All 10 ‘Saw’ Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

It’s hard to overstate just how big the “Saw” movies were in the 2000s. The original low-budget horror film is about a serial killer who forces his victims to mutilate themselves to survive his deathtraps was such a hit that every single year, a new sequel would come out for Halloween season. And every single year, it printed money.

But although the many “Saw” films rely on an easily repeatable premise, they’re not formulaic films. Indeed, they’re highly unusual in their scope and ambition, telling a multilayered story across many timelines simultaneously, with a vast mythology and a complex moral code. There’s a genuine ingenuity to most of the “Saw” movies that can take your breath away, whether you get wrapped up in its grotesque world or simply marvel at how ambitious it gets.

So let’s play a little game, and take a look at all of the “Saw” movies and see how they hold up…

10. Jigsaw (2017)

The Spierig Brothers have directed some excellent genre films in the past. “Daybreakers” is one of them. “Predestination” is another. “Jigsaw” is not. Ditching the film’s tetanus shot aesthetic for a crisp yet unsatisfying visual sterility, the eighth film — which takes place ten years after Jigsaw’s death, when a new copycat suddenly emerges — takes the pieces of the previous films and reassembles them wrong. Gone is the Grand Guignol theatricality and in its place is a perfunctory thriller, itself an underwhelming copycat of the superior originals. At least the climactic death, involving a lot of lasers and a human head, is one of the most unusual and gory in the series.

9. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)

Darren Lynn Bousman returns to the franchise he helped define, having directed the weirdly complex second, third, and fourth “Saw” movies. Instead of returning to the old assembly line, “Spiral” is an old-fashioned 1990s cop movie, completely with a gritty detective with strong opinions about movies, played by an atypically grim Chris Rock. Bousman’s direction is confident and Rock is an effective lead, but the death traps are huge letdowns, the plot is annoyingly predictable and the film’s attempt to blow the lid on corrupt cops by lionizing a cop who is also corrupt — just in a more “heroic” way — is hypocritical and out of touch.

8. Saw 3D (2010)

The seventh “Saw” film is also the second “Saw 3,” which given the hyper-complex timeline of this franchise isn’t even the most confusing thing about it. In this attempt to wrap up the storylines that sprawled outward after John Kramer’s death, we find a series of satisfying traps, but also a new visual style that works well in 3-D — compensating for the light lost through tinted glasses — but also fails to sell the scares as effectively as the rustier previous films. While it’s fair to say that “Saw 3D” is underwhelming compared to the more visually interesting and narratively inspired entries that preceded it, time has been relatively kind. Compared to “Spiral” and “Jigsaw,” at least, it’s a relatively satisfying installment.

7. Saw IV (2007)

Where do you continue the “Saw” movies after the third film definitively killed the villain? Don’t worry, Jigsaw planned for that. This unusually energetic fourth installment finds detectives following clues left behind by the serial killer, coming face-to-face with more elaborate murder devices and a new apprentice who doesn’t play by all the old rules. “Saw IV” doesn’t have terribly much to say compared to other, better films in the series, but it’s a mean and effective thriller that effectively lays the groundwork for where the series could go now that all the bets were off

6. Saw (2004)

The feature film that launched the franchise and popularized the inaccurately-named “torture porn” subgenre is still, all these years later, a spry and inspired low-budget horror thriller. A photographer played by Leigh Whannell and a doctor played by Cary Elwes wake up chained to pipes in a disgusting bathroom, where they’re told the only way to escape is to saw their own legs off. Watching the two actors think their way out of an impossible situation is effective and frightening, but the original “Saw” tries to cram so much into a single movie — with elaborate flashbacks, side plots, reversals upon reversals upon reversals — that it collapses on itself. It’s a little too much of a good thing, but an impressive debut from two filmmakers who would make a huge impact on the horror genre.

5. Saw V (2008)

The fifth “Saw” film finds Kramer’s apprentice Mark Hoffman, played by a menacing Costas Mandylor, using every trick at his disposal to hide his identity from his fellow police detectives. Meanwhile, a group of selfish a-holes find themselves in one of Jigsaw’s more interesting games, with a climactic reveal that packs a bigger punch than usual, and really drives home the franchise’s bizarre moral code. The suspenseful crime plot and gory deaths, and a final trap that’s exquisitely unexpected and vile, make “Saw V” one of the most intense films in the series, even if it’s not one of the best.

4. Saw X (2023)

Kevin Greutert, who previously directed “Saw VI” and “Saw 3D,” returns to the franchise and brings it back to form. Taking place in a vague point in time before most of the movies, but after parts of some of them, John Kramer pursues a miracle cure for his brain cancer and, just when he thinks he’s got something to hope for, finds it ripped away. So he does what he always does: death traps, and a whole lot of them. “Saw X” eschews the labyrinthine complexity that came to define the series, instead telling a straightforward, linear story with only a few twists that you can probably see coming a mile away. But with Bell back in the center stage, and a story that gives him free reign to do his best/worst, it’s one of the best films in the “Saw” series.

3. Saw III (2006)

The third film in the “Saw” series makes itself out to be a grand finale, revealing new details about characters from the first two films, and unexpected, disturbing truths about Jigsaw’s apprentice, Amanda (Shawnee Smith). And even though that air of finality is now fully dashed — since the franchise is still going strong decades later — it’s an excellent entry in the series, building on the characters and the myth of Jigsaw and placing its protagonists in some of the most impossible situations of all. “Saw III” is an excellent “Saw” movie, and easily the best of the two “Saw 3’s.”

2. Saw VI (2009)

Hoffman is still frantically trying to get away with his reign of terror in “Saw VI,” and that’s just as engrossing as ever, but that’s not the reason why “Saw VI” endures, and keeps developing a well-earned reputation as one of the best films in the whole series. Jigsaw’s righteous indignation is pointed in a very particular place, this time forcing a health insurance executive into a series of unthinkable life-or-death scenarios, where just like in his day job, he has to decide who lives and who dies. Except this time they die spectacularly, right in front of him, and maybe — just maybe — he’ll learn a valuable lesson before something truly shocking, yet undeniably satisfying, happens to him too. Angry and pointed in a way that stands out amongst the series, “Saw VI” is probably the series at its most powerful, if not necessarily at its very best.

1. Saw II (2005)

The second “Saw” finally lets us spend some real time with John Kramer, the killer revealed at the end of the original film. As the police interrogate him, after he kidnaps the lead detective’s son, they also watch helplessly as a group of strangers find themselves in a house full of horrible games they won’t all survive. Darren Lynn Bousman’s “Saw II” is, unlike most of the other films in the series, a thoroughly effective standalone installment, and lays out the real groundwork for Jigsaw’s iconic persona, his ethos and his unusual penchant for attracting loyal acolytes to his cause. “Saw II” is where this series found its voice, not just its gimmick, and it’s probably the reason why the characters and the concept still endure.

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