SFX's 2023 in review: Saw X filmmakers on John Kramer’s emotional return to the franchise

Dec. 19, 2023

Exclusive: Saw X director Kevin Greutert tells SFX why Jigsaw’s latest killing spree is surprisingly emotional

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When Saw 3D, the seventh Saw, was released in cinemas, the tagline promised “The Final Chapter” in the ongoing saga. But the game was far from over. Despite having died in Saw III, John Kramer aka Jigsaw returns inSaw X, and his comeback shouldn’t surprise: he’s been in every Saw since his demise (barring the Chris Rock-led ninth installment, Spiral). However this time, rather than appearing through flashbacks or pre-recorded tapes, John Kramer’s back for real.

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Saw X takes place between the events of the first two Saw films and sees Kramer and his protégé, the former trap victim Amanda, wreak havoc on a group of scientists in Mexico who promised Kramer an experimental cure for his cancer but actually swindled him. As a result, the scientists soon find themselves unwittingly playing a game of survival, and, well, you probably know the rest; traps, blood, gore, and creepy ventriloquist dolls fill the runtime, which also happens to make this the longest Saw yet.

Jigsaw puzzle

“It was always the intention to go back to basics,” Kevin Greutert, the director of Saw X, Saw VI, and Saw 3D, tells SFX. The key to unlocking the film, he explains, was understanding how to optimize everything audiences love about the series. By setting the film between the first two Saw films, Greutert could tell a story less beholden to convoluted lore and instead focus on having Jigsaw do what he does best: exacting (twisted) justice on those (mostly) deserving.

“We’ve learned, one way or another, that John Kramer as played by Tobin Bell is what it’s all about,” Greutert says. “This was an opportunity to really focus on him and his story and a really key incident that happens in his life. So it led us to a story that is, surprisingly, pretty emotional compared to the other Saw movies. “Not that there isn’t emotion in the other ones, but it’s mostly the emotion of fear. There’s other stuff in this one. There’s hope and there’s hope destroyed. People will really be surprised because, as good as the trailer is, it doesn’t convey a lot of what the actual film is.”

Greutert has previously said the film has an “epic” quality to it, which aligns with the extended runtime but not necessarily the subject matter – after all, the word epic evokes The Lord Of The Rings, Dune, and Blade Runner, not Jigsaw’s killing sprees. “It has to do with tone, more than length,” Greutert explains. “The arc John goes through is more grandiose in a way, and emotionally deeper, than what we’re used to. There are extended sequences that are not the normal kind of thing you see in a Saw movie. Really, it’s more of an emotion-driven epic than anything else.”

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That doesn’t mean John Kramer’s not as terrifying as ever. After all, Saw X takes place just months after the original bathroom game seen in the first Saw, in which Cary Elwes’s Dr. Lawrence Gordon was forced to remove his own leg to escape. “A lot of really, really bad, dark shit goes down in this story,” Greutert says. Much of that “dark shit” comes by the way of traps.

The trailer alone features fingers being bent out of place, large mechanical collars, a man trying to remove his own brain’s cerebral tissue, rats seemingly running down tubes toward someone’s eyes, and much, much more. Perhaps unsurprisingly, coming up with new

“I have lots of books on medieval torture machines and other dark stuff, and sometimes we just pore through it and shoot ideas off each other. Some of the traps have evolved quite a lot from how they started. And then you have to think about how to actually pull it off. I was very nervous about some of the things that we did; nervous on a safety level and nervous thinking it was just going to look ridiculous. Far more so than in the other Saw movies, we had to do a lot of testing. Mostly in pre-production, but we wound up having to split the shoot into two parts – three weeks in November and three weeks in January – because it was so complicated. We had to make so many prosthetics and machines, and over Christmas, we spent the entirety of it figuring this stuff out.”

The time off led to more testing as the crew, including the stunt coordinators and those in charge of fire and explosions, gathered together to figure out how the deadliest traps would work. “Frankly, if we hadn’t done every single one of those tests, we probably wouldn’t have a movie because it just gets harder and harder as you get deeper into the story,” Greutert says. “By the last week, when we were shooting the climactic scenes, stuff went wrong even despite the tests. Halfway through every day, I was in a state of near panic thinking, ‘Wow, this is the day we fail.’ There’s so much coordination where you’re shouting out cues and there are lights and blood machines. It’s just really hard.”

The results speak for themselves: the majority of the work was done practically, and the result is a visceral killing experience. CG was used for touch-ups, with Greutert emphasizing the brilliant work done by the CG artists, but for the film’s blood and guts, the majority was done on set, helping Saw X feel like an early Saw film.

Kramer’s not the only returning face; his accomplice, Amanda, played by Shawnee Smith, is very much alive during this time period. We know very little about Amanda between Saw and Saw II, only really that she quickly turns from being a diehard Kramer follower to, by Saw III, being jaded by the John Kramer experience.

For Greutert, Saw X explores the question of: how did she go from this person who would do anything for John, who would jump off a cliff for him, to turning against him as much as she does? “That’s, dramatically, the material we were working with,” he says.

The director won’t go into whether other characters from the series will appear, though he teases “surprises” to come. It’s also clear that Saw X is something of a storytelling cul-de-sac, building “more on what’s in the past,” as Greutert puts it, than planting seeds for the future. “There’s no obvious new direction to go after this film,” he continues, “but I think there probably will be more Saw movies, particularly if this one is successful.”

How the franchise continues depends on the reception to Saw X. And if you’re on the fence about seeing this one, Greutert wants to make clear that you don’t have to be a Jigsaw disciple to enjoy his latest killing spree. “I truly believe that this is the most standalone Saw film since the first one,” he says. “It’s not about knowing or remembering anything about the previous films. It’s a richer experience if you know about Saw because otherwise, you won’t necessarily know who Amanda is when she appears, but it’s very clear from the beginning what’s happening.”

Indeed, one of the producers summed up Saw X quite nicely: “He watched a cut and said, ‘I can’t believe we’ve made our first grown-up movie.’ I guess that’s an endorsement.”

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.

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