It’s been nearly 20 years since Saw changed the way horror was viewed in the mainstream. Not surprisingly, James Wan brought the franchise to the forefront and the series will forever be a part of history when it comes to the genre. However, there’s no denying that the Saw franchise has struggled a bit following the major success of the first three films.
In recent years, Saw has attempted to do two reboots – Spiral and Jigsaw. Unfortunately, neither of those films brought new fans to the franchise. Thankfully, the creators went back to the drawing board with Saw X and it was a massive success! The return of Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith certainly helped, but the surprising depth and character development are what made Saw X so great. Here are the things Saw X wisely avoided to return to the glory days of the franchise.
A Convoluted Story
The story of Saw X was simple enough. John Kramer wanted revenge on the people who tricked him into believing that there was a cure for his terminal cancer. However, before the tenth film, it was a running gag at how convoluted the Saw franchise has become when it comes to their stories.
Thankfully, Saw understood that audiences only cared about two things: Jigsaw and traps. The film managed to go over 30 minutes without diving into the typical Saw formula and it was compelling to get deeper into the mind of Jigsaw. Saw X didn’t over-explain anything about its plot and the lines of good and evil were quite simple.
A convoluted story doesn’t guarantee a great film. A simple story that gives the main characters dimension, mixed in with some good old fashioned Saw traps can easily reel in old and new fans. The first film had a Seven-like feel to it. It’s a shame that the series never lived up to that hype. Even then, Saw X added a new layer to the fascinating world of Jigsaw.
Rely On Gory And Brutal Traps
The Saw franchise was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. The bread and the butter of the horror series is their creative and gory traps. Take that out and it loses what makes the brand so special in the first place. However, one of the bigger issues is that a good portion of the films have relied on the traps to pad out the runtime. Saw X changed that massively.
The original Saw had a nice balance of telling an engaging story without going overboard with the crazy traps. Saw X found that sweet spot of developing its characters and story while delivering the goods on the gory traps. Despite going nearly an hour without a trap (unless you want to count the Vaccum Trap, which turned out to only be a dream) the film was never boring because Jigsaw felt right as the lead. While it could’ve gone further into his delusion about not being a villain, all the pieces of the puzzle about John Kramer perfectly aligned with a flawed protagonist.
The big reason that the torture porn genre faded out of the mainstream is because audiences had lost interest in watching people being tortured for two hours straight. However, Saw X showed that there was more depth to the heroes and villains than a simple good vs. evil plot.
A Headscratching Twist
At first glance, the Saw twist was shocking and clever. However, when you actually think about that twist, it doesn’t particularly make much sense. It certainly didn’t help when the sequels explained the big twist in the first film. The Saw brand is known for its insane twists. Some are quite good, but others are just plain stupid.
Saw X didn’t have some mindless twist. The final “gotcha” moment with Cecilia and Parker was a great one, though admittedly, it was a little convoluted. Saw X focused on having a great story that kept audiences on the edge of their seats. These jaw-dropping twists before Saw X were a good reason why the franchise had dived into a never-ending convoluted circle. The twists are the driving force for what the entire film will be.
But when the story cares more about shocking the audiences than developing the moving parts in the plot that can enhance the film, a major twist can fall flat on its face because we don’t care about the characters within it. This goes back to the first point, Saw X was a simple story and the organic twist was effective because it wasn’t crafted for shock value.
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