19 years ago, James Wan’s Saw became a surprising hit for Lionsgate and a meaningful propeller for the 2000s cycle of torture porn horror films. Since then, that grisly subgenre has fallen far out of fashion, and Lionsgate is in a potentially pivotal moment where it is hoping to rejuvenate past successes. Both Saw X and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes are prequels; this is fitting, given the studio is looking backwards to its most profitable franchises in an attempt at similar box office success.

The trajectory of the Saw franchise, aside from being packed with lore rendered nearly incomprehensible due to sequel ret-conning and increasingly inane plot twists, has its ups and downs. After nearly annual installments from 2004-2010, the series went dormant until Jigsaw (2017), which was marketed like a legacy reboot and didn’t perform as well as Lionsgate would have hoped. So dormant it went again, until it was reported that Chris Rock was involved in another installment. Spiral was labeled “From the Book of Saw,” which sequestered it from most of the series’ aforementioned lore. In a post-Covid theatrical space, Spiral performed quite well, which may explain why we now have another “mainline” sequel in Saw X (X, as in ten, meaning Spiral is not so sequestered as to not be counted as a numbered entry).

This long preamble about trajectory is only worth mentioning for the context it brings to this new film, a prequel that reanimates the long dead patriarch of the franchise, John Kramer (Tobin Bell). Seemingly taking place somewhere between Saw and Saw III, the film bears the weight of the franchise’s convoluted plotting. Yet it also deliberately pulls away from what made the Saw films marketable in the mid-2000s (at least, it does this at first).

For those unfamiliar, Bell’s Kramer is a former architect dying of terminal brain cancer. In the face of his own demise, he sees the potential to open others’ eyes to the preciousness of their lives. His warped sense of morality and impending mortality lead to elaborate traps in which people Kramer deem bad are given a chance to save their lives (at the expense of at least a pound of flesh).

John Kramer meets his end in the climax of the third film, and if audiences were anxious to see how he would make a surprise return in true slasher villain fashion, these hopes were dashed when Saw IV opened with the man’s autopsy. Kramer’s identity haunts the remainder of the franchise nonetheless, not least of which because no actor could sufficiently fill Bell’s shoes.

Saw X dashes expectations regarding Kramer again, in that the film holds off on the trademark traps for which the series is known. The first trap sequence, in fact, exists solely in John Kramer’s imagination. (The film is one of the only Saw entries to not cold open with a trap. I suppose screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger are trying to say something about how the turnstile of medical care is something of a trap). In lieu of going straight to the jugular, the film ruminates on Kramer’s condition.

At the start of the film, Kramer is informed that he has only months to live, if he is lucky. Desperate for solutions, he gravitates toward an experimental treatment that is not approved for use in the United States. He travels to Mexico, where an off-the-grid estate houses a medical facility. He undergoes surgery to remove his tumor, only to discover during his recovery that the entire organization is a sham. The grift, and the false sense of hope that it brings to vulnerable people, is enough ammunition to fuel Kramer’s ire.

It is important to note that this focus on Kramer’s illness and his experience of getting scammed is not merely setup; it is the first act of the film. For at least 30 minutes, we are asked to sit with Kramer’s pain, his slowing body, the draining of his mental fortitude. The script does not succeed in allowing us to fully comprehend why such a person would torture people under the guise that those people’s own moral failings are the true killer. But Bell’s performance and the sheer amount of screentime dedicated to depicting Kramer not as a murderer but as a man do give the whole film something that the Saw franchise has struggled with since its inaugural entry: a dimensional character. Incidentally (or perhaps not so incidentally), the well-rounded character in that first film is also John Kramer.

There came a moment during this long stretch of time where I almost hoped the film would forego the traps altogether. Knowing full well that this was an impossibility, I nevertheless watched Kramer look on at a setting sun and ponder how many more sunrises he will see and considered what a Saw movie would look like if there were no sawing at all.

Of course, this thought faded as fast as that setting sun. The second half of the film pivots hard back into the familiar territory audiences will be expecting. A room full of scammers are chained up, and Kramer informs them that they have an opportunity to save their lives by sacrificing something bodily. Most of these set pieces feel boilerplate, with none really standing out as exceptionally gnarly. Moreover, after the film poses the possibility that Kramer could move on from this homicidal portion of his life, watching it all go back to formula lacks the drama and movement of the first act.

This is without mentioning the other requisite element of these films, which is a plot full of twists which barely hang together and which cause everything to be far more complicated than what is necessary. In this case, the twists in the last few scenes are particularly unwieldy. They also take whatever nuance is introduced in the first half hour and wash it down into a bloody soup (literally and figuratively).

Saw X is an intriguing specimen. Fans of the series may balk at the lengthy setup (that contains no kills), but this is what sets the film apart from the nine that came before. The film lacks the mindless fun of the first few entries, which renders the violence merely mindless. More than anything else, it acts as a fitting swan song for John Kramer, with Bell giving a lovely, subdued performance that elevates the character beyond what the franchise can ultimately contend with.

Saw X: B-

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Twitter, Letterboxd, Facebook)