An Exceptional Letdown: The 10th Installment of the Saw movie franchise, “Saw X” does not live up to the pre-release hype or the original movies

If I ever found myself trapped in an elaborate torture experiment I would be thankful I’m not watching Kevin Greutert’s “Saw X” for a second time. 

I always enjoy the experience of seeing a movie in the theater, but not only does the quality of the movie ruin said experience, but it ruins how much I’ll enjoy any movie post-experience. 

With the horribly inconsistent pacing (moving from slow to fast in an instant), dull characters and sub-par twists, horror thriller “Saw X” proved to be a disappointment. I found myself incredibly let down as the film’s reception was very positive compared to the other sequels in the franchise, yet that proved to be untrue.

Ironically, the first “Saw” installment brought me vast amounts of entertainment — featuring our determined protagonist, John Kramer, with terminal brain cancer who takes his regret about being ungrateful throughout his healthy life out on others by trapping strangers to compete in horrific games of torture and gore so they regain gratitude for life. 

The first opening act of “Saw X”  is one of a depressing and abysmal Kramer battling his cancer ten movies later, and seeking out an “experimental surgery” that is supposed to cure him, but it turns out to be a scam a third of the way into the film. 

Yet that scam eats up a third of the film’s runtime, and still finds a way to taunt actual cancer survivors with a successful “concoction paired with a surgery” that supposedly “cures cancer.” I felt the movie drag with each new point and was brought down lower and lower into the abyss of boredom.

In contrast, the first film opens with an engaging sequence with no prior exposition, as the viewer is thrown into the confusion of the characters involved, asking questions such as “Where am I?” and “Who put me here?” keeping the viewer engaged and entertained. This opening sequence is completely immersive and integral to the jaw-dropping effect of the film. The opening scene of “Saw X” depicting a dying Kramer finding a cure for cancer is simply not as realistic or relatable as the original. 

What makes “Saw X” so terrible is its drastic jump from Kramer seeking help for his illness to death traps and gore. The plot was horribly done as the film starts extremely slowly and instantly transitions into a torture-filled bloodbath. With returning viewers obviously expecting a gory horror film with little thought behind it, it’s abundant that the film’s existence is a result of lazy writing.  

The film attempts to trick the viewer and Kramer with made-up cures for cancer that are cringe-worthy to watch for anyone who has taken high school biology. There aren’t any attempts at a cure in any other of the films plus the concept of chasing a cancer cure as motive is cliche and an underwhelming attempt at making a good plot.

Something I enjoyed about the first films were their neutrality. They didn’t have a clear protagonist or antagonist and allowed viewers to contemplate human nature and form their own opinion. “Saw X” however, is clearly in favor of Kramer and his creations, portraying the antagonists as stereotypical murderous sociopaths willing to kill women and children for money and survival.

Another strong suit of the first film were its signature twists and a stylized dark noir feel throughout the film, which is notorious in the franchise. But the surprise in “Saw X” was a predictable and lazy trope, a trope that came off as patronizing to the viewer’s intelligence because of its stupidity. There was also little to no stylized dark-noir theme that made the other installments so unique.

I knew from the moment I left the theater what I thought, and after crawling out of the abyss that is “Saw X” it’s clear the film was a form of torture itself.