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Julie Guerrero

ENGL 1301-115

Prof. Sharity Nelson

11 October 2023

Saw X movie poster analysis

A dark, jet-black background with the infamous Jigsaw face glaring back at the viewer.

At first glance, this movie poster is just Jigsaw’s face with a little malicious grin. Once taken a

deeper look, Jigsaw’s face is made up of human limbs: arms, forearms, legs, and feet. They are

all bent in order to construct his features. Two elbows bent at a ninety-degree angle create the

sides of his nose. His red swirly cheeks are his multiple victim’s hands and arms. Jigsaw’s lower

face is made up of fisted hands, recreating his puppet-like chin. His eyes being red gears. Saw X,

known for its iconic Jigsaw puppet, is a part of a horror film franchise. The human limbs, red

tint, and gears in this visual text are used to symbolize and foreshadow what the film will be

about.

The Saw X movie poster consist of only three simple colors, black, grey, and red.

Although to one might seem like just any other colors, these specific ones were chosen to add on

to the gore of the movie. The black and grey are used to cast the shadowy, dark, and sinister-like

feel to the film. The red in Jigsaws’s eyes and mouth symbolize the blood of his victims.

Through-out the Saw film series, there are multiple torture machines that were created by John

Kramer, the man behind the Jigsaw doll. He constructed a “game”, being torture machines, in

which his victims were supposed to “play” in in exchange for their freedom. To survive they had
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to mutalate their limbs off their body to escape and be let go from their machine. The choice of

color scheme adds on to the sinister visuals of the image.

To continue, as previously mentioned, Jigsaw’s face is the only thing visible on the movie

poster, despite him being a full puppet with a body. He is made up of his, what is assumed to be,

his victim’s limbs. Jigsaw is the forefront of a murderous man that is the “karma” of bad people.

His victims are specific indiviuals who have wronged other people. In this specific series, John

Kramer, or Jigsaw, is battling brain cancer and is promised a second chance at life. Of course,

everything comes with a price and in this case it was thousands of dollars. His “surgeons” and

“doctors” were all scam artists who had tricked dying patients out of their money, including him.

After finding out the truth, Jigsaw hunts down the crooks and seeks for revenge. He sets them in

torture devices, in which they have to perform surgeries on themselves. By either cutting, or

sawing their limbs off. Such as their arms or legs. Which is why it can be inferred that the human

body part’s making up Jigsaw’s face in the poster belong to his victim’s.

In addition, in the movie poster, Jigsaw’s eyes consists of two gears, one on each eye.

This is due to the torture machines John Kramer creates in specific for his victims. Through the

film series, there are new and more gory tools used to complete the victim’s tasks for survival.

To be specific, one gruesome scene from this movie was when it was the “surgeons” turn to

complete his task. He had two minutes to remove a part of his brain and drop it into a solution

which would dissolve it and open a box with a key to set him free. If failed, a trap would set off

closing a hot mask on his face, burning him to death. All while being recorded. Whcih is why

Jigsaw’s eyes are made up of two gears. He watches to make sure everything goes to his sinister

plan.
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All in all, Saw X is known for its spine-chilling, gory tactical machines, which is why

they used these specific visual features. It is common for movies of this horror genre to use

similar imagery, in order to entice the audience. The movie poster is just as significant as the

movie itself, it is what reels the viewers in. The graphics excites the fandom of this gruesome

film series, because it’s what is expected from the Saw franchise. The gore and sinisterness of the

movie is all implemented on the poster itself with the help of the color scheme and detailing on

Jigsaw’s face.
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Appendix