If there’s one thing the Saw franchise is known for, it’s having some truly shocking and creative kills. At a time when the horror genre was constantly trying to one-up itself with gore and skin-curdling ways to kill people, this is the movie series that swept nearly all competition to the side and took the spotlight for most of the ’00s. The newest entry Saw X is just around the corner and promises to bring fans back to that age of complicated traps and victims who need to make terrible choices. That makes it a great time to look back at some of the best traps and goriest kills the franchise has brought horror fans thus far.
The Saw 2 Iron Maiden Mask
The iron maiden, which is to say the mythical medieval execution contraption and not the legendary metal band, is an icon when it comes to bloody imagery from human history. It’s an object that has been all but debunked when it comes to proof that they were actually used in the Middle Ages, but that didn’t stop Saw 2 from doing its own mask-sized variation to horrifying effect.
The Saw 3 Rib Remover
What’s worse than a trap that involves sticking a hand into a jar of acid to get a key? A trap that has that, followed by the key not even working, which results in every single rib being violently torn out of the body all at once. This is Saw close to as mean-spirited as it can possibly get when there’s not even a chance of making it out alive.
The Saw 3 Limb Twister
Viewers who are particularly squeamish about broken bones will definitely want to avert their eyes through the Saw 3 trap that sees its victim’s limbs slowly and helplessly twisted like an apple stem. It’s one of those kills that viewers can viscerally feel down to their very core, which is what makes it as thrilling as it is terrible to watch.
The Saw 4 Ice Smasher
Saw tends to relish in how slowly it can off a character through a convoluted and terrifyingly painful process. That makes it all the more exciting when it occasionally lets go and takes out someone with lightning speed, like the head-crushing of Eric Matthews between two large blocks of ice in Saw 4.
The Saw 5 Compactor Room
The ending scene in Saw 5 is essentially an answer to any fans who curiously questioned what would have happened to Luke Skywalker and the gang in A New Hope if the trash compactor hadn’t been stopped. The end result is not something the claustrophic will likely be too keen to revisit.
The Saw 6 Meat Race Opener
The opening of Saw 6 is one of the only times Jigsaw has proposed a game and it’s actually been a competitive game. The rules are simple, whoever donates the most meat doesn’t receive the lobotomy of the century. The result is a brutal display of self-mutilation that shows how effective a Saw trap can be purely through its rules.
The Saw 6 Shotgun Carousel
Ask any Saw fan about the best traps of the series and it’s guaranteed that the Shotgun Carousel will come up almost every time. It’s just hard to forget the intensity and second-hand fear stoked by a machine that is almost guaranteed to put a point-blank hole into whoever it stops on. It’s the worst game of Duck Duck Goose ever conjured up.
The Saw 7 Rube Goldberg
Saw 7, also known as Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, isn’t considered a fan favorite among most, but it does have one of the best scenes in the series with its Rube Goldberg garage trap. This scene is one of the best for a few reasons. One, the scene stars Chester Bennington of Linkin Park fame. Two, the scene’s trap is as gory and complicated as it is brutal, exciting, and borderline hilarious to watch. Three, there have been many sympathetic victims of terrifying Saw traps in the past, but a group of skinhead nazis isn’t among them. It’s definitely a highlight.
The Saw 7 Brazen Bull
If the rib remover trap from Saw 3 is the franchise approaching as mean-spirited as it gets, the brazen bull trap takes a leap way over the line beyond cruelty and punishment. Not only is the brazen bull one of the cruelest and most agonizing ways to kill someone, but the trap isn’t even utilized on a character viewers would want to see it kill, just the innocent wife of the film’s main trap escapee. It’s insanely brutal, and undoubtedly up there with the Saw kills that will never fully depart from the minds of those who witnessed.
The Saw 7 Successful Reverse Bear Trap
The reverse bear trap is one of the first horrifying contraptions ever introduced to the Saw franchise, and the only one that was shown multiple times without a single successful display of its killing power. Thankfully, Saw 7 gives curious viewers a full display of what the terrible trap is truly capable of, and it’s exactly as bad as it always seemed.
