side quests (LOL at Spiral), the OG gang is back as Saw X returns to the story of Kramer, a cinematic baddie who has undergone an interesting evolution. We pick up with a Kramer who is gravely sick (isn’t he always?) as his spirit has been dampened by a terminal cancer diagnosis. To make matters worse, Kramer fundamentally looks like he hasn’t slept. Not that he hasn’t slept in X amount of time. This poor, withered old man with tote bags under his eyes looks like he hasn’t slept ever. Since the day he was born.
But his fortunes begin to pick up when he’s offered the chance of a lifetime – a Norwegian cancer treatment that promises to cure his illness. He expeditiously and desperately travels to Mexico City to receive the surgery by a team of persuasive doctors in what looks like the back of a warehouse. Clearly, there’s nothing shady about this at all, and Kramer soon has a new lease on life. Anyone who’s ever seen a Saw movie can tell what comes next.
Since its very inception, the Saw films have employed a clever use of Greek tragedy. That being Jigsaw’s sadistic games and riddles, which require his victims to think fast and often sacrifice a piece of themselves in hopes of survival – often ending in either grotesque mutilation or outright death. Unlike a typical slasher movie, where the victims are usually innocent people who just happened to be at the wrong place, Jigsaw’s targets are pretty deplorable people who have either wronged Kramer or others. So the movies derive delicious irony in seeing these characters’ hubris and malice lead them to a life-or-death game where only their wit and unheard-of levels of pain tolerance will save them. To Jigsaw, this is the necessary comeuppance and reversal of power dynamics that these people deserve.
Early in Saw X, Kramer observes a hospital worker who appears to be stealing from a patient. Kramer daydreams a vicious trap for the thief, which features one of the film’s best uses of gore and carnage. But it’s just a fantasy, an extraneous moment that does little for the plot, seemingly crowbarred in so that audiences will have some action early on in the dialogue-heavy first act. But soon, Kramer sets his rage against the very people who he trusted would save his life. Thus, Kramer finds himself in the role of antihero.
It’s an interesting dynamic, as the original Saw (2004) painted Jigsaw as an ambiguous figure, sort of the “He’s the villain, but I can understand his anger” type of antagonist. As the series has progressed, Jigsaw has gradually approached a more favorable light, and in Saw X, you wouldn’t be wrong in believing the movie thinks he’s a hero. How many horror movies see the killer teach a young boy how to fix a bike? Moreover, since we are ten films deep here, the Saw films have their own extensive history and mythology, which means Jigsaw can call upon old friends from his past to assist with his latest attacks. The most notable is Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), a series mainstay since the beginning whose role was expanded in Saw II (2005). So, we have the psychotic Avengers on hand, a group of stabby senior citizens set to right the wrongs of the world.
Yet, as the movie goes along, things start to become a little stale. There seems to be a lack of rooting interest at the heart of the movie’s problems, as neither the protagonists nor their victims are sympathetic enough to take a passing interest in their fate. I’m sorry, but it takes more than fixing a bike to get me on board with a Death Wish-type antihero. Likewise, these ancillary characters feel like cardboard cutouts of human beings, making their dilemmas seem hollow. I should be wallowing in their comeuppance, but their too underwhelming to even get invested in.
In the end, all these wild and crazy events lead to a showdown between two generic characters who I care very little about. The movie tries to spice up this ending with a reveal that feels like one of the weakest “twists” (if you can even call it that”) of the whole franchise. I don’t even think a twist was necessary, but if you’re going to do it, I’m expecting better than some instigating and gossip surrounding two characters I won’t remember twenty minutes after the movie is over.
This is not to say that I didn’t have some fun with Saw X. It actually does get off to a good start, and you’re initially invested in John Kramer’s struggle. But the movie becomes too repetitive, without any interesting or non-predictable story threads to keep you satiated. Eventually, you realize you’re just watching two straight hours of victims sitting in chairs to be forced to cut through or sacrifice a piece of their anatomy. Oh, this person has to cut through their leg. Oh, this one has to cut through an arm. Uh oh, here comes the decapitation scene right on schedule. This is essentially Saw playing the hits, which I’m sure is worthwhile for diehard fans of the franchise, but it is less thrilling if you’re not. It’s not scary or even that intense; once you spam the magic trick too many times, it just becomes boring. So no Jigsaw, I don’t want to play a game, not until you come up with new rules.
