Saw X takes place in between first and second movies with the still very much alive Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) heading down to Mexico to see a doctor promising a miracle cure for his terminal brain cancer. Turns out, she’s a snake oil salesman, so Jigsaw’s gotta get jiggy with it. And by “get jiggy with it”, I mean “he’s got to put everyone from the clinic into his patented do-or-die traps, which put them at risk of life and limb while he presides over the festivities and passes moral judgment over them”.
Let’s get the positives out of the way first. This is one of the rare Saw flicks that’s told in a linear fashion from point A to point B. There’s no flashbacks or shoehorning shit in there, so it feels like a “real” sequel instead of a collection of deleted scenes and outtakes compiled together to make a movie. The gore is solid too. There’s a grisly self-brain surgery scene (that echoes the similar scene in Part 3), a gnarly severed head gag, and a funny moment where characters need to use a rope and there isn’t one handy so they... Well… I don’t want to spoil the best part of the film, so let’s say they choose to make a gutsy decision.
That’s about it though. Although it’s far from the worst Saw movie (it’s pretty middle of the road in every regard) it’s by far the longest at two hours! Seriously, did the world need a two-hour Saw movie? I mean, it was directed by Kevin Greutert, the guy who edits most of these films. You’d think he’d have the sense to cut it down a bit. There’s a lot of yapping in between the set pieces, and even then, the traps wear out their welcome before long.
Speaking of the traps, some are weak, and others tend to go too far. I mean, if you ever wanted to see a little kid waterboarded with gallons of blood, here’s your chance. What’s worse is the bait-and-switch that happens to the Saw X poster boy. (Spoilers Ahead.) You know, the guy with the tubes attached to his eyes? Well, it’s kind of a crowd-pleasing moment when his eyes get Shop-Vac'ed out of his skull. But then… it’s revealed that… SPOILER… it was all a daydream in Jigsaw’s head. Lame.
Sadly, the scariest thing about the whole deal is Shawnee Smith’s hair! Why wait all this time to bring her back and then have her look a damned sight? If I was Jigsaw, I’d put her stylist in one of those traps.
1. Saw
2. Spiral: From the Book of Saw
3. Saw 3
4. Saw 2
5. Saw X
6. Saw 6
7. Saw 5
8. Saw 3D
9. Jigsaw
10. Saw 4
I actually find this one to be an improvement over the last few movies in the series as this time around you're actually rooting for Jigsaw to dispose of the victims and the Mexico setting worked for me. I for one don't think any of the traps went "too far" at all,I loved that this film had the fucking balls to do that to a kid. Smith's hair looked alright to me.
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