The 19 Best Saw Movie Traps And Kills, Ranked

Spiral: From the Book of Saw's release is almost upon us, and it's sure to bring with it plenty of gory kills, crazy twists, and weird, fast-paced editing. Until then, we're revisiting the full franchise with this trip down bloody memory lane.

After all, the Saw movies are really something else. Largely responsible for the "torture porn" genre of horror, these films are mainly about watching people suffer and die in increasingly outlandish, horrifying ways. If you empathize with the characters at all, some of these can be tough to stomach.

Of course, there's also the whole mind-bending story of the Jigsaw Killer himself, John Kramer, and his many disciples, a twisty tale that plays out across all these movies and barely makes sense even for those devoted enough to watch and study them all. But let's be honest: The plots don't need to make sense. You're in it for the traps and kills, and so are we. That's why we catalogued the best of them below.

These are the most twisted, disturbing, and messed up kills and traps in the Saw franchise--and thus, our favorites, ranked. Enjoy.

Warning: There are some extremely graphic screenshots ahead.

Saw: The Final Chapter (VII)

In a dream sequence, Jigsaw's ex-wife Jill Tuck gets eviscerated by a fast-moving, spiky choo-choo. Sure, it's cheap that this doesn't actually happen. But it's so unbelievably nasty that we had to include it anyway.

Saw

In this classic, old-school trap, a man spends hours crawling through tightly-stretched razor wire before bleeding out. Sometimes, the most simple trap is best.

Saw III

In this blatantly unfair trap, a man is tasked with yanking out metal rings that pierce various parts of his body--including his lower jaw. For some reason, he saves that one for last.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw has some of the dumbest traps in the franchise, like two people getting slowly and gently drowned in a pit of grain while random junk falls lazily around them. However, the spiraling Cycle Trap, in which the victim is lowered down until his body gets pulped like fruit in a blender, gets points mostly for the sound it makes as he reaches the bottom.

Saw VI

One victim navigates a maze full of scalding steam, while the other watches from above, able to divert the steam toward his own body instead. This is one of the traps that, conceivably, both victims could have probably survived. Of course, they don't. But the survivor surely learned a lesson, right?

Saw IV

Saw IV has one of the most convoluted plots of the entire franchise. Riggs has to pass his trials by not trying to save any of his fellow victims, and is then supposed to reach the final room after a 90-minute timer has completed ticking down, because--uh, reasons. Naturally, he fails at failing, and the result is Donnie Wahlberg's head getting crushed like a blueberry between two massive blocks of ice.

Saw: The Final Chapter (VII)

Chester Bennington from Linkin Park (RIP) and several of his friends get murdered in various gruesome car-related ways to serve as a distraction while Hoffman's real game takes place elsewhere. The set piece is brutal, although Hoffman's moral standards compared with his predecessor's leave something to be desired.

Saw III

In another inescapable trap, Amanda ensures that Detective Allison Kerry will have her torso ripped open while hanging from the ceiling in a scene reminiscent of something from the cult hit NBC horror show Hannibal. Also, she got her hand melted by acid.

Saw IV

Two victims are impaled together on spikes, just like that one episode of Grey's Anatomy. One victim is sure to die, because the spikes pierce several of their arteries, while the other (we're told) will walk away with only superficial wounds. Even so, we don't think we could pull those suckers out no matter how much time Jigsaw gave us.

Saw II

It's simply brutal watching someone get burned alive in this much excruciating detail.

Saw VI

How much flesh would you be able to literally cut off your body in order to save your life? The most confusing part is how long it takes her to start chopping with the meat cleaver--sawing with a knife would be way more painful.

Saw VI

Watching this insurance company executive melt from the inside out is absolutely disgusting--and weirdly satisfying. What have these movies done to our brains?

Saw: The Final Chapter (VII)

Taken in the context of the full series, this is easily one of the dumbest traps in any Saw film. Is a silly love triangle really such a severe moral failing that it justifies this public dismemberment? On top of that, these characters are never brought up again (not so far, at least). However, the sheer spectacle of watching this play out in a public place while passersby look on helplessly (some of them filming on their phones) makes this kill incredible (at least, in a vacuum).

Saw: The Final Chapter (VII)

Arguably, requiring someone to stay as silent as possible while you force someone else to pull a fish hook out through their trachea before they get impaled on sharp metal rods is not super fair. But Hoffman marches to the beat of his own drum.

Saw II

Granted, nobody actually dies in Saw II's needle pit. But this trap has become iconic--it's the type of set piece that can convince a person to never watch any of these movies just by having it described to them.

Saw V

Hoffman and Strahm fight in a room that takes the best part of A New Hope's trash compactor scene and adds a heaping spoonful of Saw gore. The look on Hoffman's face as he watches his former colleague get sickeningly crushed between the walls is priceless.

Saw VI

This is one of the most drawn-out, twisted games in the entire series. Insurance exec William Easton is forced to choose which of his employees get saved, sacrificing the others. All the while, they beg and cajole him to choose them over their co-workers. It is a truly f***ed up, haunting, and memorable scene.

Saw: The Final Chapter (VII)

The brutal, iconic Reverse Bear Trap first appeared in the original Saw, in a flashback involving future Jigsaw disciple Amanda Young. But Amanda escapes it, as does Hoffman when it's used against him in Saw VI. It's not until Saw VII, when Hoffman uses the device on Jill, that we finally get to see it go off.

Saw III

For our money, The Rack is the most brutal, visceral kill in the entire series. One by one, the victim's limbs are twisted until the bones snap like toothpicks, jutting from his torn flesh. In the end, his head is pulled all the way around.