SAW X

Tobin Bell returns as John Kramer as well as Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young. Taking place between the events of SAW and SAW II the story finds John with only months to live. He is lead to believe a doctor in Mexico who's performing an untested procedure to remove cancer can cure him as well. But unfortunately for the doctor and his team, the operation isn't successful and they become the next players in John's games. This entry into the Saw franchise goes against the grain in many different ways: it has the longest run time at 118 minutes, the games don't take place until the third act which allows the story and characters plenty of breathing room to flesh out the story, and it is some ways makes John and Amanda the heroes of the story. It was a nice change of pace to see the story build for the first half of the film, although the gore hounds who paid to see blood might not enjoy it quite as much. The games don't appear to be as elaborate either compared to other entries, however, this can be chalked up to John finding his rhythm for lack of a better term as again, this is at the beginning of John's "work" and he got better as he progressed in later films. It's always good to see John and Amanda back together again and if this does well enough and if they wish to continue to make another involving John's relationship with a certain detective, I'd be up for that as well. 6/10