It’s time to fetch the corn syrup, as buckets of blood are about to flow again. Saw X is heading to cinemas just in time for Halloween, putting another piece of the, um, jigsaw in place for John Kramer’s legacy. Just two years after Spiral: From the Book of Saw failed to reboot the already ailing series, Billy the Puppet is cycling back into our lives.
With Spiral being its own beast away from the Saw series, Saw X is technically the ninth mainline movie, but it gets even more complicated. Set between the events of the OG Saw and the lauded Saw II, Saw X’s placement in the timeline means it once again brings back series stalwarts Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith–long after their respective characters of John Kramer and Amanda Young perished.
Given 19 years of Saw traps and twists, with more than enough victims to fill a big city morgue, it seems like the perfect time to look back at the 10 best death traps from the torture porn powerhouse. Because, you know, we at Hollywood.com want you to be on the lookout.
Knife Chair (Saw IV)
Some Saw traps make you wince due to their pure simplicity. When it comes to putting yourselves in the victim’s shoes, few traps hit home like Cecil’s (Billy Otis) knife chair from Saw IV. With the victim shackled to a chair, they had to push their face through a grid of eight knives to release their restraints. Talk about a Face-fil-A.
Cecil was a man who’d robbed the Homeward Bound Clinic where Kramer’s wife (Betsy Russell’s Jill Tuck) was working, inadvertently causing her to have a miscarriage and lose their unborn son. Kramer took revenge and strapped Cecil into the knife chair, although he managed to escape. An enraged Cecil tried to kill John but fell into a pit of razor wire, where he ultimately died.
Glass Coffin (Saw V)
The genius of Saw V’s Glass Coffin is that it appeared in Saw IV but remained a mystery until the fifth outing. Although a simple device of a bulletproof coffin filled with shards of glass, it goes down in history thanks to a clever twist that saw another one of the good guys kick the blood-bucket.
The Glass Coffin was supposed to be a tool for saving Special Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson), but instead became a scheme of Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) to rid him of Strahm. If Strahm had listened to Hoffman’s advice, he would’ve been lowered into the floor with the coffin, but instead, Hoffman took his place, and the walls closed in. Much like audiences, even Hoffman had to look away as Strahm was crushed to death before his sneering face.
Shotgun Carousel (Saw VI)
Saw VI was accused of being a movie that continued the series for the sake of its box office numbers, involving a convoluted plot of health insurance executive William Easton (Peter Outerbridge) being the one who denied Kramer the treatment he needed to tackle his cancer.
While some might call Saw VI’s Shotgun Carousel a lazy way of offing multiple victims at once, it makes this list for more than just its high body count. It’s also devilishly twisted. Easton could only save two of his six subordinates strapped to the carousel — playing out like a deadly game of Russian Roulette. It’s even more iconic thanks to the victims begging for their lives before quickly turning on their would-be savior.
Bedroom Trap (Saw IV)
The Bedroom Trap is better known as “Feel What I Feel” and is one of Saw’s more sadistic traps — ironic given the modus operandi of the whole series. The victim was a cruel rapist called Ivan Landsness (Marty Adams), while the Bedroom Trap was also here to test Officer Rigg (Lyriq Bent).
As part of Rigg’s test, he forced Landsness to shackle himself to a bed with two massive scythes. Landsness had to press two triggers to gouge his own eyes out, and while he managed the first, the timer ran out before he could hit the second. Landsness was ripped limb from limb, with his body later discovered by a SWAT team.
Death Mask Trap (Saw II)
Saw II gave us a chilling cold open (see what we did there?) in an attempt to one-up the infamous Reverse Bear Trap. This time, it was Michael Marks (Noam Jenkins) pulled into Jigsaw’s twisted traps as a reformed drug addict who’d been at the Homeward Bound Clinic.
Michael woke up with a nail-covered Venus fly trap on his face and the warning his escape was before his very eyes. He learned that the key had been surgically implanted behind his eye, meaning he’d have to cut it out before the timer ran out. As you might imagine, things don’t quite work out. With the mask slamming shut, the Death Mask Trap has become synonymous with Saw II.
The Rack (Saw III)
You need a strong stomach to sit through Saw III’s rack, with the underrated threequel delivering some of the franchise’s best body horror. The washed-up Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen) came face-to-face with the drunk driver who killed his son, with Jigsaw giving the mourning father his own taste of revenge.
Mpho Kaoho’s Tim is found strapped to a metal crucifix, with his limbs ready to be twisted off. A vengeful Jeff originally left Tim to die, and although he eventually decided to forgive Tim, he was too late to stop The Rack. If you thought the Medieval torture device of the same name stretching victims was wicked, it’s nothing to seeing Tim’s head get twisted clean off his neck.
Angel Trap (Saw III)
Aside from its twist ending, the biggest surprise of Saw III was the death of Dina Meyer’s Detective Allison Kerry. For its name alone, the Angel Trap is one of Saw’s best. Kerry was abducted at the start of Saw III and wakes up with her ribs attached to a hinged device. The literal key to her escape was in a jar of acid she needed to put her hand into.
In reality, the Angel Trap was the doing of Hoffman and broke with Kramer’s No. 1 rule of giving victims a chance to escape. Kerry was doomed to have her innards sprayed on the wall. The image of the fan-favourite detective hanging there with her ribs splayed still haunts us — looking like something you might expect to see in an episode of Hannibal.
Needle Pit (Saw II)
Saw II is an icky icon in its own right, up there with Scream 2 as one of the best horror sequels of all time. Alongside its shocking Amanda reveal, it’s remembered for the iconic needle pit scene.
The antidote to the deadly nerve agent the group ingested lay in a pit of hypodermic needles, but as they discussed who should enter it, Xavier (Franky G) shoved Amanda in due to her history of drug abuse.
What makes the needle pit even more legendary is the fact that 120,000 real syringes were used in the sequence, with their needles swapped for faux ones. If that wasn’t enough, Smith was four months pregnant when filming the needle pit, but kept it a secret from the crew.
Bathroom Trap (multiple)
Even though it’s true Saw wouldn’t be called Saw without the Bathroom Trap, it just misses out on being the franchise’s most memorable. Still, the grimy tiles and blood-soaked bathroom floors hold a lot of importance.
First imprisoning Doctor Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell), the pair soon realized the saws they were supplied with weren’t there to cut their chains. Audiences likely still remember the exact moment they learned the real meaning of the title Saw — relating to hacking your own foot off.
If that wasn’t shocking enough, how about one of the biggest movie twists of all time when Kramer is revealed as the ‘dead’ body that’s been in the room with them the entire time? Even if it’s not really a trap when it returns, the Bathroom Trap makes a rightful resting place for Hoffman when Gordon leaves the franchise’s final villain there to rot in Saw 3D.
Reverse Bear Trap (multiple)
A who’s who of famous Saw faces have been strapped into the Reverse Bear Trap, and although it’s only claimed one victim, it did it in style. Way back in the original Saw, the Reverse Bear Trap had been attached to Amanda. The slimy Detective Hoffman survived its jaws and then took his revenge on Jill Tuck.
Saw 3D might’ve been a corny attempt at cashing in on the technology, but seeing bits of Jill’s face fly toward the screen–and the audience–was a clever use. It is also fitting that out of all those who fell victim to the Reverse Bear Trap, it’s John Kramer’s wife who gets the honor. No single trap has been remembered quite like the Reverse Bear Trap throughout the Saw-verse.
And with that we make our escape. We hope.
Saw X (Lionsgate Films) will be released in U.S. theaters September 29, 2023
About the Author:
Based in Manchester, UK, Tom Chapman has over seven years’ experience covering everything from dragons to Demogorgons. Starting out with a stint at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom has since branched out to indulge his love of all things Star Wars and the MCU at Digital Spy, Den of Geek, IGN, Yahoo! and more. These days, you’ll find Tom channelling his inner Gale Weathers and ranting about how HBO did us dirty with Game of Thrones Season Eight.
