It’s a good time to be a horror fan, as the genre has been experiencing a renaissance for a number of years now. The genre is known fot long-running franchises, with many of the best horror movies returning to theaters with reboots or new sequels. That inclues the Saw franchise, which brought back franchise villain Tobin Bell with its latest installment. And Saw X’s director recently admitted “there is regret” over killing off Jigsaw earlier in the franchise. Seriously, the Saw franchise’s timeline is a lot.
The main antagonist of the Saw franchise is John Kramer aka Jigsaw, played to pitch perfection by actor Tobin Bell. But he was actually killed off back in the third movie, with Saw IV opening on his autopsy. Still, the franchise has continued for years, writing around Kramer’s death via flashbacks and apprentices. Saw X director Kevin Greutert was asked by THR if the powers that be regret killing Jigsaw off so early for this reason, and he responded honestly by offering:
I think there is regret. (Laughs.) It would just be a lot easier to make these films if that hadn’t happened, but at the same time, the first three were largely considered the best of the Saw series. There was a kind of integrity, I think, to really trying to make a trilogy and nothing more. And decisively killing the character off, that integrity, as it was perceived at the time at least, was pretty important in making the story great. But the fact that more movies had to be made, we did the best that we could, and in some cases, it was pretty great to do it through flashbacks and all that. But yeah, there’s definitely a lot of desire to have not killed him off.
Points were made. It looks like the Saw franchise (which is streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription) was originally intended to be a trilogy, rather than a franchise without any real ending. If that’s how it went down then it would have been fitting to see John Kramer perish. But instead there’s been a ton more movies produced, the tenth movie was recently released. Whats more, Saw X has even being praised as the best in the franchise.
While Chris Rock’s Spiral didn’t include Tobin Bell, every other installment of the long-running franchise has found creative ways to bring John Kramer into the story… despite his death back in Saw III. This was done rather seamlessly for Saw X, which was a prequel set in between the events of the first and second film. We’ll just have to see if another sequel comes, and when it’s set on the timeline.
Saw III wasn’t the only time that the gory property was expected to end its run in theaters, only for more movies to be produced. 2010’s Saw 3D was subtitled The Final Chapter, and there were a number of years without a new movie hitting theaters. But Jigsaw arrived in 2017, and there’s been two more installments since then.
Saw X is still playing in theaters now. Be sure to check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.