The city of Saw is characterized by an overabundance of abandoned warehouses and sickly green-tinted hospitals, scored by the constant buzz of power tools and nu-metal. Its simultaneously filthy and sterile atmosphere begins to become pleasantly familiar once you survive to the fifth or so entry: the kicking in of Charlie Clo’s instantly recognizable theme ‘Hello Zepp’, the last-minute plot twists, the relentless flashbacks to events that we witnessed just ten minutes prior. This tried-and-true formula has been an undeniable success, as Saw X marks the long-running horror franchise’s tenth installment.

Set between the events of Saw and Saw II, the latest film slows its usually frenetic pacing down to fully flesh out its leading character, John Kramer (Tobin Bell). John is more commonly referred to as his more archetypal alter-ego, Jigsaw, which Saw X aims to remedy. There’s a man behind the spiral-cheeked, scarlet-eyed puppet, and he’s on a mission to civilize, albeit via unconventional methods. Specifically, torturous ultimatums that force you to choose between your life and, say, high-powered vacuum tubes sucking your eyeballs out of their sockets.

You see, John has terminal brain cancer, and engineering ultraviolent puzzles designed to test the wills to live of those he deems ungrateful is, understandably, how he copes. A group of scammers in Mexico City discover this the hard way when they pretend to perform expensive experimental brain surgery on John: “You kill with false hope,” he sneers at his latest victims as they struggle in their hand-tailored traps.

To pull off an explosive ending, there needs to be a compelling catalyst. To do this, Saw X does something completely different from the majority of its nine predecessors: it elongates its runtime, pacing itself in order to establish its emotional stakes. “In order to honor Tobin's character as much as we wanted to in this film, we did have to slow it down,” says Greutert. While editing the first Saw, he and director James Wan “talked often about the idea of ‘Never be boring’, which sounds obvious, but … I think we try harder than the average film to make sure that it moves. Every cut that I make, there’s a really strong reason behind it, even if it’s a very short clip, which it usually is in a Saw movie.”

He continues: “The whole first act is [about] getting deep into his shoes. I tried to really make it feel like an odyssey for him, coming down to Mexico.” Shooting the film on location in Mexico City is another first for the franchise, as the anonymity of its previous setting helped to dislocate its horrors from reality, while also implying that Jigsaw could lurk virtually anywhere.

“The bulk of the movie was shot in an abandoned glass factory in a really gnarly industrial part of Mexico City—no electricity, no plumbing, nothing in this place,” says Greutert. “One advantage we had, even though it wasn't a true soundstage, was we were able to cover it on the outside so that we could pretend like it was nighttime. There were some times we were there all night, but mostly we were able to do day for night and that kind of saved our bacon, especially since Tobin doesn’t need to be up all night for weeks on end.”

New characters are also thrown into the mix, including the manipulative mastermind behind the entire operation, Dr. Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund). Casting Cecilia was crucial, as Bell was concerned that audiences would think of John as “being stupid for getting conned,” explains Greuert. “One of our big concerns before making the film was making sure that John Kramer still seems like a really smart guy,” he continues. “In the past films, he's utterly infallible, right? In this, there’s a little bit of fail on his part, so [Cecilia] had to not only seem incredibly smart, but also very empathetic, somebody who you would trust your life with. We needed somebody who, once you learn a little bit more about what’s going on, you totally believe that she’s that person as well.”

Greutert discovered Lund via the Norwegian fantasy series Ragnarok, immediately recognizing her as “perfect” for the role. “I hired her based on her acting ability, but she turned out to be an incredible trooper and a great presence,” he says. “She’s over six feet tall, like a foot taller than me, or at least it feels that way … [She’s] a really gentle, thoughtful soul.”

On the topic of gentle, thoughtful souls… Fan favorite Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) is back. This isn’t a spoiler, as she’s shown in the first theatrical teaser: when I attended the trailer’s premiere at Midsummer Scream in August, the most zealous shrieks of the event were provoked by a character’s removal of the infamous Pighead mask, revealing Jigsaw’s most iconic apprentice—and, previously, the only known survivor of his traps—to be underneath. “Amanda Young really is the people’s princess,” many reviews celebrating the Saw saga’s number one scream queen.

I bring this up because it is one of the few traps that Greutert and I agree we could both escape. “Well, specifically with the angel trap, I would take that beaker from the bottom and pour out the acid,” he says. “But I don’t know; I have a pretty hard time with blood. Honestly, I think I would out in almost any Saw trap situation, I would die if I even started at all … I think a lot of us, myself included, would just be like, ‘All right, you got me, Jigsaw. Get it over with. You don’t even need the timer.’”

Each of Jigsaw’s agonizing puzzles proffers a “metaphorical connection to the sins of the character”, according to Greutert. These “sins” can range from denying health insurance coverage for suffering patients (Saw VI) to using your nepo baby privilege for evil (Saw V) to, um, stealing three dollars (Jigsaw). Nevertheless, John maintains that he’s never actually killed anyone; they kill themselves by failing his tests.

“Well, let’s just say that he’s prone to self-delusion at times,” Greutert diplomatically replies when I ask if he truly believes that John is a killer despite the character’s claims otherwise. “I’m trying to be as respectful to Tobin’s intentions as I can,” he elaborates. “Tobin’s intentions are the reason we’re here today. He’s the one that keeps us true to what we’re all about. You’d be surprised how easy it is to stray and think, ‘Oh, if we just do this…’ and he’d be like, ‘No, John Kramer would never do that. He’d never say that. He’d never believe that.’”

One final example of Bell’s dedication to John Kramer: “You will not hear Tobin, unless he slips up, call it a trap,” says Greutert. “And he would never call a participant a ‘victim’. He prefers ‘tests’ and ‘subjects’, and I think that's correct. You’re not necessarily going to die because you're in one of these challenges—you’re going to be challenged, not murdered … He would feel very bad if somebody called him a murderer; we’ve seen that.”

Be careful with your wording in your Letterboxd reviews, or you may just become one of Jigsaw’s next test subjects for the (hopefully) impending Saw XI.