Jigsaw’s “Saw X” brings blood and tears to the screen
The Jigsaw franchise has been a prominent one in the lives of many, setting the tone for horror and gruesome movies for Halloween throughout the years. The latest movie, “Saw X” solves many loose ends from the other films, while leaving us with a new one. This was one of the more intellectual and “heart-felt” films in the Saw series, bringing you to cry in more ways than one.
The movie takes place in between the first and second Saw, right after John Kramer was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his brain. The potential for a miracle cure sends Kramer into the maniacal hands of Dr. Cecilia Pederson, who’s performing brain surgery in Mexico because she needs to do her experiments off the grid, using the excuse that pharmacies are trying to shut them down. However, what appears to be true turns out to be a lie. Cecilia and the team of professionals around her are part of a horrible con game, manipulating dying people out of the fortune they hope to leave to their loved ones and promising the worst kind of false hope. Little do they know, they tried to steal from the wrong sociopath.
Saw X brings back some of our most loved Jigsaw characters such as the pig mask and the puppet, hiding the face of Shawnee Smith, a character from one of the previous Saw movies who played in one of his games. As an eventful twist, she seems to have grown fond of John, as he is the one who helped her get over her addiction, and returns in this movie working side by side with Kramer. Smith was the only character to ever survive Jigsaw’s traps, and took up a spot helping him make his games, although she can’t quite stomach it like him. As protective as she is of him, she is forced to accept the fact that she will have to let him go in the end due to his illness.
Bell’s Jigsaw is the same placid sociopath we’ve come to rely on for grotesque titillation. The punishments seem to fit the crimes here a little better than some of the previous chapters, in which it sometimes felt like the Jigsaw Killer was going to extremes to punish people who might have just had a bad day or had a little too much fun one night. To most people who might believe that what Jigsaw is doing is wrong, in which it is following basic ethics, he breaks the barrier between good and bad, leaving him in the gray area. He is doing this for all the right reasons, but all the wrong ways.
Saw X pieces together the mysteries of old movies and sets the tone for upcoming releases. The movie ends off on a cliffhanger, leaving us wondering, what is Kramer planning and with whom? The suspense of this question leads us to think that there are other culprits to Kramers gruesome games and if he’s leaving his legacy on to his partners.
Between the insanely smart story line and brutal traps, this is one of the best Saw movies I have seen. The plot was unpredictable and made the movie excitingly scary at every turn. It is a must see horror for the halloween season.
