Reviews
X MARKS THE SPOT: A Review of ‘Saw X’
Before I start my review of Saw X, I feel like I need to tell you now: My favorite Saw film is the original. My second favorite Saw film is Saw 3D. My third is Saw VI.
Something For Every Fan of the Saw Franchise
Now, if that ranking got you in a bit of a tizzy, because who could possibly like Saw 3D that much? It’s terrible (I could, and it is), you should now understand what I find to be one of the fundamental issues of critiquing the Saw films in a way that feels fair or equitable to everybody. Everybody looks for different things in them, so a non-insignificant portion of the audience believes there should be a different metric for reviewing them.
Some people are here for the traps exploding gore all over the place, some for the endearingly convoluted story and all its plot twists, and some for their favorite characters and their development. If you’re here for crazy death traps and some top-tier John Kramer dialogue, you will probably love Saw X despite its flaws and find it a worthy entry in the franchise, just as I did.
John Kramer Returns in Saw X
For those who have been sleeping on the Saw franchise, Saw X is the latest installment in the series and brings back into the fold the legendary John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the first and greatest (not arguing with you on this) Jigsaw killer. Taking place between the first and second films, we see Jigsaw’s tests of the human body and spirit head south to Mexico City for vengeance: a group of five people who wronged John in his time of need are placed in a new game, with some of his most torturous contraptions yet. All the while, newly dubbed apprentice Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) takes her fledgling steps into the role John has planned for her when he’s gone.
Tobin Bell’s Impact
At the time of their respective releases, the ends of Jigsaw and Spiral seemed to promise an ever-increasing chain of bizarre timeline bends and new players for the franchise’s future, which excited some fans and underwhelmed many others. That promise doesn’t matter anymore because this movie mends the issue by bringing back to center stage the original heart and soul of Saw: Tobin Bell. The later films in the franchise have a big John Kramer-shaped hole in them that is hard to ignore, as Tobin Bell was undeniably instrumental in portraying an unforgettable character and steering the traps and rewriting dialogue on the fly. He was as important to the movies as any director, writer, or editor, and the cast and crew that worked with him have gone on record to say as much.
And that’s really the reason Saw X works. You can feel he’s brought that same essential energy to the role and helped guide the film, with this feeling like less of a straightforward return to form and more of a loving welcome back for Jigsaw and company that plays with the traditional formatting of the franchise. He shows off vulnerability especially here, with what is possibly his best performance to date thanks to the movie’s first act letting us really take the journey with John and see him in a whole new light.
Amanda Young’s Evolution in Saw X
Shawnee Smith also manages to capture a new side of fan favorite Amanda, as a still-green apprentice to John Kramer filling in the gap in her character development between the first two films. We get to see her slowly hardening into the person we meet in Saw II and III; it’s impressive and makes it easy to recognize the film’s place in the ever-muddied timeline almost instantly by visual and dialogue cues alone. Their onscreen chemistry is undeniable, and a solid emotional anchor to hold onto as the film chucks gore at us like an intestine lasso that pulls us along on Jigsaw’s wild ride.
The rest of the cast ranges from alright to pretty bad. Still, all of their characters are designed and written in the vein of one of those mid-to-late-2000s “you’re supposed to hate them completely” character templates. The writing hammers out bodies that are meant only to be mangled, except for one victim who clearly shouldn’t be there. This is the first and only Saw movie where I truly despised the victims in the traps, and the film will bang you over the head with that characterization. You might have found Jeff annoying in Saw III, or Charles unlikable in Saw V, and lord knows many people cheered at William’s death in Saw VI, but here our contestants are the peak of unlikable by design.
Saw X Has Some of the Nastiest Traps On Film Yet
This is a symptom of a script that really leans into the interpretation of Jigsaw as an anti-hero (especially in that hilarious ending shot before the credits roll), so if you find John’s philosophy and that framing of the character not quite your tempo, it might take you out of the movie.
In turn, the film relishes putting them through some of the franchise’s most comically evil traps, which I say with love. And yes, I say it’s comically evil, even in a franchise where they crushed a man’s head to death with two giant swinging ice blocks like Wile E. Coyote. The traps in Saw X stand as a worthy successor in the escalation of John Kramer’s machinations, evisceration engines you couldn’t think up in your wildest nightmares.
Despite being the victim of some clunky integration into the script, its final set piece is an incredibly memorable one that will still stand out among the reverse bear traps and shotgun carousels of the earlier entries as an all-timer just due to how nauseating it is. This film brings the heat with how truly nasty its traps can get, and no expense was spared to make the practical effects here look as spine-tinglingly foul as they do.
A Saw Film Shot in Typical Saw Fashion
If the rest of the cinematography is another step in the evolution of Kevin Greutert’s work, you might consider it devolution depending on how important the series’ iconic screeching-fast editing and sped-up shots are to you. They’re shockingly absent for a return to the mainline series, given he’s the editor who coined them. I would have preferred a more traditional Saw film in this regard. I can’t technically call the way Saw X is shot poor on a technical level; it’s just less unique. The film is not as visually dynamic as any other entries, but it works. And no matter what I have to say about the camerawork and cuts, on an audio level, the soundtrack kills, as always.
The Iconic Zepp’s Theme and Final Thoughts
Who doesn’t get hyped up at Zepp’s Theme, barring people without a pulse?
I have a soft spot for this film, even around its rustier, grimier bits; after all, what is Saw without some grime and rust? Ultimately, this will make a fine addition to the series because of its emotional core and instant classic traps. As a standalone entry, its script and ending can be unsatisfying at points, but if it’s the price we have to pay for more John Kramer, it’s a small fee. Saw X puts on a blood-filled, mean-spirited contest that will keep you guessing, so give it a watch, especially in theatres if you can.
Saw is rated R and has a runtime of 1 hour and 58 minutes.
No way it’s the horror of 2026, but Hokum could be this year’s most solid “welcome to the big leagues, kid” horror. It’s a pill that’s got the potential to draw in new horror fans, but has enough flavor to satisfy a veteran for 101 minutes. Damian McCarthy definitely learned to polish up his idea of a nightmare from Caveat (2020), to Oddity (2024), to his best feature yet. Literally, sort of. With a single watch of each under my belt… Hokum has the same theme and tone as the previous two, just waxed and remixed. I’m not mad at it, though.
Hokum That Bridges Indie and Mainstream Appeal
Even the freaks like us who live in the underground horror tunnels can understand the public’s genre fatigue. I agree- it can seem like all these remakes and re-hashes are seriously weighing down blockbuster horror these days. The good indie stuff gets looked over, but McCarthy’s most recent film is a decent little in-between. It won’t bother you with a high cinema monologue, but it knows how to make you cringe, and will lock you in a dusty room with it.
It’s vague in exposition, not that a simple idea like this really needs to be super fleshed out. It stars Severance’s Adam Scott as Ohm Bauman, a famous Yankee novelist, a guy who grieves, and a big jerk. He arrives at a boutique Irish inn to scatter the ashes of his parents, and finish the last book in his trilogy. The challenge of writing an asshole lead that still has to convince the audience to root for them is damn refreshing. Scott’s performance holds it up too. He’s got a great jerk-face even without dialogue. He’s easy to pity, though- somewhere between Paul Sheldon from Misery, and a real life Stephen King, who shares the suspiciously balanced atmosphere that drove Jack Torrence nuts in The Shining.
Familiar Horror Influences with a Refined Execution
McCarthy borrows a lot from those two, and probably a catalog of blockbuster peek-a-boo scary movies. The reason Hokum is a good challenge for the horror gateway, is that it doesn’t try too hard to “elevate” (it does, though only a little) the genre. It listens and learns from its elders to complete the haunted hotel play-by-play. Not a repeat, but a re-do of the things that work for paranormal and folk horror. The aspect that Hokum brings home is the solid polycule made of production design, sound mixing, and cinematography. A happy, creepy home of cobwebs and jump scares.
The only hotel staff spared from Ohm’s terrible attitude is Fiona. When he learns she’s gone missing after a Halloween party he was famously blackout drunk for, he feels a responsibility to return the kindness and effort she had shown him. The last person to speak to Fiona was local kooky guy, Jerry (David Wilmot). His local status is confirmed by Ohm after Jerry claims Fiona is most likely dead in the honeymoon suite… because her ghost approached him and told him so. Jerry might be crazy, but Ohm has nothing to live for, apparently. Ohm agrees to investigate the suite that the hotel staff keep locked and out of service. It’s haunted by a witch, they say. Obviously.
Production Design and Sound Craft a Claustrophobic Nightmare
The suite, and the source of Hokum’s nightmares, is stunning work in the macabre department. Despite my distaste for them, it really is a playground for jump scares. Lighting and sound design do some real respectable heavy lifting that the viewer is forced (complimentary) to sit through. My personal playground, though, would be the dumbwaiter. The last time I had that much fun with one of those was when lowering Danny into the den of lizard aliens in Zathura (2005). Hokum’s dumbwaiter plays as much of a role as Adam Scott does in his.
Besides the horrors that persist in it, the honeymoon suite really comes alive with the one or two Resident Evil-esque puzzles in order to reach the meat of the mystery. A super engaging focus from cinematographer Colm Hogan to use frame ratio, and other visual camera tricks to induce the claustrophobia of the epicenter of scares. Bring back the dumbwaiter please.
Where Hokum Falls Short
What doesn’t work is excusable. The thin background information on Ohm’s trauma presents itself too often through a jump scare/flashback cocktail. Did this movie need to be 101 minutes, or could it have been 90? Did the viewer need to understand the weight of Ohm’s undesirable childhood? Not to this degree. I think these moments also risk confusion as to what supernatural thing we’re dealing with at the moment: the witch of the honeymoon suite, Fiona’s ghost, or the lasting haunt of Ohm’s mother’s tragic death? The film takes the “less is more” rule at about 70%- not awesome, but a passing grade, no doubt.
One of the most entertaining aspects of horror is its subgenres. Zombie films have an ever-branching group of sub-subgenres, as do slashers and paranormal films. It’s honestly exhausting to try to classify some of these films. Hell, my favorite bigfoot film, Night of the Demon, is a cryptid slasher film! Who knew that the slasher subgenre would ever have a cryptid branch to it?! But the straight-to-DVD times of the mid-aughts brought a series of weird slasher-ish films to the shelves of Walmart and FYE’s across the United States. One of those films that caught my eye (at too young an age) was a genuinely weird, trailer park, splatterpunk remake called 2001 Maniacs. (Would this technically fall under the Hellbilly slasher subgenre?)
What Is 2001 Maniacs About?
Anderson Lee (Jay Gillespie), Corey Jones (Matthew Carey), and Nelson Elliot (Dylan Edrington) are three college kids on their way to Daytona for Spring Break. As their college graduation looms, or lack of graduation, they want to go out with a bang. Literally. A detour leads the three and two other groups into the overly cheery town of Pleasant Valley. But this stuck-in-their-ways town has danger lurking beneath it. The town’s mayor, George W. Buckman (Robert Englund), who dons a Confederate flag eye patch, welcomes the eight travelers in with open arms. And just like that, the Guts n’ Glory festival is set to begin! Though who will make it out alive, and who will get turned into tonight’s pot roast?
A Movie that Shares Some Odd Company
I’ll be completely honest. I haven’t watched this movie in over a decade. There was a time in my life when I was hellbent on finding the most messed-up movies I could. As my watchlist grew, so did my desensitization. Movies like this, Freakshow (which proudly boasted it was banned in 47 countries), August Underground, and The Girl Next Door filled out my formative film-viewing years. While I can understand why some of these disgusting movies were made, some completely befuddled me as to why they were even made. Out of all of these films, 2001 Maniacs stuck in my head as the most perplexing of the bunch.
Writers Tim Sullivan and Chris Kobin, with direction from Tim Sullivan, are very competent voices in horror. They co-wrote Driftwood together, which, while not amazing, is better than the reviews suggest. Their work on Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror resulted in a great anthology film that gets overlooked in most conversations about anthologies. And Tim Sullivan wrote/directed the second-best segment in Chillerama, “I was a Teenage Werebear”. So, why this movie? Why remake Herschell Gordon Lewis’s just as perplexing Two Thousand Maniacs!?
2001 Maniacs’ Surprising Connection to Cabin Fever
Quick aside, since we’re also covering Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever this month. What’s interesting is that this film stars Giuseppe Andrews as Harper Alexander (who reprises his role of Deputy Winston in Cabin Fever 2). And towards the beginning of this film, Eli Roth reprises his role of Justin from Cabin Fever. So, Eli Roth exists in this world as his character from Cabin Fever, but Giuseppe Andrews exists as a completely different entity. That’s neither here nor there. Just an interesting observation that implies the flesh-eating disease also exists within this world. What are the odds? As much as I despise Eli Roth, it would have been fascinating to see this group of characters battle Confederate ghosts AND a flesh-eating disease.
Okay, where were we?
The Incredibly Shaky Acting in 2001 Maniacs
Nothing about this film works, except for a handful of practical effects. You can all hate me for what I’m about to say…and that’s okay. Robert Englund and Lin Shaye are not good actors. I will concede that Englud is great as Freddy, and he has worked his way into his legendary status. Beyond that? Not so much. Lin Shaye just…she’s a nepo sister who got in while the getting was good. Her high-pitched, high-energy line readings get old after more than 30 seconds of screentime. It’s easy to see why she has so many fans, and I’m happy that they have thousands of films to watch her in. I just think she took the spot of a potentially better actor. Though you should not mistake what I said as me saying the other actors in this movie are great. Because that is simply untrue. Nearly every scene feels as if the actors are reading their lines from a teleprompter slightly off-screen.
Do the Kills Make it Worth Sitting Through?
“But the point of this movie is the gory kills!” Okay, and? A few of the kills in 2001 Maniacs are fun and inventive, but you have to sit through endless filler until you get there. It gets to a point where this movie’s horniness becomes so over the top that even a hypersexual Joe Bob Briggs fan would become annoyed. You can say that it’s because this movie is a horror comedy, or that it’s supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. And I can come right back and say that there is not a single bit of ‘comedy’ in this movie that works. Vampires Suck is funnier than this. Hell, Disaster Movie is funnier than this.
2001 Maniacs is a Big Skip
2001 Maniacs is the closest I’ve come to a DNF when covering a film for Horror Press. The movie’s blatant racism-played-for-jokes becomes old before it even gets started. Decent practical effects are ruined by mid-aughts digital effects that would make the SciFi Channel cringe. God, how many times can you scream, “The South’s gonna rise again,” before it stops becoming satire and becomes weird? Calling this movie satire would be unfair because there is not a single moment of awareness throughout. Yes, they make Southerners look like pig-screwing dimwits, but it feels like it’s only done to cover their asses.
Do not watch 2001 Maniacs. It is a truly terrible movie. And that’s coming from someone who has watched nearly every SciFi Original, Mongolian Deathworm, and has sat through Verotika eight times.
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Overlook Film Festival: ‘Hokum’ Review
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