Saw X (2023)

*Saw X* slots in as “Saw 1.5” chronologically, taking place between the first and second installments of this long-running torture-porn franchise. Quality-wise, though, it ranks closer to a 10 than a zero — a rarity among the other nine films in this disappointingly popular series.

If you’re squeamish, this one’s not for you. It’ll appeal more if you’re indifferent to the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Honestly, the best way to watch is with your moral compass turned off.

That said, this is the first fully linear story in the *Saw* saga, and it’s a well-crafted one, featuring solid character work and some genuinely decent twists. The script by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger takes its time before diving into the, shall we say, gruesome highlights. But once it does, the brutal traps and self-inflicted torment that protagonist John Kramer—aka Jigsaw—engineers reveal a certain twisted brilliance.

Speaking of Jigsaw, Tobin Bell, who portrays both the trap master and his alter ego, retired civil engineer John Kramer, leans heavily into the latter. To him, the people caught in his traps aren’t mere victims; they’re lost souls he hopes to teach a lesson in appreciating life—assuming they survive with their heads and noses intact.

Set between 2004’s *Saw* and 2005’s *Saw II*, this chapter finds John traveling to Mexico for an experimental treatment for his terminal brain tumor. It shouldn’t take much brainpower to figure out it’s a scam, but Bell convincingly portrays John’s quiet desperation to cling to hope. The sadistic, self-appointed savior even sheds a tear and fixes a kid’s bike—almost making you mistake him for a hero.

Bell’s role here is more acting-heavy than ever before in the franchise, and in his soft, whispery way, he clearly savors the chance to shine. The octogenarian actor looks his age rather than the stricken mid-50s John Kramer he’s meant to be, but if you’re going in expecting realism from these movies, I’ve got some cancer cures to sell you.

Shawnee Smith returns as Amanda, Jigsaw’s apprentice who’s not quite twisted enough yet but is eager to learn the ropes—quite literally, since her initiation involves intestines. Norwegian actress Synnøve Macody Lund (*Headhunters*) is deliciously amoral as Cecilia Pederson, a quack doctor who cares as little for her dying patients as for her shady collaborators.

Cecilia’s henchpeople—a strong Latino cast including Joshua Okamoto, Renata Vaca, Octavio Hinojosa, and Paulette Hernandez—add layers beyond mere fear and pain. The movie hints at the exploitation of Mexican labor but never calls it out directly, likely because it itself reduces locals to fodder for Jigsaw’s devices.

The traps offer some cinematic and often medically themed ways to die, with a few incorporating Aztec-inspired designs—though director Kevin Greutert could have done more with the Mexican setting. Ultimately, *Saw X* looks like just another postindustrial torture chamber, much like its predecessors.

Still, Greutert—who has edited all ten films and now directed three—knows what works best in this twisted universe. Driven by mortality and moral certainty, John Kramer experiences a rare moment of reckoning here. Though his body may have months left to live, his jigsawed soul meets its demise in this installment.