One of the reasons I like Valentina from Saw X so much is because I think honestly for a period of the movie- I feel the most bad for her.
Right before she's kidnapped, Valentina is literally in the midst of fighting off an attempted sexual assault. The only reason she was able to get out of that was due to Amanda smashing the car window and by proxy hitting Valentina's attacker. You'd rather Amanda have showed up when she did than some minutes later.... Yet Valentina goes from one highly traumatising situation to the next as she's then dragged out of the car and knocked out.
She's a sex worker and it's not a shocking line of work for her due to the fact that everyone who is a part of the scam besides Cecilia and possibly Parker are struggling financially. Valentina is doing whatever she can really to gain any sort of income, which we can only assume is just to get by as there is no mention of her funding something such as a substance issue like Gabriela.
This to me is almost... Realistic horror? The horror of the world let's say. It's not the gore or torture, it's the fact that this woman is turning to either amoral or unsafe places to support herself. I'll also state here that I have no issues whatsoever with sex work and that you don't always have to be struggling money wise for it to be where you source your income! However, it's very well known and documented that almost all forms of sex work can take advantage of people in a number of ways. Valentina isn't the only sex worker in Saw either, there is Addison Corday who was also a prostitute and then we have Brenda who was a pimp.
Anyway, I think Valentina day to day would've always been aware of possible violence against her... But just the same as being a member of the scam, it was a risk she had to take for the money. What she could have never expected was being put in a death contraption where her only way of avoiding having her head cut off was sawing her own leg off instead. Oh, she also needed to collect the bone marrow out of said leg in I believe it was 3 minutes overall?
It gets better though! EVEN IN DEATH, HER BODY IS STILL BEING USED. First Cecilia disembowels Valentina and uses her intestines as a rope. Then as a decoy to distract Parker, Amanda uses Valentina's severed head.
CANNOT CATCH A BREAK. Not to mention the fact that even though sure she was successful in removing her leg and starting the extraction of the bone marrow... Valentina realised she was still fucked. Impending doom as she watches her time go down and there is nothing she can do to speed the process up.
(ADD ON: I also believe that her trap shows everyone else the reality of the situation they're in. She's the first to be tested among them and in that way she's like the guinea pig or even the lamb to the slaughter. I feel for a while there is this atmosphere of disbelief which is shared between all of them and when Valentina's head comes off that's when chaos really erupts. Your life truly is on the line.... And if you don't win your test? You'll end up like her.)
Another thing we discuss with feeling pity for characters and etc is age. With Gabriela she's early 20s for example... Paulette HernĆ ndez (Valentina's Actor) is 34 now and I always viewed the character as early 30s- THAT IS YOUNG. SHE WAS STILL A YOUNG WOMAN.
To end this off because it is just rambling. I think her trap is my favourite from Saw X and I know that's a common opinion. I love the practical effects and the overall set up of it.
I feel as though this one is very well up there into being one of the most iconic Saw traps? I think it's memorable for all the right reasons and Paulette gave an amazing performance alongside that.
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