Ranking the 'Saw' Franchise

With Saw X taking us back to more of Jigsaw's (Tobin Bell) back story, it appears that there are still stories to tell in the Saw-niverse. (The Saw-Universe). Box office-wise, the film made only $18 million on its opening weekend, it finished behind Paw Patrol, mostly thanks to the meme Saw Patrol which married the kiddie flick with the horror favorite for an even more unique double feature than Barb-enheimer. $18 million dollars is a far cry from the early 2000s heyday of the franchise when $30 million dollar opening weekends were the norm, but nevertheless, the franchise is wildly profitable thanks to its relatively low budget and its high level of gory excitement. Loyal Saw-ties, as I call my fellow Saw fans, will always turn out for this incredible franchise, arguably the best horror franchise of all time.

With that in mind, with 10 Saw movies in the books, it's time to rank the Saw franchise. What is your favorite Saw movie Saw-ties? My top 10 is below...

10. Jigsaw - 2017- Jigsaw retcons a little too much of John Kramer-Jigsaw's back story and is rather derivative in terms of the traps and the gore involved. The first trap, the Barn Trap, is a near complete ripoff of Saw four which also featured a series of inter-connected victims failing to work together and ending up dead for their selfish ways. There is also the way in which the film cheats the overall Saw timeline that left a bad taste in my mouth. This is the rare, not good Saw movie. Most of the Saw movies, in my estimation, are actually good movies.

9. Spiral from the Book of Saw -2021- Big stars really don't have a place in the Saw franchise. Movie stars, even one as minor as Chris Rock, tend to go into movies like this with too much of what I call 'Main Character Powers.' The chances that Rock was going to end up in a Saw trap with his hand or leg or head cut off were minimal simply because he's a movie star, a big name celebrity. The other Saw movies made smart choices for their players. Recognizable faces like Scott Patterson from Gilmore Girls and Costas Mandylor have faces you know but they are not movie stars. Thus, they can die at any moment in a Saw movie and no one is going to get too upset. The Saw movies, after the original, are ensemble films with multiple stories unfolding. Movie stars pull all of the focus away from Jigsaw, the traps, and the plot.

8. Saw 2 -2005- I like Saw 2, I like the energy that Donnie Wahlberg brings to this franchise. He's right in the lead actor sweet spot for a Saw movie, not a big movie star but a guy with a recognizable face. I like how his hard headedness is both his best quality as a cop and his downfall as a person. He's determined to save the life of his son but he blows the whole case because he can't control his anger. It's a phenomenal twist ending. That said, outside of Wahlberg's confrontation with Jigsaw, what remains of Saw 2 stumbles around a bit. The filmmakers haven't quite found the formula yet that binds the Saw philosophy to horror movie scares. Saw 2 is like a schematic for the better Saw movies to follow and improve upon.

7. Saw 3D aka Saw 7 -2010- The end of the Detective Hoffman arc was a bit of a letdown for me. I hated seeing what happened to Betsy Russell's Jill Tuck and it bummed me out enough to push Saw 3D low on this list. And that's despite the much welcomed return of Cary Elwes as Doctor Gordon. Gordon as an apprentice of Jigsaw is a great reveal and the way the noose encircles the main character, Bobby (Sean Patrick Flannery) is terrific. I'm too sad about Jill Tuck to put Saw 3D higher on this list.

6. Saw 4 -2007- The first post-Jigsaw's death Saw movie struggles a little to get going but once it does, the battle between Hoffman and Strahn, and the main trap centered on Officer Rigg is tremendous. We finally get to learn the fate of Detective Matthews and that ending, it's a heartbreaker.

5. Saw X - 2023- I was quite impressed with this trip back in time for the Saw franchise. The more time we can spend with the brilliant Tobin Bell, the better. We also get Amanda back, reminding us what a brilliant asset Shawnee Smith has been to this franchise. Director-Editor Kevin Greutert may be the MVP of the Saw franchise. While we certainly must bow to the brilliance of James Wan and Leigh Whannell, Greutert has been the steward of Saw continuity from the start as the editor on 7 of the 10 the Saw movies and the director of three of Saw movies.

4. Saw 6 - 2009- This one is probably too high by the standards of most Saw-ties, but I love it. Saw 6 centers on predatory lenders and the insurance industry. These are two industries where I can support seeing Jigsaw commit unending torture of the people involved. Admittedly, director Kevin Greutert and screenwriters Dustin Melton and Marcus Dunstan stack the deck a little, who is going to sympathize with people whose job it is to deny people's insurance claims, but it worked on me. Seeing the insurance sleaze-bags get what's coming to them via a Jigsaw trap tapped right into my lizard brain desire for vengeance against predatory, greedy, nasty insurance companies.

3. Saw 5 -2008- The continuing cat and mouse game between Strahm and Hoffman reaches a crushing conclusion that finds Strahm dead and framed for the Jigsaw murders and Hoffman firmly entrenched as the new big bad of the franchise. I love Costas Mandylor's sleazy, slimy performance as Hoffman and I really loved seeing Jill Tuck appearing to get one over on him, even as he does manage to escape. seeing Hoffman nearly fall victim to the same trap that nearly killed Amanda was an exciting and terrifying end to a terrific series of grotesque Saw traps.

2. Saw 1 -2004- Here is where I will enrage many long time Saw-ties, the real ones who've been with the franchise for nearly 20 years. I adore the original Saw. I think Cary Elwes was the perfect choice for Doctor Gordon and Leigh Whannell is an underrated d-bag as Adam. They have a strong dynamic and the ending is absolutely superb. The soundtrack rising to a crescendo, Jigsaw having played dead for the entire film, rises from the floor to reveal himself, and slamming the door on poor Adam, it's great stuff. Danny Glover adds spice to the movie as arguably the biggest movie star of the early part of the franchise. Without Glover, the movie might not get made as Cary Elwes had been away from the limelight for a while and no one at the time knew much about director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell. Glover brings credibility to franchise but doesn't pull focus because we don't know anything about Jigsaw or his larger philosophy yet. It's terrific casting and a big part of the success of the franchise.

1. Saw 3 - 2006- Saw 3 goes so hard. The film opens on a grisly death and never lets up for the entirety of 108 minutes. Here is where the underlying philosophy of Jigsaw fully takes form: the idea that Jigsaw is not a killer, he's a redeemer. Angus MacFadyen is the perfect lead actor, a recognizable face but not a movie star. He's a devastated dad whose child was killed by a drunk driver. The death of his son left this man unmoored and failing to appreciate what life he has left with a beautiful wife and a daughter that need him. He's obsessed with revenge and Jigsaw uses that to reveal him as a person and force him to see what vengeance looks like and why it's not worth more than the family he still has. The man is forced to confront the judge who failed to sentence the drunk driver to any reasonable prison time, the witness who backed out at the last minute who could have sent the drunk driver to prison, and finally the drunk driver himself in what is arguably the most horrifying and well realized Saw trap in history. Shoutout to the Sound Design team on Saw 3. The movie is gory but the sound, the cracking of bones and the tearing of flesh and the dripping of blood is far more gut wrenching than any visual in the movie. The sound design makes Saw 3 the most intense and affecting of the Saw franchise and my favorite Saw movie.