Although 2023’s horror box office was dominated by the likes of Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Nun II and Scream VI, the best franchise entry of the genre last year was a much-belated reboot of a franchise so firmly rooted in the 2000s it’s amazing there’s already been two attempts in recent years.

Saw X was a more-than-respectable success when it released in October 2023. Made on a $13 million budget, Kevin Greutert’s movie netted $111 million box office gross worldwide. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a far cry from the mid-2000s heyday, but a pretty great return for a series that felt tired in 2010. And given it not only had positive critical attention, but the first Certified Fresh score for the series on Rotten Tomatoes, something special was clearly afoot.

Despite being an ardent Saw-head who’s seen the Saw movies in order multiple times, I missed the movie in theaters – but have now caught up as it’s hit streaming. I knew the hype, but wasn’t prepared for Saw X: a totally unexpected movie that shows there’s life in the old buzzsaw yet.

Saw X Flips What It Is To Be A Saw Movie

When it comes to any entry in the Saw franchise, there’s several key tenets that the movies can be graded on. While often known for its gore (i), Saw was always offering more. There’s the meaning behind the story (ii) – is this about the US medical insurance system (Saw 6) or a weird Se7en riff (Spiral: From The Book Of Saw)? There’s the inevitable twist (iii): how exciting and predictable is it? Then there’s how the film connects to the wider universe (iv), an increasingly difficult USP given the main villain died in 2006’s Saw III.

It’s not that Saw X scores well on these metrics (the biggest knock, as you’ll see, is that twist). It’s that it overindexes on Story and Lore – and a fifth, highly underappreciated factor – when those have taken a backseat in the past few entries.

Warning: Spoilers for Saw X come after.

The Story

The story of Saw X follows John Kramer aka Jigsaw as he struggles with his impending death. In a final Hail Mary, he goes through an experimental cancer treatment in Mexico which ends up being a sophisticated con. Cue a series of kidnappings and a group trap for those who instigated the grift.

On the surface, it’s an exploitation revenge thriller. But the deep focus on Kramer’s introspection in the first act pairs with the victim’s tough decisions – along with a simmering question of what Jigsaw wants to get out of the game – makes for something with more to say about facing mortality.

The Lore

This is bolstered by how the story fits into the wider franchise. Ostensibly set between Saws II and III (just don’t look too closely), Saw X adds a shade of anti-hero color to Kramer and brings back Shawnee Smith as Jigsaw’s first acolyte, Amanda. There’s only so much that can be done in this time period, but this gives his actions in Saw III – desperate surgery – more context.

A cameo from Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), a character much-maligned during his reign of Saws IV-VII, further proves the franchise’s ability for reinvention.

The Twist

It’s a shame, then, that the movie’s actual twist is rather lackluster. Due to the focus on Jigsaw – and thus limits on what can be done with the main characters the audience knows will make it to their ultimate fate in the next chronological movie – there’s only so many options for a substantial rug pull. I won’t spoil for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, but it’s here where Saw tradition is softer. The accompanying clues are obvious on first watch (nothing close to Saw II’s tongue-in-cheek “your son is in a safe space” here) and the drawn-out reveal falls flat.

The Traps

So, to the gore. The traps in Jigsaw take a good 45 minutes to appear (bar a nifty eye-sucking dream sequence) and lean heavily on the direct self-mutilation side. There’s a rough-and-ready nature, fitting of this being a reactionary game (in stark contrast to the overly polished early career mega-traps of Jigsaw), and a handful of truly wince-inducing moments.

That said, the same thing that makes the story so much stronger – an almost elevated horror approach – hurts the kills, which lack the lurid grunge of the franchise’s early years.

The Bonus Factor: Tobin Bell

However, it’s none of these signature ingredients that really make Saw X a worthwhile watch regardless of your history with the franchise. The choice to lean hard into Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw, making him the true protagonist for the first time in ten films, pays dividends.

A true career actor with credits spanning six decades, Bell has always brought a gravitas to Saw that elevated it above its contemporaries. Indeed, part of the reason the franchise entered such a rocky patch was that it got to a point where the franchise’s focus seemed almost confused: should we be relishing in John Kramer’s warped morality games after all?

Saw X doesn’t just embrace Bell’s performance, but uses it in as an entry point into the discussion about that original debate. It almost feels like a movie made to respond to and challenge those who always defended Saw’s morals during the original torture porn panic run – with no negativity or critique implied thanks to Bell’s clear reading of the material.

I’ve No Idea What Saw Is Going To Do Next

Ever since Saw 3D ended the original run in 2010 – and, if I’m being honest, ever since Jigsaw himself was killed in Saw III – the Saw franchise has struggled with how to reboot. Tobin Bell is so obviously the center of the long-standing appeal (hence the negativity towards Hoffman) but John Kramer’s death caps what can be explored with him.

Every reboot – of which there have been three in the past seven years – thus has to entirely redefine the franchise parameters before getting into its story. The weak results come from this struggle: Jigsaw was a pretty standard legacy-quel with a dual time period twist that ended up ultimately forgettable; Spiral was an inspired-by reboot that ignored Kramer entirely – but didn’t bring anything else to the table. Saw X comes from reactive introspection on those failures, understanding what was missing in the previous reboots and thus leaning harder into a very game Tobin Bell. It finds a space in his story to tell something reframing and refreshing.

But, what now? Saw XI is in production, yet there’s no open story after Saw X‘s ending and once again we’re back to a point of uncertainty about what to do. A few violent traps won’t cut the muscle fibers – this is Saw, not Hostel. And while it was fun to see Hoffman in Saw X‘s post-credtis scene, I don’t think anybody is wanting Mandylor back in the series’ driver’s seat for another mid-quel.

It’s easy to look at the inability for Saw to die as an indictment of Hollywood’s obsession with IP. What was once a novel, violent standalone from two horror wunderkinds (directors James Wan and Leigh Wahnell have gone on to great success) became a true sensation, and is now trotted out every few years when Lionsgate needs a franchise release. And yet – as with Evil Dead (2013) and Halloween (2018) – in the hands of the right person with the right idea and whole new levels of energy can be revealed. I’ll be seated in a theater for whatever Part 11 throws up.