Director: Kevin Gruetert
Writers: Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg
Stars: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith
Synopsis: A sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable
When Saw opened up at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival it took the world by storm, the buzz coming from this mysteriously original horror film echoed all the way to even my 7th grade class room and this was before the internet that we know today. When it hit theaters that Halloween season it was a mega hit with the ultimate mouth to the floor reaction that hadn’t been seen since 1996’s Scream, and as we know in Hollywood, what works once must work again and again and again and just when you think it cannot work again; it barely does and then takes a breath.
From 2004-2010 we got a new installment into the Saw series with seven straight films, each film opening in first place until the fifth one came out. Its competition the year Saw 5 came out and to boot it to 2nd place, High School Musical 3. By then the steam was up on the series and the “torture porn” category of this type of horror film was on its way out. Eventually the movies did end for a while after the abysmal seventh chapter, ironically named “The Final Chapter.” This lasted for about seven years until the weird eighth and forgettable chapter that was Jigsaw. Again, the series would stay dormant for four years until it got a ninth chapter with a odd boost of star power from Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson with Spiral, another weird entry that is odd but not memorable.
With the announcement of Saw X last year, one could only imagine where it could or would go, and then tonight after watching it I’m truly glad to report back, this was a big swing and a hit for a franchise that eventually became its own punchline. The tenth installment is a huge breath of fresh air and I’m extremely happy to see critics embracing this as much as they did the original. Fans on the other hand, we shall see- because what this one does so right is what the sequels forgot to do. It creates a story with these characters. In this case, when characters are killed off you feel something for them. While this was the base formula for Saw 2, it got muddled at the halfway mark, and from there onward, the remaining sequels were simply mind numbing with the amount of red shirts they would bring in to just die a whole two minutes later.
The last time a Saw movie did this was the original film, and what I mean by that is that this movie builds its world. Its story line, its characters are genuine and it takes its time in doing so. even get an opening trap to this film because the initial focus is on world building. What we do get is a daydream trap but it’s never brought to fruition. In the nearly two hour runtime, we don’t get a trap until almost the 50 minute mark, and honestly- it works for me, for this film, and the series that once relied only on the traps themselves and not the story. This movie is so much like its original counterpart that it is the ultimate love letter to itself, and is the perfect actual “Final Chapter” if it were to become it, because I’m not really sure where the series could go from here without a full on remake.
Of course one couldn’t talk about this movie without talking about Tobin Bell and the wonderful return of Shawnee Smith as Amanda, whose exit in Saw 3 was massively felt by a lesser Detective Hoffman character taking over. It was so nice to see the chemistry that they’ve developed between these two characters over the last 19 years.
So, should you watch all 9 movies before you go into this? If you’d like. Do you have to watch all 9 movies before you go into this? Absolutely not. Saw X is actually set in between Saw and Saw 2. So no, you don’t have to watch all 9 (but go ahead, who am I to dictate that for you). What is really refreshing about a nearly two decade long franchise to come back with something that feels fresh and different is that the writers did it the right way (unlike last year’s Halloween Ends that was such a swing and giant miss that it’s universally panned by critics and fans alike) meaning that what they could have done here is given us another run of the mill sequel but instead they took the liberty to craft a story based on what made the original so great and bring in characters to support the story and not take it over.
So whether a fan of the franchise or a casual movie goer, as long as you’ve seen the first Saw, go see Saw X. You will have a blast if you can put on your 2004 glasses and enjoy the holiday season.
