Saw X went back to its roots and is considered the best film of the franchise. The latest film saw the return of Tobin Bell as John Kramer aka Jigsaw. The events took place between Saw II and III, and the tenth film managed to recapture the magic that the franchise started nearly 20 years ago. However, it’s not because Tobin Bell has been missing from the series. The concept and appeal of the franchise have grown tired and Saw X should be the final entry in the long-running horror series.
The Age Of Torture Porn Is Over
The first Saw is the reason torture porn became a thing in horror. When the first film arrived in cinemas back in 2004, it was a fresh and exciting concept that deviated from the normal horror feature. Plus, Saw was genuinely a good film. That first entry didn’t notably focus on the torture aspects per se, which is one of the reasons it’s such a highly regarded version because it chose story and characters over senseless gore.
Thankfully, Saw X goes back to choosing story over senseless gore on characters that we could care less about. In fact, Saw X is now considered the best film of the franchise. However, The sub-genre of torture porn is no longer a notable staple in the mainstream. Before Saw X, the franchise focusing on elaborate ways to torture the human body grew tiresome quickly. It became a niche for most hardcore horror fans. This notion is just for Saw as most torture porn horror films focused on gruesome deaths that made you squirm in your seat. The series also became overly convoluted in its storytelling.
Horror has moved passed the brief boom period of torture porn and more sophisticated and smarter films are taking over the genre. Saw X was a welcome surprise and the series will always have an important place in the world of horror; however, in modern culture, the premise and films feel out of place.
The Saw Franchise Hasn’t Evolved Much
The smartest thing that executives did was put the focus on Jigsaw himself. That finally gave a different perspective on the story and made you connect with the series even more. How long can this last without growing tiresome? The franchise before Saw X became a tired slog with the only sense of joy being the elaborate traps. Following the first film, Saw was never really able to nail down a good balance between characterization, story, and traps until ten rolled around.
However, the premise collapsed under its weight following Saw III. We were following deplorable human beings who didn’t particularly develop into meaningful characters with a greater sense of life. The Saw premise has always been great, but the focus on traps and twists negated any impactful stories that could’ve gone deeper with its themes.
Saw feels outdated because the formula is stale. It can’t get rid of the trap premise because that’s the franchise’s bread and butter. However, it’s also extremely hard to tell a different story around the original premise.
Saw Feels Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place
There’s joy to be had with the Saw series and it’s always fun seeing what kind of crazy traps the creators come up with. However, Saw feels like a cash grab at this point. On one hand, it’s understandable why executives keep going back to this series because it’s cheap. However, is there an end goal for the series overall?
Saw doesn’t need to make a billion dollars to be profitable. On the other hand, there’s just not much else to go with the overall concept. Jigsaw is going to put a bunch of criminals in elaborate traps. End of story. Saw X found an excellent way to make it fresh and it would be great if the series wrapped up its legacy here. Saw X should be the final film in this long-running series, but sadly, executives are going to keep running this well dry because it prints money.
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