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The Best Twists in the Saw Franchise

This soap-opera-esque franchise is home to a bunch of shocking twists. So, here are the best twists in the Saw franchise.

Mostly known for its gruesome deaths and terrifying traps, the series also gained a name for itself for its genius twists. The Saw franchise, is among one of the most successful horror franchises of all time, and fans cannot get enough. With nine movies in the series, the Saw franchise is often referred to as a soap-opera, for its long-running story, tremendous amount of flashbacks, and some very interesting twists and turns.

Cementing itself as a great stand-alone horror movie, Saw was a ground-breaking entry into the horror genre, mostly due to its terrifying kills; the likes of which we had never seen. However, it was the genius and shocking twist that made Saw one of the best and scariest movies of the 2000s. Saw’s success kick-started an entire franchise, delivering many more terrifying and brutal kills, along with mostly shocking twists, while some felt a little lackluster and predictable, but that’s only in comparison to the other incredible twists in the franchise. So with that, here are the best twists in the Saw franchise.

They Were All Supposed to Survive the Game. Saw V

Saw V focuses its main game on five victims who are all at first seemingly strangers. But after they start getting picked off one-by-one, it is soon revealed that they are all here for the same reason. This then leads to the final trap, where the final two victims must give 10 pints of blood, which is approximately the same amount of blood in the human body. To make things even harder, they had to do this in under 15 minutes.

The victims soon realize that this game was a test, and that they all could have survived each trap, if they had only helped each other, and had not been selfish. This is essentially why they are all being tested. While this twist isn’t necessarily the most shocking in the franchise, it certainly feels fresh. It was somewhat unique seeing a trap about teamwork, where if they had all worked together, none of them would have died, and the victims would barely have a scratch on any of them. But, due to their selfishness, they all perished one-by-one, before the final two were forced to push their hands through a spinning saw blade to give 5 pints of blood each. This results in the blade slicing through their hands and arms, from between the webs of their fingers, and horrifically all the way to their elbow, in a grizzly and painful trap.

Amanda‘s Test. Saw III

Saw III mostly centers around Jeff’s test, but in typical Jigsaw fashion, Jeff wasn’t the only one being tested. As it was revealed in Saw II, Amanda Young is Jigsaw’s apprentice, helping Jigsaw build and design the traps, as well as kidnap his victims. Amanda first appeared in the first movie, wearing the iconic reverse bear trap around her head. But, since surviving, Jigsaw (John Kramer) took Amanda under his wing and named her his apprentice, to carry on John’s life’s work.

While this was a good idea at first, things soon took a turn for the worse. Amanda would build inescapable traps, like the angel trap, that was built for Detective Allison Kerry. Jigsaw has always had rules, and states that his games are “fair”. But as sadistic as that may sound, he does have rules that Amanda doesn’t follow. By making the traps inescapable, Amanda hasn’t given the test subjects a fair chance at surviving. This leads to John creating a test for Amanda, to follow the rules and grant someone the gift of life. Amanda‘s test intertwines with Jeff’s test in a genius way, and by not freeing Jeff’s wife, Lynn, after she had successfully removed the tumor from John Kramer’s head, Amanda shoots Lynn in the back and in turn fails her test.

While this twist wasn’t the most shocking in the franchise, it was our first taste at seeing John Kramer test those who were close to him. This twist raised the stakes of these movies, making no-one safe and everyone susceptible to being tested by Jigsaw, even his own apprentices.

That is Not William Easton’s Family. Saw VI

The sixth entry in the Saw franchise was a return to form. Brutal and creative traps, alongside a shocking twist, made Saw VI one of the best films in the franchise. The film follows William Easton, a Health Insurance Executive, who has denied many dying patients’ health insurance, including John Kramer himself. William also denied health insurance to Harold Abbott, a cardiac patient who had a previous condition that Harold never told William’s company. Later on in the film, we find out that Harold died, because he was denied health insurance by William, which is a very important fact to keep in mind during the movie.

Throughout the film, we see a mother and a son trapped in a cage, with a lever connected to a vat of acid. Alongside them in the opposite cage, is a female reporter trapped because she has exploited Jigsaw’s message for her own benefit. Her cage is also fitted with a very similar vat of acid. It is never explained what this lever does until the end of the film, but we assume it is connected to the other person’s cage. It is later revealed that the reporter is in fact his sister, and the mom and son are the family of Harold Abbott. Jigsaw then appears on an old TV and asks Harold’s family if they will kill William or let him live, like he did to Harold. Angrily the mother rushes to the lever, ready to pull it, but she hesitates and can’t do it. This is when the son rushes in and pulls the lever without thinking otherwise.

We didn’t see this twist coming, as we assumed the mother and son were in fact William’s family, and it was absolutely shocking when the son decided to kill William in one of the most brutal deaths in the series.

Full Circle Flashback: ‘Saw II’ and ‘Saw III’ Solidify The Franchise

When Saw hit theaters in 2004, something none of the creators expected happened: it was a roaring success. Grossing over 100 million on a budget in the ballpark of 1 million, Lionsgate had a bonafide hit on their hands. As such successes are wont to do, Saw immediately spawned a sequel. 8 of them, and still counting. Horror films are no stranger to starting franchises. What’s interesting about Saw as a franchise, however, is just how much the quality persists throughout. The precedent for this is set by two excellent sequels: Saw II and Saw III.

Saw II (2005)

On its surface, Saw doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a sequel. It’s in its tight, compact nature. How do you make a sequel to a movie not very open-ended? In the case of Saw II, it’s molding a movie that doesn’t have anything to do with Saw into a sequel. Screenwriter Darren Lynn Bousman was trying to get his script entitled “The Desperate” made. Lionsgate saw the script’s similarities to Saw and had Leigh Whannell mold it into Saw II, with Bousman hired to direct. The results? Seamless.

Saw II is better than the original in every conceivable way due to two main factors: elevation and refinement. The former comes from a far more ambitious plot structure. A new group, including previous Jigsaw survivor Amanda Young (a magnetic Shawnee Smith), wake up in a literal household of horrors devised by the mastermind. Meanwhile, Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) captures John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), but he is forced to have a conversation with him in hopes of having his son returned to him, who is in the aforementioned house.

READ: ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’ Review: “An Invigorating Return to Form”

Scenes between Matthews and Jigsaw sizzle off the screen. No longer a faceless threat, Bell gets a lot to work with here. His soft-spoken, frail Jigsaw is made interesting by his lack of malice, his genuine belief in what he’s doing. He’s a twisted mind, sure, yet he genuinely believes he’s making the world a better place. Matthews soon loses himself in the beautiful enigma that is John Kramer. Bousman and Whannell’s screenplay using the first film’s twist as a jumping-off point; exploring the “why” now that we know the “who”. The fractured philosophy of Jigsaw established here is a tenet that will go on to be one of the biggest flagships of the franchise.

Similarly, the other plotline involving the house with the “game players” sets a precedent for the series going forward. The traps are more creative this time around. A furnace containing two antidotes for the poison that is coursing through all their veins and a game of “find the antidote in the pit full of syringes” are notable highlights. Other than Amanda, none of the victims are particularly memorable. It’s their attempts to beat the games, most of which lead to their demise. Here Bousman gets his time to shine.

Like its predecessor, Saw II has a “no fat” approach. In addition to the Matthews/Kramer standoff, the central game moves a fast clip, helped by Kevin Gruetert’s glitchy editing. Each trap is gruesome and hard to watch, though hard to look away from. The color palette has an additional layer of grunge that further develops the “look” of the series. There’s a morbid fascination with seeing how postulating on if one can beat a trap, and it’s thrilling all the way.

Finally, Saw II one-ups the first film with a twist surprising, but under our noses the entire time. It turns that Amanda Young was Jigsaw’s apprentice all along, helping him set up all the games present in the film. As shocking as it is, it all makes sense, and it introduces a concept that will come to define the series: legacy. Speaking of, the legacy Saw II leaves on the franchise is undeniable. It ups the ante, making for a horror that ensures that Saw would have what John Kramer himself needed apprentices to achieve. Longevity.

Saw III (2006)

After the one-two punch of the first two films, Bousman and Whannell came back to finish their trilogy with a bang. Of course, we know this was far from the end. But if this truly were the final chapter of Saw, then it accomplished its goal and then some.

The plot this time around is once again divided into two narratives. The first is that of Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), a doctor who was abducted by Amanda to tend to the dying John Kramer. The second is the story of Jeff (Angus MacFayden), a man grieving the loss of his son to a drunk driver who is put through a series of tests by Jigsaw to see if he can forgive those responsible for his son’s death to a drunk driver.

Jeff’s storyline is where the typical Saw goodness happens. Shrouded in an even more stylized visual palette (lots of greens and yellows!) than the previous films, these are some of the best traps the series has ever come up with. Saving a chained naked woman from freezing to death as water is sprayed on her in a freezer room, trying to free a corrupt judge from a bath of pig’s blood – all are twisted in their own ways. And then of course there’s one of the series’ most gruesome traps: “The Rack”. “The Rack” individually twists each of its victims’ body parts all the way around. It’s as traumatizing as it sounds.

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What makes the traps sing in this film is the connection between them. All related to Jeff, whom Angus MacFayden plays with a captivating instability, there’s a personal stake in each of the traps that feel like they truly test his character to a degree henceforth unseen. Where Jeff’s game falters is in just how gratuitous it is. Saw III is the longest film in the franchise. Too much of that time involves watching the victims of the traps writhe in pain. I’m no puritan, but at a certain point, it becomes a bit too much. Not quite “torture porn” as some critics have claimed; just too much. A dark spot on the otherwise fantastic story following Jeff that unfortunately continues to be a feature of further sequels.

For something a little more intellectually stimulating than visceral, look to the other plot. Let there be no pretense: there is an ultra gory scene of a makeshift surgery on Jigsaw’s brain that is absurdly tense. But that’s not the point. The ailing Jigsaw takes an almost mythological status. He’s someone who people view as a paragon of morality (ironically). Unlike Detective Matthews, Lynn is almost captivated by his words. Almost. It furthers the murky grey waters of morality that the series continues to mine for films to come. Just as well, the concept of legacy sees continual exploration in Amanda.

Amanda is the film’s strongest asset. Shawnee Smith puts on a tough-as-nails front that gives way to a heartbreaking vulnerability. She seeks to find redemption from her previous life as an addict by working with Kramer, yet old wounds continue to open. Smith is consistently watchable, far from just the successor to Jigsaw; she’s a character into herself and the core of the film.

All of these balls in the air, Saw III serves up a pile of twists so sky-high that I’ll just have to rattle them up. Ready? Let’s go. Jeff makes his way to the room where Jigsaw, Amanda, and Lynn are, where we find out that Lynn is his wife. Amanda kills Lynn. Turns out – this was her test from Jigsaw to “save a life” and she failed. Jeff kills Amanda. Jeff kills Jigsaw. Once again, this was a game. Because he was unable to forgive, his living other child is now locked up in an undisclosed location.

It is a Tazmanian Devil tailspin of a finale that, despite its apparent convoluted nature, never feels that way. Instead, it wraps all of the threads up in a positively epic fashion that brings the franchise as we know it to an improbably great close. While not quite as strong as Saw II, Saw III aims to be a tour-de-force and delivers on its lofty ambitions. Now how the hell do you continue after a finale like this? –James Preston Poole

Rating: 8/10

Saw II and Saw III are both available on home video, digital HD, and streaming on HBO Max.

Ranking Saw II Traps

After the first Saw film did so well, it was almost inevitable that there would be a sequel. This one was pushed out roughly a year after the first one and it had a much bigger budget. So this movie has a lot more gore, more traps, and is a lot more fun.

This movie takes place in two locations. One is where the police have captured Jigsaw and are interrogating him. They are able to watch where the game is taking place, which is the second location.

This game takes place in a house with felons and the teenage son of Detective Matthews, who is questioning Jigsaw, is with them Matthews framed a lot of these felons for their various crimes.

The traps were done by Amanda Young and John Kramer.

The Magnum Eye Hole.

I was two minds about even including this trap. I’ve actually decided to omit ‘traps’ where it’s more of a security measure by Jigsaw. But this one actually required someone to pay attention to the rules Jigsaw put in place, so it gets in by a technicality.

Most people aren’t going to look through an eye hole while unlocking a door. So, there was a really low chance that someone would die if the gun went off. Unless there was someone unlucky enough to be standing behind the door while it’s being unlocked.

Although this does set forth the theme of listening to what Jigsaw is saying. Something that pretty much no one actually does through this movie.

The Death Mask.

This trap is the one that opens the movie. It isn’t a bad one by any means, it’s just not terribly memorable. And considering what this person has to do, this should have been an easy win for him.

A man wakes up with what is essentially an iron maiden attached to his head. When the minute is over, it’ll snap close, driving the spikes into his skull and absolutely killing a person.

The key to the device is located behind his eye and he has a scalpel to cut into his eye to remove it. I hate eye stuff but this guy keeps panicking when he gets ready to cut into it before the time is up.

The Razor Box.

Due to Amanda Young revealing that she has turned to self-harming after her original test, this trap was likely meant for her. But they never end up getting that far where Amanda can do it. Instead, one of the other players, they are so desperate for the antidote that she tries to do it.

It’s essentially a box where the syringe is awkwardly placed in the center of the box. The only way to reach into the box is by putting your arm between razors that when you pull down will start cutting the skin.

If the main trap was a better one, the player would have done a lot better at this. The mistakes that she makes are due to the fact that she’s actively dying. She makes a dumb move and pretty much everyone knows how she could have survived if she was more aware.

Saw III. Capturing Adam Setting up the Bathroom Trap || Scene (HD)

The Nerve Gas House.

In theory, this is a great idea. A group of felons and the teenage son of the police officer that framed them, trapped together in an inescapable house. They could have stopped there and it would have been fine. Just having them trapped in the house, trying to go through these traps to get something to get out.

But then there is the added stress of having sarin gas being released throughout the house and poisoning them. They are competing to try and find antidotes that will stop them from dying painful deaths. They have two hours before they die.

Except one person dies before the two hours due strictly to the sarin gas and everyone gets weakened by the poison. It ups the tension but leads to moments like the Razor Box.

The Furnace.

It is revealed in his tape that Obi is the person that helped kidnap a lot of the people in the trap with him. There is a push from the other participants for him to get in the trap and get both antidotes that are inside. He successfully gets the first antidote and that’s when things get bad.

When he pulls down the second antidote, it triggers the door to close behind and the incinerator began to fire up. Before the trap, Obi had been warned “once you’re in hell, only the devil can help you”. We see what this means when there is a red devil pointing to a valve that would have put out the fire.

By the time that Obi sees it, it’s too late for him. Even though the others managed to break into the furnace, they weren’t able to get Obi or the antidotes are. Meaning they got nothing.

The Needle Pit.

This trap was technically meant for the drug dealer, Xavier. He’s the trietary antagonist in the movie and the main one in the trap. He’s really not into the idea of going into the needle pit to find a key himself. That’s a lot of work and he’s a bad person. So, he shoves Amanda into the pit and yells at her to start digging.

It’s difficult to watch because you can tell those are used needles. And we can tell how deeply embedded into Amanda’s skin those needles are. To her credit, she does her best considering where she ended up. She does eventually find the key but it’s too late. The door is closed and the antidote is cut off.

Eric’s Test.

All Eric Matthews had to do was sit in the room and talk to Jigsaw as the game played out. He’s known for his violent tendencies and he’s planted evidence on a lot of the people he has sent to jail. That’s why there’s a lot of pressure on him.

At any second, someone in that room could find out the identity of his son. And they’d understandably be a little upset. In a life or death situation, it’s not looking good for his son.

All he has to do is sit there and listen. And he doesn’t do that. Right before the ending of the game (or, when everyone finds out that the game is replaying, everything has already been done), his son is released into the room that he had been talking to Jigsaw in.

Eric is then bashed and locked into the bathroom trap by Amanda. He doesn’t end up dying, he ends up breaking his foot to escape for a little while. Which leads for him to pop up in a later movie.

And that’s it. I’m glad that this is the direction the series was going in, at least for the next movie. But the multi-trap multi-people is going to become a staple of the series.

Saw: The Untapped Potential of Allison Kerry

The Saw franchise features several characters and protagonists, from David Tapp to Daniel Rigg to Peter Strahm, who seemed to be at the height of consequential story arcs before they were cruelly and gruesomely dispatched by the Jigsaw Killer and his many secret apprentices. It’s no surprise when main characters die almost as quickly as they are introduced in the horror genre, especially in a film series as death-obsessed and blood-thirsty as the Saw franchise, but sometimes those deaths carry significant weight in the story.

I could write dozens of articles about characters I had the misfortune of getting attached to before their untimely demises in the series, and who knows–maybe I will in the future. But the character I wanted to see the most from, and the one I will be writing about today, is Jigsaw expert Allison Kerry.

Played by Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers, Star Trek: Nemesis), Detective Allison Kerry appeared as a supporting character in the first three Saw movies. Kerry dedicated herself to solving the series of bloody murders committed by the Jigsaw Killer, to the point where she becomes a workaholic and loses all contact with her family. Her drive to solve the murders paints her as a worthy adversary to Jigsaw, and it’s not long before Kerry develops an almost intimate understanding of the Jigsaw Killer’s mind and Motus operandi. While she only appeared in a few scenes of the first Saw movie, Kerry returns in the sequel, Saw II, when she works alongside her former partner Eric Matthews after his son is kidnapped and placed into one of Jigsaw’s twisted games.

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Saw II follows Kerry and Matthews as they face Jigsaw, whose real identity is cancer patient John Kramer. While Matthews interrogates Kramer, at Kramer’s own request, Kerry monitors the surveillance screens showing one of Jigsaw’s most recent games, involving Matthews’ son and Jigsaw survivor (and secret apprentice) Amanda Young. While Kerry plays an active role in the film, I would’ve liked to see her have at least one conversation with John Kramer.

Since day one, Kerry’s worked on the Jigsaw murders, and I wanted to see more of a rivalry between the two characters. Kerry matching wits with Kramer makes sense, as she’s been trying to uncover his identity for a few years and has devoted her career to solving his bloody crimes. I have no doubt Kramer is aware of Kerry’s intelligence, and I wished one of the Saw movies would’ve pitted the two in an intellectual battle of wills.

In Saw III, Kerry feels guilty after Matthews goes missing and Kramer escapes from the law with help from Amanda Young. Saw III shows Kerry at her breaking point. She’s exhausted from all the death she finds herself surrounded by, and she’s shaken over the disappearance of Matthews and the revelation of his corruption within the police force. The previous film implies Matthews and Kerry had an affair at one point before going their separate ways, and his disappearance weighs heavily on her. She’s suffered loss after loss and has outlived several of her colleagues, but Matthews hits the hardest.

Nevertheless, Kerry is a professional, and she forces herself to put her feelings aside and continue working on the case.

While investigating the scene of a recent Jigsaw victim, Kerry realizes Kramer isn’t working alone, but she doesn’t yet know about Amanda being the secret apprentice. It seemed that Saw III would push Kerry to the forefront of the plot, but only fifteen minutes into the film, Kerry is abducted by a Jigsaw apprentice and placed in the horrific Angel Trap.

Suspended in the air by two chains, Kerry discovers a harness consisting of twelve metal brackets hooked into her rib cage. Jigsaw appears on the TV screen in front of her and reveals Kerry’s being tested because she was obsessed with work and grew disconnected from the world of the living. Jigsaw informs Kerry she’ll need to retrieve a key submerged in a beaker of acid in front of her. Like a true badass, Kerry plunges her hand into the acid, and while it takes a few tries, she successfully retrieves the key.

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Unfortunately for Kerry, Amanda Young designed the Angel Trap and didn’t share Kramer’s beliefs that everyone in his traps deserved a chance at survival. She purposefully created the trap so it wouldn’t release Kerry, and the determined detective discovers this seconds before the timer expires. Just before her death, Kerry looks up and sees Amanda enter the room, but it’s too late for Kerry, and she’s killed when the timer expires, and the trap tears her ribcage apart.

Amanda Young scene pack (SAW 2)

Kerry was a hard-working detective who dedicated most of her life to solving gruesome crimes, and I easily could’ve seen her emerge from the series as the main protagonist and someone who could face off against Kramer. She was also one of the few decent characters in the franchise who didn’t deserve her test at Amanda’s hands. I would’ve loved to see Kerry return for a few more films and work on uncovering the identities of Jigsaw’s other secret apprentices.

Alas, Allison Kerry was cut down too soon, and while I was sad to see her go, she remains one of my favorite characters of the franchise and a worthy opponent to John Kramer.

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