John Kramer has risen from the dead in Saw X, but don't worry, this isn't a Halloween requel situation where the entire Saw timeline has been wiped from existence.
Instead, Saw X is an untold story from John Kramer's past, set only weeks after the first Saw movie and before Saw II. That means Kramer is still dying, but not dead yet, so he's free to enact his unique form of therapy on a new batch of victims.
It's a smart move that means you don't have to rewatch all the Saw movies before seeing Saw X to refresh your memory on the convoluted timeline. You don't even really need to have seen a single Saw movie beyond the first one, although it's hard to imagine somebody wanting to see Saw X without already being a fan of the series.
And those fans won't be disappointed because by going back in time, Saw X has delivered the most effective Saw sequel yet.
Initially you might be wondering whether you're really watching a Saw movie. There's no cold-open trap, splashing you with gore before the title has even appeared on screen.
It's a more sedate start as John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is told he has only "months" left to live and then goes to a cancer support group. He spots a hospital orderly who's being a bit light-fingered with a coma patient's belongings and you think this is where the games begin.
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The culmination of that sequence involving the "eye vacuum" should confirm to you that Saw X is not your typical Saw movie. More than ever, the series appears to be in on the joke, playing up lines from Kramer talking about his "hobbies".
It's a movie made for the fans by regular Saw trio director Kevin Greutert and writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, who seem to know exactly what fans are expecting. Rather than give it to them straight away though, they tease it out for a unique Saw experience.
They do take too long to get to the moment when Kramer realises the miracle cure for his cancer in Mexico is just a scam. We know it has to fail unless the filmmakers had chosen a drastic retcon, so as much as it's interesting to see a Saw movie take its time, it's not entirely successful.
Once Kramer and Amanda (Shawnee Smith) turn the tables on the con artists, led by the truly despicable Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund), we're back on more familiar ground. It's a one-room game, much like the first movie only with multiple traps within the room, and that's not the only throwback.
Where the Saw series had gotten increasingly elaborate with its traps, Saw X strips it back to the more lo-fi charms of the first two movies. The large-scale traps of the later sequels might have increased the gore, but they lessened the impact. There's a reason Saw II's needle pit is one of the series' most memorable: you can imagine the pain.
Saw X's traps might not be as notable as the needle trap or the reverse bear trap, but they're good efforts all the same. From amateur brain surgery to arm bombs, they're more wince-inducing and effective than recent sequels have managed, while saturated in enough blood to satisfy every gorehound.
(There's also a sequence involving intestines that could only make sense in a Saw movie, which we absolutely won't spoil here.)
What lets Saw X down, aside from the overextended runtime, is how its story all comes together. There's still a glee to be had when those first beats of 'Hello Zepp' kick in, yet here it's a short-lived joy as the twist isn't up there with the most devious of the series.
Of all the elements, it's the one Saw trope that feels crowbarred-in and perhaps constrained by the fact Saw X takes place between two established movies. But perhaps if this new movie is a success, then a follow-up movie could deliver the biggest twist of all: a Saw movie with no twist ending.
It's easy to imagine Saw X being a hit. Fans have long wanted to somehow see John Kramer and Amanda together again, and the twisted sort-of father-daughter relationship between the two is another element that lifts the new Saw movie above other sequels.
Saw X might still deliver the gore you'd expect from a Saw outing, yet in attempting to do something new and not just the same-old, it's potentially injected the series with fresh blood.
Saw X is out now in cinemas.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
