Saw X
Saw X is a 2023 American horror film directed and edited by Kevin Greutert, and written by Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg. It is the tenth installment in the Saw film series, following Spiral and stars Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith, who reprise their roles from the previous films, alongside Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, and Michael Beach. Set between the events of Saw and Saw II, the film sees John Kramer travelling to Mexico in hopes that an experimental procedure may cure his terminal cancer. John later discovers that the operation is a scam, prompting him to kidnap those responsible and subject them to his trademark death traps as retribution, with Amanda Young acting as his accomplice.
A tenth installment was reported to be in development with Twisted Pictures in April 2021, when Stolberg and Goldfinger, writers for the previous two entries of the series, announced that they had completed the script in December 2021. Greutert, who had directed two other installments of the series and edited six, was also confirmed as the film's director. Filming took place between October 2022 and February 2023 in Mexico City.
Saw X was theatrically released by Lionsgate Films on September 29, 2023. It grossed $125 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, making it the best-reviewed Saw film. Following a tumultuous pre-production regarding a follow-up to Saw X, Blumhouse Productions bought out Twisted Pictures' stake in the franchise in June 2025, with Lionsgate retaining substantial ownership, making this film the last Saw film to be produced by Twisted Pictures.
Plot
is told he has only months to live due to advanced brain cancer. He attends a cancer support group meeting and befriends Henry Kessler, who later claims he has been cured by an experimental Norwegian cancer treatment conducted by a group led by Dr. Finn Pederson. A desperate John contacts the doctor's daughter Cecilia, who refers him to her clinic outside Mexico City.On arrival in Mexico, John is driven to the clinic and introduced to Cecilia and her team — anesthesiologist Mateo, nurse Valentina, and Dr. Cortez — as well as patients Gabriela and Parker and the caretaker's young son Carlos, with whom he bonds. John goes under for surgery and awakens to Cecilia telling him that he is now cancer-free. Finding a new lease on life, he purchases a gift for Gabriela. However, upon returning to the clinic, he finds it abandoned. He uncovers a video simulating his supposed brain surgery and removes his bandages to find no scar on his head, revealing the entire operation to be a scam.
Deducing that "Dr. Cortez" was his taxi driver Diego in disguise, John kidnaps and interrogates him, then forces him to play a "game" where he must remove pipe bombs lashed to his arms by cutting through his flesh, which he completes successfully. Meanwhile, Jigsaw's apprentice Amanda Young helps him abduct Cecilia, Mateo, Valentina, and Gabriela. They wake up in the clinic, now subjects in Jigsaw's games.
Valentina is tasked with severing her leg with a Gigli saw and extracting enough bone marrow to trigger a scale and deactivate the trap. She manages to amputate her leg but is unable to collect enough marrow, and a second Gigli saw decapitates her. Cecilia later uses Valentina's intestines as a rope to retrieve her phone and call for help, but Amanda shocks her into submission and confiscates the phone.
Parker breaks into the clinic, demanding his money back. Amanda restrains him while Mateo is forced to drill into his own skull and remove a piece of cerebral tissue to dissolve in a beaker and obtain a key. Although he successfully performs the task, the tissue fails to dissolve in time, and a heated mask closes over his face, killing him. Next, Gabriela is suspended from shackles and subjected to ionizing radiation, tasked with freeing herself by using a sledgehammer to break her shackled limbs. She succeeds, but before Amanda can take her to a hospital, Parker forces them at gunpoint to release Cecilia.
Cecilia kills Gabriela by breaking her neck and reveals she called Parker, who is part of the scam, to rescue her. She forces John to chain himself into the trap meant for her. When she hears Carlos outside, she takes the child and chains him opposite John. The trap begins waterboarding them with blood. Parker and Cecilia go to retrieve their bag of stolen cash from John's control room but activate a tripwire, sealing them both in the room and freeing John and Carlos. Flashbacks reveal that Diego outed all of the scammers — including Parker and Henry — and that John tricked Cecilia into luring Parker to the facility. A deadly chemical gas begins filling the room; the only respite is a ventilation hole large enough for one person's head, forcing Cecilia and Parker to fight each other. Cecilia kills Parker but can only watch as John, Amanda, and Carlos exit the facility, leaving her trapped.
Sometime later, Henry awakens in a dilapidated bathroom with a new trap strapped to his stomach, overseen by John and Mark Hoffman.
Cast
Production
Development
In April 2021, it was reported that a tenth installment in the Saw franchise, titled Saw X, was in development with Twisted Pictures. Screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, who previously penned Jigsaw and Spiral, announced in December 2021 that the script for Saw X had been completed. Producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules had originally conceived the story for the film as early as 2018; however, development was postponed after Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns met actor and comedian Chris Rock in Brazil and approved his concept for Spiral. Following the underwhelming box office performance of Spiral, Burg and Koules chose to return to the franchise's core themes and revisit their original concept for the tenth film.In August 2022, Bloody Disgusting confirmed that Saw X would be directed by Kevin Greutert, a longtime editor for the franchise who previously directed Saw VI and Saw 3D. The project was part of a multi-year co-financing agreement between Lionsgate and Media Capital Technologies, which included a slate of upcoming films, among them Saw X.
Casting
In October 2022, Tobin Bell was confirmed to reprise the role of John Kramer / Jigsaw. Greutert told Empire that Bell is featured in the film more than any other in the series. Bell was also involved in the film's script and post-production, coming up with extra dialogue that was incorporated into the story after shooting concluded. In December 2022, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand and Michael Beach joined the cast, along with Renata Vaca, Paulette Hernández, Joshua Okamoto, and Octavio Hinojosa. Shawnee Smith reprises her role as Amanda Young. While never officially announced, Costas Mandylor returned with a cameo of his role as Mark Hoffman. Greutert told Entertainment Weekly that this cameo was "the most fan-servicey thing" he has done.Filming
On a budget of $13 million, principal photography took place on location in Mexico City from late October 2022 to February 2023. The trap designs were more complex than in previous installments, so the filming schedule was split into two partsthree weeks in November and three weeks in January. Greutert told SFX, "We had to make so many prosthetics and machines, and over Christmas, we spent the entirety of it figuring this stuff out".At Midsummer Scream 2023, cinematographer Nick Matthews said they wanted to pay homage to the earlier Saw films. He explained, "I think for Kevin and I, it was really important that we were able to pay homage to all the early films, we love that the early films are Aspect ratio |, we love that they're textural, that they're gritty, that there's these really bold, yellow color palettes, and we want to do our work to hearken to that, with pervasive darkness, and really throwing the audience subjectively right into this graphic, gritty world". Production designer Anthony Stabley looked back at the color palette from those mid-2000s films and ensured that all technology, like graphics, seen in Saw X would have been available when those films took place.
Post-production
Most of the gore was done with practical effects, with CGI only used for touch-ups. The filmmakers considered the use of visual effects to de-age Bell and Smith due to the 17-year gap between their appearances in Saw III, in which their characters both died, and Saw X. However, they decided against it; Greutert expressed his support for this decision, saying that "some of the films that have de-aged their actors, it puts some distance between the character and the audience," feeling that Bell and Smith have some emotional close-ups that should not be altered.Steve Forner, the film's first assistant editor, had local police called on him during an editing session involving sound design of the custodian's trap. According to Greutert, Forner was working on the scene in his office when the police knocked on the door, citing neighbors' concerns of someone being "tortured to death" inside: "And was like, 'Actually, I'm just working on a movie. You can come in and see it if you want.' The cops started laughing. They said, 'We want to, but, you know, you're all right.' It must have been a pretty realistic performance".
Release
Marketing
On September 9, 2023, Lionsgate announced the return of the Saw Blood Drive, a promotional event allowing audiences to donate blood to the American Red Cross in exchange for free tickets to the opening weekend of Saw X.On September 13, 2023, a parody of the Nicole Kidman AMC Theatres commercial was published to YouTube and to Lionsgate's social media platforms. It featured a remote-controlled Billy the Puppet on a tricycle in place of Kidman, with some changes to reflect the graphic nature of Saw. While the parody was met with humorous responses by news outlets, it was pulled from Lionsgate's accounts due to a cease and desist order by AMC Theatres.