Alright, gals and pals alike, we finally have a Saw X trailer! And it has been feeling…slightly less optimistic, but still somewhat excited!
As you all well know by now, I am a die-hard fan of the Saw franchise, and I’ve been looking forward to Saw X since it was announced; Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith returning, a John Kramer-focused story, and plenty of appropriately Machivellian but also still a little camp traps. Sign me up!
But this trailer, honestly…I’ll still be there on opening night, but I have some questions.
It’s always great to see Tobin Bell back, that said, even if we are squinting at him through the green-tinged lens that were such a prominent feature in the first few movies; he always brings gravitas to Kramer, whether he has to do it under the brim of a baseball cap or not. This trailer goes heavy on showing off the traps, a major selling point for the series, and I always appreciate seeing the preposterous inventions the production team come up with. Fingers are flying, legs are a-chopping, cerebral matter is being carefully measured – you know the drill (sorry, is it insensitive to talk about drills when writing about this series?).
But let’s talk about the plot that we’re seeing here: it seems to me like Saw X, based on this trailer (and God, is it choppily edited – there are at least three separate “dramatic trailer reveal end” musical stings in this two minutes), is going to be a sort of thematic mash-up of the sixth and seventh Saw films – the “John’s issues with the medical system” and “punishment of misleading frauds” respectively. And it’s not that I don’t like those plots, because I actually really enjoyed them both in their original movies, but , watching this trailer, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that we’ve seen this before. If this isn’t really what the film is about, the trailer doesn’t do a good job separating Saw X from previous entries in the series, you know?
And, in a lot of ways I hope it’s not what the film is really about, because this movie is bringing back Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young, probably Jigsaw’s most iconic apprentice and richest supporting character (apart from Costas Mandylor’s jawline, but you know what I’m saying). She’s the actual sting we leave this trailer on, the reveal of her under the hood of those famous pigface robes, and yes, I have to admit, I got excited about it. I truly am a bit ballistic about Amanda’s arc in the first three movies, and I am seriously praying that we get a story that really explores more of that; she’s Jigsaw’s ultimate and most dedicated disciple, and it’s a compelling character type that Smith has the chops to make more of.
So, yeah, I’m a little bit mixed about this trailer: great to see the return of Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith, but the plot looks worryingly repetitive (and the colour fixing worryingly green). What did you think of this trailer? How are you feeling about Saw X? Let me know in the comments.
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Variety)
No But Listen 