Saw X Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

3. John Kramer Gets Fleshed Out

John Kramer is so much more than just a maniac in a hood, with a toy puppet, and an obsession with physically-deforming traps... Okay, sure, he's unhinged, but this instalment of blood and mania shows us more of the man behind the manslaughter.

Taking the little snatches of Kramer's life and miseries offered up by the other films and running with them, Saw X seeks to put more meat on the character's bones as he faces his final months on Earth.

And, do you know what? It works. From the outset we are embedded in his perspective, seeing an intensely vulnerable, caring and trusting side to him that the other films only hinted at. Kramer is warm, he's tender, he's desperate for a second-chance, and in the most tragic of ways this causes the typically cold and calculating mastermind to stumble.

Kramer's morality has long been in question, but X adds to the character's worldview while further clouding our judgements of him. The result is as personal a movie as something featuring scooped brains and vacuumed eyes can possibly be. And seeing him on the back foot more than once throughout the film only compounds our moral qualms.