Movie Review: 'Saw X'

Saw X (2023)

Directed by Kevin Greutert

Written by Peter Goldfinger, Josh Stolerg

Starring Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnove Macody Lund, Steven Brand

Release Date September 29th, 2023

Published September 29th, 2023

I'm a huge fan of the Saw horror franchise. I find the underlying philosophy fascinating and challenging. At once, I don't want to see anyone harmed and I am fascinated by the harm Jigsaw creates for his subjects who must endure ungodly pain in order to survive and find redemption. It's like an extreme form of self flagellation with the intent of seeing what the body and mind can endure to survive. Pushing the limits of the human body to its absolute breaking point is something many people talk about as being the most alive one can feel. Jigsaw makes that happen for people with the difference being that they don't get to choose not to do this.

That's a big and important difference. Jigsaw's victims aren't choosing to challenge themselves, they are forced into this challenge. Now, they end up being challenged because of their own actions, Jigsaw doesn't harm the innocent, only those who have wronged others or who fail to value their own life. But it's still an important point that he is forcing the issue, these people had no intention of seeing the limits they would go to to save their own life. With that acknowledgment out of the way, let's talk about what Jigsaw does as a form of redemption and self-actualization.

There is something to the idea that facing your death and living to tell the story is an extreme form of self-actualization. Fighting for your very life gives you a stronger appreciation for being alive. You can cherish your life and celebrate being alive without having to place yourself in a place of deathly peril, but I don't think that it is controversial to argue that that people who have stared death in the eye have a stronger appreciation for life. Life would be less meaningful without the possibility of death. We take that fact for granted when we are healthy and unchallenged.

Jigsaw throws that into a very real perspective when he places someone in one of his traps. The strong possibility of dying pushes you to consider how important being alive is. There is also an act of redemption at the heart of Jigsaw's philosophy. He only chooses deeply flawed people, people who have harmed others or people who have not valued their own life. The people who survive Jigsaw's traps are better for having done so. They've paid a price for their past sins and can consider themselves even with a universe they have wronged in some way.

Saw X continually challenges you by stating, again and again, that Jigsaw doesn't kill anyone. The victims of Jigsaw have a chance to survive. They all can come out of this and redeem themselves. Even the most evil among this small cadre of villainous con artists can survive what happens in Saw X if they choose to do the right and just thing, sacrifice a piece of themselves and genuinely seek redemption. Choosing not to do that, choosing to remain a selfish coward, that's what leads to their downfall.

If you follow the Saw franchise, then you are aware that Jigsaw/John Kramer suffers from terminal brain cancer. Saw X hones in on this with Kramer getting his terminal diagnosis, months to live, and reckoning with the end of his life and the desire to continue what he calls 'his work.' Through a cancer support group, John meets Henry (Michael Beach) who introduces him to a secretive international organization that claims to have an experimental treatment that can cure terminal cancer. It's experimental and not approved for use on humans but it has the backing of a legitimate scientist and that's enough to get John interested.

Traveling to Mexico, John is introduced to a group of kind faces who will spend the next week taking care of him. First up is Gabriella (Renata Vaca) who claims that the home he is at is that of her father. She's kind and John takes to her quickly. Then there is the lead scientist for this endeavor, Cecilia Pederson (Synnove Macody Lund). Cecilia's father is an internationally respected scientist whose controversial work is respected though unproven. That's why Cecilia has set up shop in Mexico at a facility hidden deep in the mountains.

Cecilia introduces John to the rest of her team including his surgeon Diego (Joshua Okamoto), the anesthesiologist Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), and his nurse Valentina (Paulette Hernandez). That's who John thinks that he is meeting anyway. The reality is that these are low level con artists and sex workers hired by Cecilia to perpetrate a scam. Cecilia takes advantage of the dying by getting them to pay six figure sums for a miracle surgery that never occurs. Cecilia has found the perfect marks because most of the people she steals from will be dead within weeks or months of their having been scammed.

Once the ruse is exposed, John becomes Jigsaw and with the help of two of his former victims turned converts, he will set out to punish and reform the people who pretended to cure him of his deadly cancer. This will involve a series of elaborate and terrifying traps that will test each person's will to live. Central to the plot is Cecilia whose arrogance and cruelty knows no bounds and who will be the main subject of Jigsaw's grand plan. It's a rare grand plan from Jigsaw that will have our 'hero' placed in a rare jeopardy.

Saw X was directed by Kevin Greutert who has been part of this franchise from the beginning. He helped shape Leigh Whannell and James Wan's vision of the Saw franchise as the editor of the first five Saw movies and as the director of Saw 6 and 7. He left the franchise for the 8th and 9th installments and his absence was notable. Greutert brings the franchise back to its core principles, the philosophy of Jigsaw and the meaning behind why Jigsaw does what he does. Greutert's institutional knowledge of the franchise leads to a return to form following the wayward Spiral The Book of Saw and Jigsaw respectively.

Greutert edited Saw X himself and once again, his steady hand guiding the storytelling improves the product tremendously. With the help of his sound team, Greutert has returned the franchise to its most stomach churning extremes. The crack of bones, the shrillness of screams, the violent sound of a drill, it all works to create a horror symphony more terrifying than any visual in the movie. Saw is still incredibly graphic but something about the sound design makes the film even more horrific and violent than anything you actually see.

The best thing about Saw X however is how the movie challenges the audience. The movie forces you to confront how you feel about vengeance and violent retribution. Just what punishment fits the crime? It's not hard for me to decide, I don't agree with Jigsaw's methods but I do like having my values challenged in this way. If you are going to agree with Jigsaw, you should have to confront it directly, the blood, the guts, the merciless suffering. If you believe in an eye for an eye, you should not be allowed to turn away and pretend it isn't as awful as it truly is.

That's the mistake people make regarding Saw X and the Saw franchise. People think that the movie is pro-violence. It's not, it's about showing extreme violence to force audiences to confront how they feel about vengeance, violence, and punishment. If you believe in the death penalty or in extreme forms of punishment, Saw takes that idea to its most extreme and forces you to confront what you think you support. That's the trick of Saw. As much as Jigsaw's philosophy is appealing, it's also incredibly grotesque and the movies never shy away from that fact.

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