John Kramer aka Jigsaw is first and foremost a murderer. The real question is, why does he kill? We all know the serial killer hunts down his victims for a reason: to make them learn the ‘real’ lesson behind the importance of valuing life.
As per his conditions, he sets up tests and ingenious traps to ‘train’ his victims in getting rid of, what Jigsaw perceives to be, their vices.
The entire Saw franchise timeline revolves around the horrifically gore-filled tactics Jigsaw set up for his victims, and with Saw X coming right around the corner, here’s a list of the top 10 best traps in Saw’s movie history!
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Saw III: Classroom Trap
Amanda Young has been taken in as Jigsaw’s apprentice since she survived her trap in the franchise, and The Classroom Trap is one of her sample works.
While most of John Kramer’s common traps have been programmed to be escapable, Amanda has ensured that hers wouldn’t be easy to escape from.
That said, the chains are entirely attached to Troy’s vital areas in his body and the only way to escape is by literally pulling on the chains, which would lead to his inevitable death either way.
Saw II: Needle Pit
A drug addict or not, anyone with a fear of needles would have to skip this one.
One of the most prominent character tropes shown in the Saw franchise is drug addicts (perhaps stemming from when Jigsaw lost his first child and marriage to one) and Saw II proves that the slasher films also prove to be psychologically horrific.
The group is stuck inside a house that is threatening to get pumped with toxic nerve gas unless they find the key in the Needle Pit before time runs out.
Saw 3D: Horsepower Trap
This trap involves a group of people who have only one lone hope of surviving this test, and that is the man who has been glued to the car seat.
While his other friends have been hooked and barb-wired under the car, the ‘driver’ should literally pull himself apart just to pull the lever on time to save his friends from their imminent death.
Saw VI: Shotgun Carousel
Perhaps one of the most ethical-based traps of all Saw movies, Saw VI’s Shotgun Carousel is navigated by an Insurance worker who must choose to save only two out of six ‘contestants’ from staring at their life down a shotgun barrel.
No one can cheat out of this one, considering that the victims are chained on the carousel, with only one person in charge of leaving two alive from Jigsaw’s game.
The only way for the victims to get ‘chosen’ to live is by laying down their arguments on why they deserve to live.
Saw IV: Knife Chair
Although not as brain-wracking as the others, the Knife Chair remains one of the most satisfying traps, since this is where John began his work before going off to become Jigsaw.
It’s also nothing to sneeze at, no matter the simplicity of the ‘trap’ since, to John, this is Cecil’s repentance for ‘accidentally’ killing his firstborn and for being the root cause of his marriage’s eventual failure.
Saw 3D: Public Execution Trap
Jigsaw decided to go public for once with this trap, depicting the terrors of being a helpless bystander amidst the chaos. Stuck in a love triangle, Ryan and Brad are set up as though they’re meant as a form of entertainment for public spectacle.
Saw IV: Mausoleum Trap
One victim has his eyes sown shut, while the other has his mouth, the two ‘players’ must find a way to communicate with each other to escape the trap.
In this game, two collars connect them to one another, which limits their way of being too far away from their cellmate.
The only way out, however, would only benefit the one who can’t even speak, as the key is attached to the collar on the blind one’s, which would unlock the padlock wrapped around his neck.
Saw V: Glass Coffin
As much as Agent Strahm was close enough to catch Hoffman red-handed in being Jigsaw’s apprentice in his traps, he made one crucial mistake that ended up losing his life and traces of evidence behind his death forever.
Fooled into thinking that the trap involved locking Hoffman (or the victim intended) inside the glass coffin, as it turned out, it was going to be the only way out. Once the walls started closing in on Strahm, he lost the game.
Saw III: The Rack
Saw III’s The Rack Trap captures the soul of the Saw franchise of being a gore slasher film collection.
Chained into a rack, Timothy Young, the drunk driver who ended up accidentally killing protagonist Jeff Denlon’s son, can only escape once Jeff gets the key from a rigged shotgun.
The entire film would be far too disturbing to watch as the excruciating torture happens the longer Jeff has had to retrieve the key. Viewers would be forced to listen to Timothy screaming in pain as the rack twists his limbs and his head as part of his punishment.
Saw: Reverse Bear Trap
The most iconic trap shown in the Saw franchise is the reverse bear trap. Programmed to test Jigsaw’s apprentices, the Reverse Bear Trap was designed to pull the victim’s jaws apart once the timer expires.
Amanda Young has had to escape this by fishing out the key from her dead cellmate’s intestines, which she ended up doing successfully, officially making her worthy of being one of Jigsaw’s apprentices.
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