Saw X
Yet again the Saw franchise raises its own dubious bar and follows Jigsaw to Mexico City….
String theory: Paulette Hernandez
There is an evil at the multiplex and its name is Saw. The perplexing aspect of the phenomenon is its audience’s continuing appetite for such extreme material. Maybe the films are a challenge to see how much a soul can take – the emotional equivalent of a death-defying fairground ride. With Saw X in particular, it’s hard to align the film’s actual expertise with its moral sensibility. Yet, unlike other horror franchises, the Saw series has somehow raised the bar as it progresses – a case of getting better as it gets worse. With the tenth instalment, the cunning traps remain, although their complexity beggars belief. And while Saw X still has fresh surprises up its bloodied sleeve, the tone here is problematic. It’s no longer just gruesome fun. And the monster has a motive.
Kevin Greutert’s Saw X is actually a direct sequel to the original Saw (2004) and a prequel to Saw II (2005), where we now meet John Kramer (Tobin Bell) as a gentle, courteous figure. We know of what he is capable (he has a sick sense of justice) but here he is given a conscience of sorts, which certainly muddies the moral waters. For a horror film, Saw X is surprisingly naturalistic (as well as realistic), with a desaturated colour palette and understated performances, which makes the scenes of torture all the harder to endure. With each sequel the CGI and prosthetics move up a level, enabling the scenes of tearing flesh and cartilage all the harder to watch. But before the mayhem begins (besides an episode which, cruelly, turns out to be merely imagined), the new sequel allows us some down time with Kramer, aka Jigsaw. And this is where the film crosses the line: its use of cancer as an element of horror. Viewers may loosely identify with Jigsaw’s hand-picked victims as they navigate the brutal blades and saws of their inevitable demise, but cancer is all around us.
Here, Kramer has been diagnosed with brain cancer and is given a matter of months to live. Then he hears of a life-saving treatment that involves surgery combined with a rare cocktail of drugs, a treatment kept secret by Big Pharma. The giant drug companies fear alternative remedies (as it will cut into their profits), so the new process is strictly off-grid. Hearing of a successful operation in Norway, Kramer flies to Mexico City where the clinic is currently hiding out – far from the reaches of the biotechnology conglomerates. At this point, Saw X is actually interesting, before turning to a more familiar template, the better to serve the fans. It's hard to know who to recommend the film to, yet, on a primal level, it certainly delivers the goods. There are unforeseen twists, too, and a level of sheer ingenuity lacking in, say, the dumb and dreadful Halloween outings. But in the final lap Saw X crosses another line of what is permissible in any society, unforgivable even for torture porn.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, Michael Beach, Paulette Hernandez, Octavio Hinojosa, Joshua Okamoto, Jorge Briseño, Costas Mandylor.
Dir Kevin Greutert, Pro Mark Burg and Oren Koules, Screenplay Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg, Ph Nick Matthews, Pro Des Anthony Stabley, Ed Kevin Greutert, Music Charlie Clouser, Costumes Jimena Tenorio, Sound Adam Stein.
Twisted Pictures-Lionsgate UK.
118 mins. USA/Mexico/Canada. 2023. UK and US Rel: 29 September 2023. Cert. 18.
