Posted in: Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Kevin Greutert, lionsgate, saw, saw x, Saw X Junket, tobin bell

Saw X Director Says Tobin Bell Is "The Godfather of Saw at This Point"

Director Kevin Greutert says that star Tobin Bell is "the godfather of Saw" who "puts his heart and soul" into this performance. Saw X is in theaters now.

If you spoke to any fans of the Saw franchise, they would tell you that things weren't ever quite the same after John Kramer, played by Tobin Bell, left the series. It was always inevitable because the character was dying from the moment we met him, and it was likely that no one expected the first movie to blow up the way it did or for the franchise to have this much gas in the tank so many years later. There is only so much you can do when a character dies, and in the case of Saw X, they decided it was time to explore the period of time between movies. This decision not only meant that John Kramer was returning but also because of the way this story was framed and written; it was also the most Bell has been on screen when he wasn't just a fake corpse lying on the ground for the entire runtime. To have Kramer around in such a direct way is very different from how the franchise has approached things in the past. When we got to speak to Saw X director Kevin Greutert, we asked what it was like having Bell so present this time, and he could not praise Bell enough.

"Well, it was it was a huge asset from the beginning and all the way through the end of post-production to have Tobin Bell so involved," Greutert explained. "He really put his heart and soul into the performance, into the writing of the script, and just into the philosophy of Saw. He's the he's the gatekeeper. He's the one who makes sure that we're not getting sloppy with what John Kramer would or would not do. So he's the godfather of Saw at this point."

Saw X production designer Anthony Stabley also praised Bell and talked about how involved he would be when it came to the traps, saying, "He was great with us in the art department because we would walk through the sets, and he would say, "Oh, I'd like to have this in my hands" and "I would like to do this," and we'd like to cover some of these traps so we don't really see them," he explained. "There is an art to horror because we show certain bits of information, and we hold back certain bits of information. And then for Kevin, you know, we love to have that big reveal. So there's so much fun to it, you know, And he was great, Tobin. Awesome." Yesterday, we heard from both Stabley and Greutert about staging and framing of the traps, comparing them to Broadway. As a fan of the Hannibal show, there is absolutely an art to horror; it's just a matter of finding the right flavor of horror in your specific palette.

Saw X: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most chilling installment of the SAW franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's personal game. 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, John returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through a series of ingenious and terrifying traps.

Saw X, directed by Kevin Greutert, stars Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, Michael Beach, Octavio Hinojosa, Paulette Hernández, and Joshua Okamoto. It will be released on September 29th.

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