Tags:
Film: Saw X
Year: 2023
Director: Kevin Greutert
Writer: Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg
Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith and Synnøve Macody Lund
Review:
Now when I heard about this movie, I wasn't shocked. I know that Spiral: From the Book of Saw did well enough in the box office as the first to not feature the character of Jigsaw. Even the other prequel made money from what I remember. I wasn't thrilled to know that this was another prequel as they tend to not build the necessary tension for me. What does make me curious to see if they stay within the confines of continuity.
Synopsis: a sick and desperate John (Tobin Bell) 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.
I should point out that this takes place between Saw and the first sequel. John Kramer is sick. He only has months to live due to his brain cancer. He's already made people appreciate life with traps. To help cope, he goes to a support group where he meets Henry Kessler (Michael Beach). Not too long after, they ran into each other. Henry seems to be in remission. He gives the name of the doctor that helped him and John reaches out.
This doctor is Dr. Finn Pederson (Donagh Gordon). It appears that he is doing is a combination of medication and surgery. The big pharmaceutical companies don't like it, so he's gone into hiding. John gets in touch with this doctor's daughter, Cecilia (Synnøve Macody Lund). She tells him that in a few months they can get him into a trial. He doesn't have that long, so she has him come to Mexico at once.
Things look good. He meets Carlos (Jorge Briseño) who brings him part of the way to the compound. He is taken the rest of the way in a van. It is from there he meets Cecilia and Gabriela (Renata Vaca). She tends the room he stays in. On Cecilia's medical team are Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa) who is the anesthesiologist, Valentina (Paulette Hernandez) is a nurse and a neurologist who will do the surgery to remove his tumor. John also meets Parker Sears (Steven Brand) who had a tumor removed from his neck.
John wakes up and he's told it was a success. He was transported to a place closer to the hospital just in case an emergency happened. John wanted to thank Gabriela and he went about trying to figure out where the compound was. He tries to bring a bottle of tequila that is local to the area. He discovers that he might not be cured of his cancer. There is a limited time to hunt these people down for answers and for them to receive just punishment. He will need a little help, especially in his condition to force this group to play a game and prove they deserve to survive.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to then start is with something I've brought up previously about prequels. To get into this more, my problem with them is that the stakes aren't there for me. I know where we end up from here. While watching this, I'm aware that this treatment doesn't work with what goes down in the sequels. What I didn't realize until looking at the trivia, this procedure could be the one that was denied as an insurance claim, which ties in Saw VI. As a story guy, I don't think this violates continuity and fits in nicely with this puzzle that is Saw.
Now that I have that out of the way, let me delve more into the story here. This tugs at the heartstrings a bit in seeing John dealing with cancer. This is a sickness that hits home for me with having people pass away or battling it around me. I'm sure most everyone has similar stories. Seeing this group take advantage of people in this condition when they're vulnerable bothers me. It is interesting as well in that, we are taking someone who is a 'serial killer' and making them the hero. Do these people deserve to die? No, life is precious. They are despicable though for what they're doing and deserve punishment. It is infuriating. It is also strategic to us to want to see them get what is coming to them. There's also that grey area since Jigsaw puts them in the traps, they need to show their will to live and overcome the pain.
Let’s then take this to the acting. Bell is great here once again as John Kramer aka Jigsaw. My problem here is that he is quite a bit older, trying to play a character in the past that is between other films’ versions. I thought it still worked here. He looks and seems sickly which is what he needed to. This also humanizes him which is odd for what he’s put people through. I also liked to see Shawnee Smith back as Amanda. Wasn’t expecting her to be here, but it makes sense. Lund is good as our benevolent doctor who might not actually be that. I also like Brand, Vaca, Okamoto, Hinjosa, Hernandez and Briseño. They all work for what was needed. The rest of the cast was solid and I loved the cameo by Costas Mandylor as well.
All that is left then would be the filmmaking. I’ll start with the effects, since that is what we all come to see. I was annoyed at first. The poster kill is early and they do something there that feels like a cheat. The other thing I heard was that this was making Terrifier 2 look tame. I wouldn’t go that far. What I will say is that the effects here are grounded. They did go brutal and I was a fan there. I also thought the editing was solid. We got that patented reveal at the end and I thought it was clever. I was annoyed at first since it seems like Jigsaw is thinking too far ahead. There are things we get to see that weren’t revealed earlier that make sense though. Other than that, the soundtrack was fine. They don’t use the main theme that is great, which is a bummer. It does seem there was a new variation used. The selections we got worked and fit what was needed to ramp up tension when needed. I love the Jigsaw voice, that just gives the Saw feel.
In conclusion, this is one of the better installments from the last grouping. This is better than everything past The Final Chapter in my opinion. What we got though is hampered by being a prequel. I like the story elements that seem to be fleshed out here. The acting is good across the board. Bell owns this role and he shows why he’s so good at it. I’d say the filmmaking was also solid. The effects were good, as was the cinematography and the editing. I’d be curious to watch all of them now and do my ratings to see where it falls. It is probably in the middle somewhere which is impressive for the tenth installment of a franchise. I’d recommend giving this a watch if you’re into these movies as it is closer return to form.
My Rating: 7 out of 10