Saw X Shocker: First Reviews Are Positive

Critics aren’t playing games with Saw X. The first reviews are in for the 10th installment in the twisted torture saga — and they’re shockingly positive. In 2004, James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s original indie horror hit Saw spawned a franchise despite critics calling the gore-fest everything from a “glorified snuff film” to the since-coined phrase “torture porn.” In the almost 20 years since, Lionsgate trotted out John “Jigsaw” Kramer (Tobin Bell), Billy the Puppet, torture traps, pig masks, and progressively gorier and deadlier games until 2010’s Saw: The Final Chapter — which, ultimately, was not the final chapter — scored a franchise-worst 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.

After Lionsgate lifted the Saw X review embargo on Thursday, the new movie debuted on Rotten Tomatoes to a “fresh” 83% from two dozen reviews counted so far. While the score will fluctuate as more reviews come in, Saw X is better critically reviewed than even the original (50% “rotten”) and is the first Saw installment to receive a “fresh” grade on the review aggregator website.

Saw X marks Bell’s return to the franchise, a part sequel and part prequel set between the events of 2004’s Saw and 2005’s Saw II. (The fan-favorite Bell last appeared in 2017’s Jigsaw and sat out 2021’s Spiral, a standalone spin-off starring Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson.) The 10th movie also serves as a comeback for director Kevin Greutert, the franchise’s longtime editor-turned-director who helmed 2009’s Saw VI and 2010’s critically-slaughtered Final Chapter (a.k.a. Saw 3D). 

Saw Rotten Tomatoes Scores

1. Saw X (2023) – 83%
2. Saw (2004) – 50%
3. Saw VI (2009) – 39%
4. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) – 37%
5. Saw II (2005) – 37%
6. Jigsaw (2017) – 32%
7. Saw III (2006) – 30%
8. Saw IV (2007) – 18%
9. Saw V (2008) – 13%
10. Saw: The Final Chapter (2010) – 9%

Saw X Reviews

The Hollywood Reporter: “It takes a little longer than usual, but Saw X eventually getsaround to its true raison d’etre, which is depicting in gory detail theways in which Jigsaw’s victims either succeed or fail at extricatingthemselves from the gruesome, Rube Goldberg-style death traps he’sdevised for them…. these films are undeniably fiendishly clever in the way they makeKramer somehow sympathetic even while he’s doing monstrous things topeople. None of this would work nearly as well without Bell, whose raspy voiceand menacing gravitas are so riveting that he makes Jigsaw’soft-repeated declaration ‘I’d like to play a game’ scary as hell. He’smade the character truly iconic, much like Robert Englund did withFreddy Krueger. Accept no substitutions.” 

Variety: “John Kramer, who is now suffering from terminal brain cancer, is sofront and center that Tobin Bell has never given such a full-scaleperformance as the human behind Jigsaw. Bell is 81 now, and in Saw Xhe’s like Clint Eastwood crossed with Father Merrin from The Exorcist.Kramer is like a grizzled sheriff who has come to exorcise your demons.He’s making you suffer, but only to free your soul… The downside of Saw X seeming more like a real movie than many of thefilms in the series is that there’s more talking and less torturing; Ipersonally approve of that ratio, though I’m not sure it will pay off atthe box office. The torture set pieces in the “Saw” films are lavishgifts of baroque horror presented to the audience. They are, quitesimply, the reason we came. Tobin Bell, with his stare of pitilesswisdom, is also a draw, but Saw X raises the issue of how much of JohnKramer’s hand-wringing is too much. In the eyes of a lot of Saw fans,hand-wringing < hands cut off with mechanized garden shears.”

Total Film: “The fiendish contraptions Kramer and another returning party preparefor them demand a series of set-piece self-surgeries, staged withghoulish aplomb. The bits in between, though, are talky and dreary,characteristics shared by a lackluster performance from Bell thatsuggests his killer was better off lurking in the shadows.  Anearly sequence involving snapped digits and sucked-out eyeballs is anoutrageous cheat, while giving John a local lad to care about is apreposterously mawkish embellishment. Two decades on from the short thatstarted everything, X must surely mark the spot Jigsaw finally rests inpieces.”

IndieWire: “Bell, finally given the meaty part he’s deserved since he spent a feature-length filmin that pool of blood, dominates back at the warehouse. The gore hasnever looked more realistic. Saw X takes a back-to-basics approachwith its utterly nauseating contraptions, drawing out the traps’ variouspremises before launching the thieves into mercilessly short testingtimes. Billy the Puppet makes the trip to Mexico, but with not a singleVHS tape in sight, the theatricality is largely left up to Bell. He’sprecise and stern without ever pushing too hard: the human embodiment ofye old ‘I’m not mad, just disappointed’ reprimand. When he does yell,you’ll flinch; and when he doesn’t, you’ll be begging to release thetension.”

Metro: “Although a little long and – believe it or not – fluffy atpoints, Saw X finesses the existence of an introspective man behind allthe blood and guts, no thanks to Bell’s killer performance and arelatively nuanced origin story of sorts.”

Saw X opens in theaters Thursday.