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.
Of all the horror movies to be described as a runaway train, Rob Savage’s Other Mommy is the first in recent memory to have that quality as a negative. A more focused piece of over-the-top supernatural horror would capitalize on starting at a high speed and just gunning it. It would get increasingly faster, more horrific with its effects and reveals, more stunning and spectacle-filled. But Other Mommy never utilizes the momentum it starts with. It stays at the same steady, uncomfortable pace. And it gets old, very fast.
Other Mommy Is Missing a First Act
The movie begins in what should have been the second act; it never does stop haunting the narrative that Other Mommy feels like it’s missing 30 minutes of setup and 10 minutes of breathing room that would actually get you to care about what’s happening. Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) is a young girl already well acquainted with a creature known as Other Mommy. A supernatural being that can change shape and size to her liking, becoming anyone she wants and then some. The entity only desires one thing: for Bela to let it into her heart and give it a new body.
Bela’s parents, Ursula (played by Jessica Chastain, in a dual role as the Other Mommy) and Russell (Jay Duplass), become aware of the space-bending creature in the film’s very first scenes. Soon, they’re on the run from the creature that’s trying to tear the already strained family apart. But the overwrought family drama of an unfaithful mother and a scatterbrained father forced to hide their struggling marriage from their kid is smothered. Much like Chastain’s performance, it’s drowned out by a barrage of aggressive and unimpressive digital effects trying to milk every single moment for a fright, desperate to keep audiences’ attention.
A Clumsy Digital Effects Showcase That Smothers the Story to Death
Other Mommy is primarily concerned with showing off its titular monster and her reality-bending powers, jumping from one “scare filled”, dreamlike sequence to the next; heavy, heavy quotes on scare filled. You become inured to every trick the film has as it shows you all the most unimaginative uses of a shapeshifting, size changing monster possible. There is no clever framing or use of shadow to obscure it, no restraint at all really. The directing is frenetic and clumsy, but it makes sure to make the monster as clear as possible. It’s all out in the open, plain to see, and bizarrely mundane for a depiction of a demonic interloper.
Every jumpscare-a-minute scene moves too fast and is too overlit to ever scare. The bright and inappropriate atmosphere fails the already rough looking digital effects. What it amounts to is a choppily edited and disjointed assortment of scenes, with weak imitations of Trevor Henderson style abominations center stage. Tall and small and melty variations of a CGI Chastain, none of them work to evoke tension or fear or any emotion other than the occasional eyebrow raise for how goofy some of them look.
There are a few moments where Chastain teases at playing the monster effectively without face and body morphing effects, sporting a genuinely disturbing countenance and creepy voice. But as soon as these fragments of interest come, they’re washed away by warping her into a lanky, slinking monster of ridiculous proportions. What we get out of the dual role is a boring creature for the feature, and a dry, one-dimensional protagonist, both squandering the phenomenal actor Chastain is.
Other Mommy is Full of Dull Performances and Squandered Potential
Duplass offers little with his supporting role, providing flat dialogue and flatter comic relief as a middling SNL sketch’s idea of a clownish father. It’s worth noting Clark actually provides the most interesting performance among the entire cast, a feat impressive from such a young child actor. But even her endearing and heart-breaking time as Bela is too little and too shadowed by the faulty composition of the film it’s trapped in.
The trailer for Other Mommy may have caught audiences off guard at the cinema in the past few months. But ultimately, that trailer showed the movie’s entire hand. Other Mommy is a pasty, crooked collage of elements from the supernatural horror movies producer James Wan made the backbone of the genre a decade ago. That doesn’t make it a throwback; just a rehash of cliches, with no structure and no sense of cohesion. It never amounts to anything more interesting than what the marketing material showed, which is a tragic end for a film, if there ever was one.
Luz: The Flower of Evil is a movie simultaneously charged with and mired in ambition. It’s genuinely comical how overly ambitious of a first-time film it is for writer-director Juan Diego Escobar Alzate: a microbudget, shot on location in the mountains of Colombia, character driven psychological horror film meant to explore the very nature of good and evil while also tackling cults and misogyny.
So, it’s shocking how much of it works. Not all of it works, not at all, but it is cohesive enough to serve as a surprising experience with the colorful aesthetic it employs and incredibly dark places it goes to.
What Is Luz: Flower of Evil About?
After the death of their mother Luz, three sisters in a rural cult community find their faith waning. The three are the centerpiece of an elaborate theology crafted by their cult leader father, a man who is becoming more difficult to deal with by the day. So, when he brings a mute boy into town, chaining him up and claiming he’s the people’s messiah, an already tense situation devolves into outright madness. What ensues is the slow dissolution of the cult, and the torturous end of an already fractured family.
Let this usual synopsis section also serve as a content warning: the film does depict sexual violence very early on, about 25 minutes into the film. It’s not Irreversible levels of horrifically long, but it’s also not particularly brief and still graphic content by its nature. It can be difficult to stomach, so I’m mentioning it now for those who would rather avoid that sort of thing.
A Ponderous Arthouse Folk Horror About Good and Evil
The film has shocking moments, but it’s not very interested in shock value. This is first and foremost a slow burn, a piece of arthouse folk horror that is more about bleeding out than it is about a violent demise. The most obvious comparisons are to The VVitch and Midsommar, but even that feels like an inappropriate mix, even when it leans towards Aster’s commercial darling or Egger’s colonial nightmare.
Fundamentally, Luz is a study about people who mythologize suffering and cruelty and excuse it as being driven by outside spiritual forces rather than their own decisions. It’s about deconstructing harmful religious and cult mentalities, and it wears its philosophy on its sleeve (aggressively so). Alzate creates a visually and textually fascinating meltdown of his characters and the community they find themselves within.
I would say it’s a “descent into madness” if it didn’t feel clear that the characters were already in a tailspin right at the film’s outset. The script, especially through its second act, starts to feel repetitive and a little simplistic, with a somewhat anticlimactic ending and dialog that starts to feel less naturalistic and more tedious. But it’s an interesting dissection of a family, even if it’s rough around the edges.
Hyperreal Sense of Color, But Shaky Directing and Writing
The film’s most obvious and striking feature is its hyperrealist palette, bearing a rich Technicolor aspect that permeates throughout the entire runtime. Colorist Felipe Martinez U paints the mountainous countryside with such vibrancy, a simple but very effective contrast to the dying days of a cult the story centers on; bleak, muddy times, punctuated by vibrant nature all around. Aesthetically, it’s pretty clearly visually inspired by the early works of Pedro Almodóvar and the visual warmth of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man.
Even the naturalistic tendencies of Terrence Malick make an appearance here, though how much of that is just in the gorgeous location scouting and how much is actually emulated by Alzate is up for debate. All around, the film lacks polish. The camerawork is amateurish in some ways, slightly cramped and occasionally uninspired in its framing. Sometimes the oversaturated look of the film can feel a little saccharine and heavy, but the pop of color here feels purposeful enough that I can forgive it as being highly stylized rather than trying to mask the weak points of a first-time director.
Is Luz: The Flower of Evil Worth the Watch?
In the search for great Latin American horror, Luz was an odd duck to stumble upon to be certain. But I’m a champion of strange birds with a lot of character, so you do the math.
Luz: The Flower of Evil is a struggle of a film, hard to watch at points despite how visually appealing it can be. It’s a brutal, bleak piece of psychological folk horror that certainly has a thin audience and will test the patience of even those the premise appeals to. But it does have as much substance as it does style, even when it treads into murky waters, and for that I think it’s worth the watch.
