After 19 years, 10 movies, and over a billion dollars at the box office, one of cinema’s most persistent franchises finally gets good reviews

Having persevered for almost two decades and been run into the ground several times over, not many people outside of the franchise’s most ardent supporters were all that excited at the prospect of a 10th Saw movie, despite the saga having become one of the very few horror properties to cross the billion-dollar threshold in cumulative box office earnings.

Ever since the 2004 original exploded into the public consciousness and made torture porn more popular than ever, it’s remained the highest-rated entry in the series on Rotten Tomatoes, and even at that it’s never gone any higher than 50 percent on the aggregation site.

Since then, the various sequels, prequels, and spin-offs have seen their fair share of ups and downs, ranging from the respectable (by the brand’s standards) 39 percent of Saw VI to the dismal nine percent of Saw 3D. And yet, something completely unexpected and borderline inexplicable has happened; Tobin Bell’s return as Jigsaw has been the recipient of genuine critical acclaim.

At the time of writing, Saw X holds a remarkable 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which for comparison is both its first Fresh ranking and higher than Saw 3D, Jigsaw, and Spiral put together, an indicator of just how radically the tides have turned. It’s even more of a shock because nobody was even expecting the landmark 10th chapter to be any good, and if it does what’s expected and turns a tidy profit at the box office upon its theatrical bow this weekend, then you can guarantee there’s going to be at least one more to come.