LE MONDE'S OPINION - WHY NOT

If it had ended with a movie named Saw 6 (homonymous with saucisse, sausage in French, 2009), the franchise would have said its last word on its philosophy: Human barbecuing, the dismemberment of bodily integrity, the pleasure of both showing and seeing suffering inflicted – in short, the spectacle of sadism in its most barbarous form, even under fictional license. But it was not to be. The saga has been claiming victims for 20 years now, in the wake of James Wan's first feature-length film (Saw, 2004), which laid the foundations for this sub-genre of horror films, aptly named torture porn. Based on a concept whose strength lay in its simplicity – a series of torture scenes inflicted by a psychopath on a small group of people he has trapped – it was an instant success that quickly elevated the saga to horror film nirvana.

As a quick reminder, John Kramer, aka Jigsaw, has a fatal brain tumor and uses the time he has left to discipline sinners through trials they have little chance to escape. A kind of Puritan, in short, who inflicts on his victims abuses far more terrifying than the faults he charges them with. Kramer dies in the third installment, but other protagonists carry on the tradition. This tenth volume, however, takes us back to the beginning of the saga, somewhere between the first and second films, by bringing back two of its inaugural characters, John Kramer (Tobin Bell) and Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), one of his first victims who, enchanted by the experience, ends up becoming his disciple.

The festivities of this tenth episode take place in Mexico City and under the ominous invocation of the Aztec gods. Kramer comes here after meeting one of the members of his discussion group for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients who miraculously seems to be in total remission. He gives him the address of a Norwegian doctor, Dr. Pederson, who came up with a revolutionary treatment that forces him into hiding because of the danger it represents for pharmaceutical companies. Treated by the doctor's daughter with the help of the best professionals in the field, Kramer is operated on in a wealthy hacienda before discovering that the whole affair is a scam preying on distressed patients.

This, of course, is where the festivities begin: Kramer, assisted by Amanda, kidnaps the pseudo-medical team that has swindled him and inflicts the usual "game," consisting of lethal contraptions that force victims to severely self-mutilate within a very limited timeframe if they want to survive. On today's menu: legs cut off with saws, ankles blown off with mallets, flesh carved with razors, skulls opened, cerebellum punctured, intestines eviscerated, faces burned with rays, heads sliced off. Greenish atmosphere, disused industrial buildings, steel instruments. While the tricks occasionally recall sardonic grand-guignol humor, the film gets mired in an overarching sense of discomfort.

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