Saw X (2023)

 

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Time: 1h 58mins

Director: Kevin Greutert

Quick Summary: A sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable.

Okay. So I did enjoy the set-up for this untill it felt like most of the film was being set up. The biggest problem is, that John goes to get medical help and brain surgery. But we know from previous films he doesn't actually get brain surgery. So then any element of a surprise is immediately gone when we learn oh funnily enough it's a scam. 

So, unfortunately, for the first hour, I was just waiting for it to hurry up as everything was so slow and super drawn out. Every single introduction to someone takes around five minutes as John takes multiple long breaths to cough every five seconds, as well everyone talks so slowly. There's also a little side arc of John teaching a young boy to fix his bike and asking him to learn one single word in Spanish. I'm sure that won't be relevant to the plot later on.

So when we finally got to the actual game, I was bored again. After having to sit through each and every one involved with the scam being singly captured in various ways, their traps are drawn out way too long. They felt incredibly unwinnable as well, which is probably the point, but the time limits they are given to do their tasks feel way too short. Like one guy has to drill into his skull, cut that away, cut out part of his brain, then drop it in a tub for it to dissolve and power a machine to let him free all in sixty seconds? Surely that seems like a bit too much of a stretch. 

This discards everything that makes the saw films, a saw film. Of the traps, half were okay but felt unwinnable, the other half were just plain ridiculous. For the people who survived, especially the one in the end (which I won't spoil), I just feel like they'll learn nothing and continue what they're doing. There was no dread in this. These people involved were horrible and deserved to die in my opinion, there was absolutely nothing to test, nothing to push them to appreciate their life and they were just simply horrible people. I think one person in particular gets let off incredibly easily and honestly, it really bugs me.  A lot of this was John just trying to have heart-to-hearts with these guys. John man, it's hopeless, just kill them already. 

Another issue with this is that we saw zero set for this game. Realistically these traps probably would have taken at least a week or two to make even with help, so that leaves plenty of time for the scammers to run away. Whereas the film makes out it was the next day or two. As well John somehow managed to plan almost every single thing they were going to do? Usually, he is able to study his victims and learn their behaviours, but these people are strangers. Surely he isn't that clever to predict every single thing. As well, the plot twist, whilst fun, was stupid and didn't really make sense once you think about it. Once the twist is revealed too it goes even more downhill as the ending becomes incredibly anti-climatic. Honestly my only thought was is that it?

You know what else to make it worse the fact that this completely discards anything to do with the iconic side of the Saw series. There was no door slam and there was no "Game over." Even Spiral had the "Game over" line. Also, one particular character who ends up being such a minor accessory to this scam gets the worst treatment and honestly, it feels incredibly unjustified. 

To end this, what annoys me the most is that we know John survives. We have multiple films after this one in the timeline. While this was a nice addition to long-term fans, this would have been nicer to see it years ago when we didn't know so much about the history already. I think the shock twist would have been more impactful if we didn't already know he gets brain surgery later on. Possibly cut the movie length down by 40 minutes, and speed up set up then maybe this would have been a bit more likeable to me. 

Some of the dialogue too I found so silly too. There's one point where a character is trying to be intimating and cool, and they turn around to say "Jig-fucking-saw" proudly. I'm sorry but I cannot take that seriously. Who decided that was a good thing to say. Much later on we get one of the most amazing lines from this film, which is, "I mean, I call that epic bad luck." Was this written in the 90s? 

Unfortunately, though, the amount of plot holes, slow-paced uninteresting dialogue-driven scenes, and lack of logic was a huge disappointment to me. I find this incredibly hard to recommend this to anyone with a brain, let alone any Saw fan. There were some nice cameos though. That's really all I have to say.

2/10