“Out of all the men to cheat, you picked John Kramer?”
Coming out as the tenth movie in the Saw franchise, Saw X stands to be a solid, landmark title in the grand series of films. With spine-chilling traps and remarkable plot twists, the movie impeccably follows the generic Saw movie format while retaining a sense of individuality from the other films.
Taking place between the events of Saw and Saw II, the movie features the notorious John Kramer, played by Tobin Bell, given a glimpse of hope at treatment for his cancerous brain tumor. After being recommended an experimental treatment by a stage four cancer survivor, Kramer reaches out to the underground doctors who run the operation.
Kramer goes through the process of hospitality, surgery, and recovery only to discover the whole procedure was a fraud. He realizes the people who posed as saviors to his impending doom really fed him a facade in a successful attempt to swindle him out of his money.
Following this revelation, Kramer sets out to get revenge on those who participated in the scam. He completes his mission with the help of his apprentice, Amanda Young, played by Shawnee Smith.
The first half of the movie has some amazing shots. Whether it’s a beautiful sunset or a greeny mountain top, movie director Kevin Greutert took a great approach to the first half of the movie. The fruitful cinematography of landscapes symbolizes the hope Kramer has in the beginning while later in the movie, most of the shots are in the slummy warehouse of which the game takes place.
The “traps” in the film were of prime quality compared to the movies that preceded in. Traps such as the bone marrow trap and the brain matter trap really propelled the bloody, abnormal nature of Saw games.
However, one trap that was a let down was the one highlighted on promotional posters for the movie, the eye vacuum trap. Not only was this test imaginary, existing only in Kramer’s mind, but it just seemed too easy. This trap was shown earlier on in the movie to serve as an appetizer to what the movie fully had to offer.
For a movie that was made 19 years after the first movie with its preceding events was released, the writers paid very much attention to detail when it came to relationships within the movie. In Saw X we see Kramer and Amanda working together side by side, but tensions arise as Amanda disagrees with Kramer in how he runs the game.
This perfectly leads into the events of Saw II and Saw III, where Kramer becomes distrustful of Amanda and decides to test her a multitude of ways.
Another detail that the writers nailed is the fact that Kramer shows his face to the people he captured. Usually Kramer sticks to tape recordings and his puppet, Billy, however, Kramer talks face to face with the people who scammed him, making it well known that it was him that’s running the tests. This detail only goes to show how personal this game is to him and why he must test those people.
The whole plot in general focuses on Kramer’s character in much more depth, strengthening the narrative that he is a justified tool in people’s processes of appreciation and making amends in life. The movi not only does a great job of showing that Kramer isn’t mentally deranged by introducing a child into whom Kramer must save, then introduce an antagonist that surprisingly seems more immoral than him.
The antagonist is question, Dr. Cecilia Pederson, played by Synnøve Macody Lund, was an amazing piece of the pie. Lund did an exemplary job at playing the demoralized villain, who not only killed a player whom Kramer intended to save, but also brought a kid into Jigsaw’s game. The cold blooded nature of Lund’s performance carried the last moments of the movie.
Costas Mandylor’s cameo in the end credits as detective Mark Hoffman was a very nice treat for true Saw fans. While he had few lines, his dialogue was a nice addition to the end of the film.
Saw X was a great movie that paid homage to the older ones. Even while branding itself in the Saw format, it achieved great success in changing some details that work better with modern day production.
