Ranking the 20 Goriest Traps in the Saw Series

The producers of the “Saw” movies have cast plenty of talented actors over the years, including Danny Glover, Cary Elwes, Donnie Wahlberg, and now Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson in “Spiral.” But the true stars of the franchise are the diabolical traps that each new movie offers. Frequently accompanied by creepy audio messages delivered by a macabre puppet, these lethal devices come in a variety of different styles, each with a unique set of rules. There are standard traps that lock a single victim in a murderous contraption, and group traps that involve multiple victims competing in some type of disturbing contest. Maze traps force victims to navigate a violent obstacle course, while vicarious traps require a bystander to choose who lives and who dies. Finally, there are rigged traps that promise a way to escape, but don’t actually provide one.

After the success of the original “Saw” in 2004, other horror films began incorporating similar traps into their stories. Movies like “The Collector,” “Exam,” “Would You Rather,” and “Escape Room” featured deadly mechanical contraptions and bizarre game-like challenges where the losers die in horrific ways. But the “Saw” franchise remains the leader of the pack when it comes to brutally inventive traps, and “Spiral” – the latest chapter in the blood-splattered saga – includes some of the best yet. For those with strong stomachs, here are the 20 grisliest, goriest, and most altogether gruesome traps in the “Saw” series.

The Pendulum Trap (Saw V)
This trap was partially inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 short story “The Pit and the Pendulum.” In the scene, a convicted murderer wakes to find himself strapped to a table with a giant swinging blade positioned above his torso, while at the same time, his hands are crushed in automated vises. Although not the most original trap in the series, the special effects in this scene are some of the goriest in the entire franchise, particularly in the unrated director’s cut.
Public Execution (Saw 3D)
Most of the traps in the Saw movies take place in secret locations, far away from prying eyes. But the trap that opens “Saw 3D” happens in broad daylight in the middle of a public setting. In the scene, two men are chained to opposite ends of a long worktable, and each has a whirling buzzsaw positioned directly in front of them. Meanwhile, their mutual girlfriend is strung up overhead, with a rotating buzzsaw located directly below her exposed abdomen. As a clock ticks down, the men must decide whether to kill each other or allow their girlfriend to be sawed in half. It’s basically the world’s goriest love triangle.
Laser Collar (Jigsaw)
The most sci-fi death in the entire Saw franchise, this trap involves a victim having a metal collar strapped around his neck with eight medical-grade lasers attached to it. As a timer counts down, the lasers slowly inch closer and closer to the victim’s head, until they simultaneously slice through his skull, separating it into several grotesque pieces like a blood-filled orange.
Death Mask (Saw II)
A man wakes to find a contraption attached to his neck that’s made up of two halves of a metal mask, each spiked with nails. It’s visually similar to the medieval torture instrument known as the iron maiden. The difference here is that the key to unlocking the contraption has been surgically implanted behind the victim’s eye, so in order to free himself, he must remove his own eyeball, pull the key out, and use it to unlock the mask before it closes and impales his skull. Needless to say, he doesn’t make it out alive.
Razor Wire (Saw)
A suicidal man wakes up naked in a maze filled with razor-wire, and in order to escape from the trap before an automatic door locks him in forever, he must crawl through the maze, slicing himself to ribbons in the process. This trap earns extra points for the stylized cinematography – including sudden flashes of unpleasant black and white crime scene images – that director James Wan uses to bring it to life. A similar trap was also featured in the 2009 Saw video game.
Knife Chair (Saw IV)
After accidentally causing Jigsaw’s wife to miscarry her baby, a drug addicted criminal finds himself strapped to a chair in the maniac’s workshop. In order to escape from the trap, he must lean forward and push a strategically located pressure plate with his forehead. Unfortunately for him, eight knives are positioned in front of his face, meaning he’ll have to slice himself to pieces in order to free himself from the shackles. Character actor Billy Otis does a wonderful job of portraying the doomed victim’s pain and terror.
The Rack (Saw III)
The victim of this trap is locked in an upright full-body crucifix-like contraption with rotating parts. Once activated, a series of gears begin to slowly turn, and the victim’s arms and legs start to twist until his bones snap. Eventually, the victim’s entire head is forced to rotate in a complete 360-degree arc until his neck breaks. It’s a ghastly device that takes its name from a real-life medieval torture instrument that literally pulled its victims in half.
Shotgun Carousel (Saw VI)
Six unlucky victims are chained to a rotating playground carousel. As the carousel turns, each victim is briefly positioned in front of a loaded shotgun. A seventh person is then forced to decide who lives and who dies. There’s a creepy carnival-like flavor to this bizarre trap. In a way, it’s like a game of Russian roulette, except the victims rotate rather than the bullets in the chamber of the gun. The fact that each victim gets a moment to confront the person who holds their life in his hands makes it even more disturbing.
Scalping Seat (Saw IV)
The Saw traps work best when the viewer can relate to them in some personal way, and since everyone has had their hair pulled at one time or another, the scalping seat from “Saw IV” is easily one of the most relatable. In this trap, a woman is chained to a mechanical chair and her long ponytail is inserted through a metal ring behind her head. As a series of gears begin to slowly turn, her hair is pulled further and further back, until her scalp is literally ripped from her skull, exposing the ghostly white bone beneath her flesh. The sound effects in this scene are enough to make you sick to your stomach.
The Brazen Bull (Saw 3D)
Fire is occasionally used as a murder method in the Saw series. For instance, in the original film there’s a trap involving flammable jelly applied to a victim’s naked body, and in “Saw II” there’s a trap called the Furnace which basically cremates its victim in a rusty cylinder. But the harrowing Brazen Bull trap from “Saw 3D” tops both of those in terms of sheer insanity. In this trap, a female victim is roasted alive in a giant bovine-shaped oven while her husband is forced to insert metal hooks through his pectoral muscles in a doomed attempt to save her. The device in the film is loosely based on a real-life torture instrument that dates back to ancient Greece.
Subway Trap (Spiral)
The very first trap in “Spiral” finds a detective strung up by his tongue in the middle of a subway tunnel. As a speeding train races towards him, he’s forced to decide whether to leap from the platform he’s standing on, thus ripping his own tongue from his mouth, or dangle in mid-air and let the oncoming subway train pulverize him. The close-up shots of the victim’s quivering tongue clamped tightly in an S&M-like device are extremely hard to watch.
Horsepower Trap (Saw 3D)
One of the most complex traps in the Saw series, this one involves four victims in a filthy autobody garage. One victim is glued into the driver’s seat of an El Camino, while another is strapped with barbed-wire to a metal plate beneath the car’s raised rear tire. A third victim is pierced with hooks and chained to the car’s rear bumper, and a fourth is padlocked to a wall directly in front of the vehicle. If the victim in the driver’s seat can rip himself free and pull a nearby lever in under 30 seconds, all four will survive. If he can’t, the car will simultaneously kill all of them. The final result is an epic massacre, impressively shot in 3-D.
Angel Trap (Saw III)
In this nightmarish trap, detective Allison Kerry (played by Dina Meyer) wakes to find herself strapped in a leather harness several feet above the ground, with a bunch of metal rods hooked into her ribcage. In order to escape from the trap, she must reach her bare hand into a vat of scalding acid and retrieve a key before it dissolves. If she doesn’t make it in time, the rods in her ribcage will spring open, tearing her apart. What makes this trap particularly sinister is that it’s fixed against her. In reality, there’s no way to escape from it. The trap takes its twisted nickname from the fact that the victim is left hovering above the floor with an open ribcage that vaguely resembles the wings of an angel.
The Razor Box (Saw II)
This is one of the most deceptively simple traps in the franchise. The victim is poisoned with a deadly nerve gas that will kill her unless she injects an antidote which is housed in a small glass box hanging from the ceiling. The problem is, once she reaches her hand inside the box, she discovers – too late – that the edges of the opening are lined with razors. Instinctively reaching her second hand into another razor-lined opening, she finds herself literally caught in the box, unable to retrieve the antidote. If she had simply taken an extra moment to examine the box before shoving both of her hands inside it, she might not have met such a gruesome fate.
The Freezer (Saw III)
In this frosty trap, a woman is chained naked in the freezer of an abandoned meatpacking plant and is repeatedly sprayed with icy water that freezes on her exposed skin, turning her into a human popsicle. A variation on this chilly trap was included in “Saw: The Video Game.” As the trap’s unfortunate victim, actress Debra McCabe does a remarkable job of displaying the pure agony and terror that her character goes through. Her performance truly helps sell the scene.
Finger Trap (Spiral)
Inspired by the harmless toy finger cuffs that children sometimes play with, this horrifying trap in “Spiral” finds a corrupt detective held captive in an abandoned warehouse with each of his ten fingers locked in a device that slowly rips them from his hands. Director Darren Lynn Bousman places his camera lovingly close to the victim’s skin as it gradually stretches and then tears, making this trap one of the most difficult to watch in the franchise’s history.
The Pig Vat (Saw III)
This revolting trap takes place in an abandoned meat processing plant, where the victim is chained to the bottom of a large cylindrical vat. Overhead, a dozen rotting pig carcasses are dropped into an industrial grinder that liquifies their putrid bodies and pours the foul-smelling juice into the vat, thus drowning the victim in gallons of rancid pig goo. Actor Barry Flatman portrays the victim, and he deserves hazard pay for going through what he does in this monumentally disgusting trap. According to a recent tweet from director Darren Lynn Bousman, co-star Angus MacFadyen quit the movie after this scene when he was unexpectedly sprayed with pig guts. “I had to talk him in to coming back,” Bousman said.
Bathroom Trap (Saw)
The iconic bathroom trap in “Saw” is actually the one that gave the franchise its name. More of a situational trap than a device of some kind, this trap locks two victims in a filthy bathroom, chained by their ankles to metal pipes on opposite sides of the room. Between them is what appears to be a dead body. Both victims are provided with rusty hacksaws and must decide whether to cut off their own feet and escape or remain locked in the room until they die of starvation. The bathroom trap is such an important part of the overriding Saw mythology that several future films in the series return to the location, and each time the familiar site provides a welcome shiver of recognition for longtime fans.
Reverse Bear Trap (Saw, Saw VI, and Saw 3D)
The original theatrical poster for “Saw” depicts beloved franchise favorite Shawnee Smith wearing a massive contraption on her head. A reverse-engineered bear trap, the device is designed to spring open rather than clamp shut. In effect, once triggered, it will literally snap a victim’s head open at the mouth. This infamous trap proved so popular with fans that it returned several times throughout the series. In “Saw VI,” psychotic detective Mark Hoffman (played by Costas Mandylor) is forced to wear the contraption, which tears a bloody hole in his cheek when it partially springs open. And in “Saw 3D,” Jigsaw’s wife Jill is killed by the device when it opens fully while attached to her head. The final gory image of her gaping mouth ranks high among the sickest sights in the series.
The Needle Pit (Saw II)
Imagine falling into a pit that’s filled with thousands of dirty used syringes. With each little movement you make, another dozen needles stick into you. That’s what happens to Amanda Young (played by series MVP Shawnee Smith) who finds herself thrown into a massive hole in the ground that’s overflowing with potentially lethal hypodermic needles. And buried somewhere at the bottom of the pit is a single key that could mean the difference between life and death. Watching Smith desperately paw her way through the needles, which repeatedly jab and stab her hands and body, makes this by far the most excruciating trap in the entire series.
Click here to read Variety’s ranking of the “Saw” movies, from the original to “Spiral”

Must Read

Film
COVER | Paul Mescal's Road to 'Gladiator II'
By Andrew Wallenstein 4 days

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV%2BhtrTA0miqmq9dqb%2BivNJmqZqmm5qxbr%2FPoqmapF2ftqi%2FwLBm

Valentine Belue

Update: 2024-09-04