The SAW films are often seen as horror popcorn films; fun flicks that people flocked to theaters to watch every Halloween during the 2000s. SAW X is continuing that tradition, but whether it will keep up the traditional short runtime is a question.
SAW Movie Runtimes
Most of the SAW films clock in at around an hour and a half.
The runtime for SAW (2004) was 103 minutes (an hour and 43 minutes). SAW II (2005) was even shorter at 93 minutes (an hour and thirty-three minutes). SAW III (2006) ran 108 minutes (an hour and forty-eight minutes), making it the longest of the original films.
SAW IV (2007) was 92 minutes (an hour and thirty-two minutes), as was SAW V (2008). SAW VI (2009) and SAW 3D (2010) remain the shortest of the bunch at 90 minutes exactly (an hour and a half).
Jigsaw (2017) ran 92 minutes (an hour and thirty-two minutes) and the spin-off film Spiral: From the Book of SAW ran 93 minutes (an hour and thirty-three minutes).
This makes the average SAW film about 94.78 minutes or one hour and thirty-four minutes.
However, SAW X (2023) breaks the mold, being almost two hours long (1 hour and 58 minutes).
Why the long runtime?
Hard to tell what they’ll be using all that time for. Perhaps it might be like Jigsaw (2017) and follow two timelines, one being in the past when Jigsaw was alive and one in the present. Maybe they want to give Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith as much screen time as possible. Or maybe they just want to fit in as many gorey traps as possible.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see SAW X to find out.
