One of the most iconic horror franchises of the 2000’s is unquestionably Saw. For many people my age the Saw franchise grew as we did, we knew Halloween was here because there was a new Saw film in theaters. It is truly a franchise that formed a generation of genre fans. Jigsaw and Spiral: From The Book of Saw were good enough to hold us over, but they didn’t necessarily feel like true Saw films. When news came out of Saw X I was sold immediately. The title alone harkened me back to that October feeling I desperately crave 11 months out of the year.
Saw X is set to be the direct sequel to Saw, and the prequel to Saw II. From the trailer we can gather the following: John Kramer (Tobin Bell) takes a trip to Mexico for an experimental surgery to remove his brain tumor. When it turns out he was scammed by this group, and the tumor is still in his head, he decides to enact his revenge on the greedy “doctors” who fooled him. Sounds like a good setup for a Saw film if you ask me.
What’s great about the trailer is the few easter eggs that are thrown in. We see Amanda (Shawnee Smith) back in action, and from the looks of it, we are going to be getting another detective thrown in the mix with Steven Brand’s character. Also, we see John sketching the design for The Rack from Saw III that Tim (Mpho Koaho) gets put in. The biggest piece of lore we get is a strange shot of two masked men emerging from a grey van with handguns, and for what it’s worth it kind of looks like Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). Could we be getting some more lore from Saw X?
The setup of Saw X perfectly works Saw III into the storyline, too. Saw III finds Jigsaw kidnapping Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) with the hope that she can remove his tumor for good. So while the idea of John having this tumor initially seemed a bit out of left field, Saw X gives us the perfect setup for his actions later in the series. Saw X hits theaters on September 29, 2023.