John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the engineer-turned-killer, discovers he has a terminal illness and not much time left. He learns of a miraculous treatment method, banned in the United States. Without hesitation, John travels to Mexico, where they can operate on his brain and inject experimental drugs nearby – salvation lies in the so-called Pedersen method. Soon, it becomes clear that both the smiling Cecilia Pedersen (Synnøve Macody Lund) and her staff are scammers, and the entire “miracle surgery” is a ploy to swindle the dying Kramer out of his money. The deceived Jigsaw prepares a plan for revenge and involves his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith). In a large warehouse, Kramer initiates a deadly game.
Tobin Bell as John Kramer in a scene from “Saw X”
Over its twenty-year history, “Saw” has moved quite erratically, sawing off legs and experimenting with traps along the way: from an original thriller in the vein of David Fincher’s “Seven” to torture porn and, concurrently, a soap opera. The franchise has developed its own musical notation: deadly traps, the sadistic engineer John Kramer, a rotation of his henchmen, Hello Zepp in the credits – the authors only had to hammer away at the same keys. At some point, everyone got tired: the enthusiastically spilled blood lost its freshness, the traps rusted, and only flashbacks remained of the philosophizing killer Tobin Bell. The anniversary “Saw” aims to correct the situation – the film willingly returns to the time when Kramer was looking for a way to save himself from progressive cancer. As we remember, viewers lost the cunning maniac back in the fourth film, but even from beyond the grave, he prepared for a deadly game, carefully selecting heirs.
Scene from “Saw X”
Jumping into the gap between the first and second films seems like a refreshing move for a franchise that, after the ninth “Saw” with Chris Rock, was openly called a complete failure. Veteran viewers, of course, are unlikely to be surprised by anything – after nine installments, tolerance is sure to develop, but director Kevin Greutert has his own method. There is much more talking than actual sawing in the film (the first hour is entirely expositional), Kramer’s motivations are even more understandable, simplistic, but, dare we say, reasonable – crooks face the vengeful wrath of a maniac-constructor who was left without money and hope. Traditional Grand Guignol is also applied to the picture: it seems we’ve already seen the best atrocities, but there’s still room for spectacular exits – vacuum tubes for the eyes, for example, will definitely become the film’s calling card. The brain self-surgery and other nauseatingly mesmerizing tricks, this time played out with a slant towards the cheerful science of surgery, are also impressive. Since the hero-killer is in another country, he assembles his mechanisms in ready-made mode, without that engineering and technical sophistication: whatever is available will do.
Octavio Hinojosa as Mateo in a scene from “Saw X”
There are also weaknesses that the authors couldn’t resist (as has been the case since about the second part) – while the meat is being chopped and the intestines are being wound, they are supposed to dig into the story to its emotional core. It’s not Kramer who is the villain, but the world – especially the American healthcare system, which left the dying Jigsaw with no chance, not to mention the scammers from Mexico City. As long as “Saw” didn’t whitewash the main sadist-engineer and showed him as a crazy scoundrel, the franchise had some incorruptible power. Now, Tobin Bell’s character has been awarded a clear moral compass, clashing with even bigger villains. This, however, can be treated with leniency – Tobin Bell, without a doubt, gives the best performance of his character on screen – already fragile, but by no means devoid of a cold analytical mind.
The inquisitorial traps work, the bones crunch convincingly, the plot is just a plot, it won’t matter as soon as nausea kicks in: the tenth “Saw” traditionally provides a flashy torture show. Unexpectedly, the authors have added self-irony – Darren Lynn Bousman sorely lacked this, and in some places, the character lines have been tweaked – now Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith’s characters are not rag dolls, but antiheroes with quite convincing maniacal chemistry. Overall, “Saw X” is a return to form for the franchise, an anniversary release that is deservedly marked as one of the most sober, inventive, and vivid. And all it took was to deviate slightly from the soap opera flavor of the last parts and take John Kramer to Mexico.