The ‘Saw X’ trailer promises a return to the franchise’s roots, I’m sure of it

I want to play a game. We’re going to break down the Saw X trailer and highlight some of the best bits, the gory grit, the Amanda chick, and everything Tobin Bell. Your task? It’s simple: enjoy the read.

Out of the blue, as it turned 9 pm for the East Coast and 6 pm for West Coast on July 29, Lionsgate dropped the Saw X trailer in all its gruesome glory. For me, all the way in Europe (the U.K. specifically), it was way past my bedtime, so I missed out on all the excitement until the following morning. It was soul-crushing for someone that’s such a huge Saw fan to be 10 hours behind the hype, but boy, was it worth the wait.

After the absolute travesty that was Spiral: From the Book of Saw and even its predecessor, Jigsaw, it was a welcomed change to see John Kramer in the spotlight once more. It had become clear that after Saw 3D, the creative team planned to throw in the towel on the Kramer storyline, which had admittedly been done to death. Not to mention, Tobin Bell is 80 years old, so he’s not the spry young serial killer he was in 2004.

Even though John Kramer died in Saw III, the franchise never let his legacy die. That was until Jigsaw, when he was insultingly demoted to a supporting character and the movie tried to include him out of pity in a roundabout storyline that made no sense. We won’t even waste too much of our time on whatever Spiral was trying to do. Someone needs to tell Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger that you can’t just put Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson in a Saw movie and expect it to be good.

But we’re back to basics with Saw X, and that’s wonderful to see. We have the classic John Kramer formula; a sick and dying man exacting revenge on those who have wronged him. Gosh, it reminds me of Saw IV — the good old days. From what we can decipher, this sequence of events seems to have taken place somewhere between Saw and Saw II. The biggest hint was the reappearance of Shawnee Smith‘s Amanda Young, who also dies in Saw III, so that correlates with our approximate timeline.

I won’t admit that I squealed when Amanda removed her pig-head mask, but I did. All the OGs are coming back, so this feels like the real, authentic Saw. It became evident that after Saw 3D, the franchise tried to emulate Scream and became too meta for its own good, simultaneously ruining what James Wan had worked so hard to achieve almost 10 years ago.

But where do we even begin? This looks to be everything you’d want in a Saw movie; elaborate traps, top-notch acting, gore galore, and a narrative that actually makes sense. John wants to kidnap those who ‘pretended’ to cure him, which correlates with Dr. Logan Nelson making the careless mistake of mixing up his X-rays in Jigsaw. Kramer was told the tumor was inoperable, then he was assured it had been removed during surgery but turns out that the tumor was never removed at all, and now, he only has mere months to live in line with Saw X‘s timeframe.

Right down to the song choice, “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies, this trailer is absolute perfection, and judging by the YouTube comments and social media reactions, everyone agrees with me. We’re about to be taken on a journey through the lens of the classic Saw and Saw II style, and I, for one, am buckled up and ready.

Get ready to play John Kramer’s game when Saw X releases in theaters on September 29, 2023.