Those looking forward to seeing Saw X in theaters next month would do well to understand that this won’t be another 90-minute horror adventure. In fact, according to director Kevin Greutert, the tenth entry in the long-running series is actually going to be the longest installment yet. Plan accordingly.
The filmmaker made the reveal at this year’s Midsummer Scream (per The Direct), where Lionsgate had a pretty big showing for Saw X, which recently debuted its first trailer online. During a panel at the event, Greutert revealed that, while they aren’t aiming to waste anyone’s time, this will indeed be longer than any of the other nine movies that came before it.
"There's so much more to this film than even the amazing amount that was there. I can say it's the most epic, and this might sound scary, but I think it's the longest Saw movie," Greutert said. "We don't waste. When we're editing a Saw movie, we do not waste time. So the fact that it's long, I think, is a testament to just how well done it is."
Greutert did not elaborate on just how long the movie will be, but it’s not exactly a difficult record to break, relatively speaking. The current record-holder is 2006’s Saw III, which clocks in at 1 hour and 48 minutes. As the filmmaker explained, these are not movies that linger, and most of them have been in the hour-and-a-half range. So even pushing two hours would be quite a bit more time with Jigsaw than audiences are accustomed to at this point.
This will be the first entry in the franchise since 2021's Spiral: From the Book of Saw, which actually attempted to move away from Tobin Bell's John Kramer. For this installment, we're taking a trip back in time, as the new film is actually set between the events of Saw and Saw II, which is how Jigsaw is coming back even though he's been canonically dead since the ending of Saw III. While there are sure to be plenty of surprises in store, the official synopsis reads as follows:
“Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer – only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through devious, deranged, and ingenious traps.”
Saw X hits theaters on September 29.
