My affection for the Saw franchise is something that wains and ebbs and grows it seems depending on a variety of factors. For instance who I am watching the film with and what context it is, which film in the series I’m actually watching and above all else what capacity I am enjoying the film. I have full comprehension that may be the most inane and empty opening to any review I have ever written and is of course the factors that fuel any watch of any film. But there is still something to be said for the way in which after all these years the Saw series has stuck to the same timeline over and over again, and by all means relishes in it. There is no Halloween repeated trick of “well that timeline went down the drain, let’s just start again”, no here our series of creators is bold and proud about the fact that their timeline makes absolutely no sense and constantly warps in on itself and instead just keeps doubling down. As is the case with the completely enjoyable Saw X which takes place ridiculously only three weeks after the first film despite a litany of factors making that so ridiculous. Yet against the odds Saw X ends up one of the better films in the series by far.
On a pure filmmaking and performance level this is by far the best Saw film we have ever received. The ‘gritty’ and visually nauseating fashion in which many of the previous films have been made is gone now and director and editor Kevin Greutert (repeated Saw film-maker) has crafted a film that builds and builds with quality directing, performance, editing and cinematography from nick Mathews. That all together builds a world of grit without feigning edginess and effectively touches upon in the screenplay of Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg the hypocrisy and ludicrousness of the conceit of Jigsaw’s methods in a fashion that actually feels like a character study. All of this is of course mostly down to the genuinely excellent performance at the heart of this series and most certainly this film, that of Tobin Bell as John Kramer, of course better known as Jigsaw. Bell here is genuinely emotionally effecting, as well as very enjoyable as the farcical believer of his own deeply hypocritical methods. Beyond Bell the ensemble works very well and are believable in their terror and pain, with a return from Shawnee Smith being the best acting she’s done since the first entry – even if both her and Bell suffer from Red Dragon syndrome in them pretending to be ten years younger than they are via a little makeup and an awful bob for Smith. But a real standout from the ensemble was that of Synnove Macody Lund as Cecelia Pederson who is in many ways the villain of the piece in a movie where once again Jigsaw is going about his typical villainy. This is the core catch 22 of this film because as much as Smith is deliciously evil and so thrillingly ruthless and entertaining, she is made so very villainous in the face of the bizarre hero worship of Jigsaw in this film, who is made an absolute hero, gone away with the restraints of any sort of grey area. Some of the final good deeds of Jigsaw are so weirdly judged that one can’t help but laugh.
But there is of
course stumbling blocks that can never be tackled effectively – the excessive,
yet effective nature of the grisly traps is always going to irk many and never
feels wholly entertaining, even if in this case we are dealing with a series of
individuals who deserve it a lot more than the regular trappee (let’s not
forget when Jigsaw put a smoker in a lung capacity trap because he kept smoking
despite health warnings)The self-seriousness of the series is of course a most
enjoyable factor, but is not actually a thing of genuine quality. This film in
particular unfortunately has a lacklustre twist that is only worsened by the
ridiculous saccharin quality of its ultimate ending, but it does end with a
killer post credits scene that is both joyous fan service and effective final
gut punch and would have been for me a far more effective actual ending.
A 6/10 enjoyable master project for Bell, for whom this film is the ultimate vehicle to highlight the immense and genuine quality and power of his long now iconic portrayal of Jigsaw. Now where you fall on this films enjoyability and quality value as a film is very different from where you find it lays as a Saw entry. Does it reach the enjoyable heights of ridiculousness of previous entries; no. Does it reach the quality levels of the first and best Saw entry; almost. But it where it excels in certain aspects, it just can’t help but fall between two stools of the enjoyable worst and the truly enjoyable best – but as a film itself it certainly leans towards the best and is certainly my second favourite in regards to ultimate quality.
SPOILER P.S. I personally feel that managing to saw off one’s whole leg with a Negi saw is more than enough of a trap and more than enough punishment, the fact that she dies due to the fact that she didn’t then extract enough bone marrow is laughable. Same with the brain surgery game… I mean come on. But then again, many a Saw trap is like this by token.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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