Let's play a game! Here's every 'Saw' movie, ranked

Shawnee Smith in 'Saw'; Chris Rock in 'Spiral: From the Book of Saw'; Jigsaw in 'Saw X'. Photo:
Lionsgate/courtesy Everett; Brooke Palmer/Lionsgate; Alexandro Bolaños Escamilla/Lionsgate

In 2004, the talk of Sundance was a nasty little indie horror shot in 18 days on a budget of just $1.2 million: a twisty-turny psychothriller about a killer named Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) who, diagnosed with terminal cancer, spends his last days trapping victims — whom he feels have not been properly grateful for their lives — in grisly scenarios that often involve dismemberment.

The first feature for both director James Wan and writer/star Leigh Whannell, Saw cleaned up at the box office over Halloween weekend that same year and quickly spawned a succession of sequels that upped both the torture and the convoluted plotting. (The series has also launched two videogames, and even a cruise.) The film also birthed the controversial horror subgenre known as "torture porn" — which brought us such perennials as Hostel (2006), Captivity (2007), and I Know Who Killed Me (2007) — and influenced even mainstream studio horror for many years to come.

In December 2023, Lionsgate announced on Instagram there would be an 11th installment — aptly titled Saw XI — with Kevin Greutert returning as director and frequent series writer Marcus Dunstan set to pen the script. Initially planned for a 2024 release, the film has been rescheduled to hit theaters on Sept. 26, 2025.

Read on for our list of the first 10 Saw movies, ranked from worst to best.

10. Saw V (2008)

Scott Patterson in 'Saw V'. Everett Collection

A dogged FBI agent (Scott Patterson) begins to unravel the twisted web of Jigsaw's apprentice-cum-successor Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), who has selected a group of five unfortunates to compete for their lives in an underground catacomb.

Saw V commits the only unforgivable sin a movie can commit: It's dreadfully boring. Miring itself in backstory that no one was clamoring for, the film looks as if it were made on a shoestring for the SyFy channel and is seemingly rather embarrassed to even be a Saw sequel. Two elements of interest pierce the tedium: The character of a British tabloid journalist (Carlo Rota) briefly hints at a more fun and subversive chapter in the series, before he is quickly blown apart in an explosion; and Julie Benz playing a character targeted by Jigsaw, presumably due to her regrettable choice in wigs. —Declan Gallagher

Ick Factor: 2/10 — You've seen worse on Murder, She Wrote.

Where to watch Saw V: Peacock

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

Chris Rock in 'Spiral: From the Book of Saw'. Everett Collection

Det. Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) works with his rookie partner (Max Minghella) to uncover the mastermind behind a series of murders targeting a group of crooked cops connected to Zeke's past. Rock starring in a Saw film and doing it in the style of 48 Hrs. (1982) is incredibly tantalizing. Throw in Samuel L. Jackson as Rock's character's father, plus returning series director Darren Lynn Bousman, and it may have been too tantalizing to succeed.

Unable to take the series in a new direction, this sorta-sequel, sorta-soft reboot is too indebted to the tropes of the original films to move forward in any substantive way. The entire cast gives committed performances, and some credit is due for being one of the rare July 4th-set horrors, but Spiral is ultimately undone by a slapdash script, inconsistent pacing, and a silly ending that provokes gales of laughter, but no dread. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 3/10 — That clamped tongue is nasty, but copious CGI renders the effects weightless.

Where to watch Spiral: From the Book of Saw: Hulu

8. Jigsaw (2017)

Matthew Passmore in 'Jigsaw'. Brooke Palmer/Lionsgate

Ten years after the death of the Jigsaw Killer, detectives Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and Hunt (Clé Bennett) investigate a series of murders that seem to fit the deceased killer's pattern while a group of five contestants atone for past misdeeds at a rural pig farm.

A film that provides more questions than it does answers, Jigsaw feels stubbornly reluctant to make any matterful departure from the original series. It's a shame, because this is a pretty fun entry that succeeds in setting itself apart with a warmer color palette and a more jocular tone than the previous films, though how well that suits the franchise is up for debate. By the third act, though, the film ties itself up in knots to relate back to the original series, and the twist is utterly predictable to those even passingly familiar with the series' time-jumping antics. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 5/10 — Would a leg really dice that cleanly, even with piano wire?

Where to watch Jigsaw: Netflix

7. Saw 3D (2010)

Costas Mandylor in 'Saw 3D'. Everett Collection

Jigsaw's widow (Betsy Russell) works with Internal Affairs officers to apprehend Detective Hoffman. Meanwhile, a self-help author (Sean Patrick Flanery), having committed the ultimate act of hubris in lying about surviving a Jigsaw trap and then writing a book about it, is put to the test for real this time.

Saw 3D (released as Saw: The Final Chapter, though it certainly wasn’t) is more or less the nadir of the series by most conventional standards of quality. The lighting here is solely fluorescent, allowing audiences to see every gorgeous detail. Intermittently fun and tedious in equal measure, Saw 3D mostly functions as a parody of the series, with everything turned up to 11 and faring all the better for it. However, the film culminates in Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) tossing the hacksaw in a moment of 3-D "wizardry" that feels very 2010 — and a good indication of how far the series has strayed from its roots. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 7.5/10 — Credit is due for the payoff of the reverse bear trap after seven films. Spoiler alert: It's super gross!

Where to watch Saw 3D: Peacock

6. Saw VI (2009)

Peter Outerbridge in 'Saw VI'. Everett Collection

FBI agents uncover evidence that threatens to expose Hoffman once and for all, while a ruthless health insurance executive (Peter Outerbridge) is forced to take part in a sadistic game wherein he must sacrifice bits of himself to save his co-workers. If Saw VI doesn't entirely nail its intended cultural commentary, you can forgive it for making an effort to be topical.

The brief sparring between Bell's Jigsaw and Shawnee Smith's Amanda reinvigorates the drama during a couple of flashbacks, reminding one of the days when the series more successfully balanced its sequences of mayhem with talented performers enacting fairly compelling drama. The rest of the film is suitably bonkers enough to be breezy entertainment. A few particularly gnarly special effects stand out as utterly repulsive, and the pacing is right on the money, but most importantly, the finale (and set of twists) is quite strong here. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 9.5/10 — This was the first non-pornographic film to be issued an X rating in Spain, and it's easy to understand why.

Where to watch Saw VI: Peacock

5. Saw II (2005)

During a raid of Jigsaw's lair, Detective Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) comes face-to-face with the killer himself and must follow Jigsaw's rules to save his son (Erik Knudsen), who is in a deadly situation with a group of strangers in an abandoned house.

This installment finds the series getting its sea legs, expanding off the events in Saw while also embracing the torture devices of which audiences demanded more, with producer Greg Hoffman remarking to EW, "I don't think you need to add buckets of blood to what's already an edgy concept." Saw II rests much closer to the implied violence of the first film than the romping viscera of the coming entries. In its last act, the movie becomes an unexpectedly successful variation on the well-trodden menace-in-the-house formula, showing the franchise still had a few surprises up its sleeve. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 5/10 — Pretty squeamish, but noticeably restrained considering where the series would go.

Where to watch Saw II: Peacock

4. Saw X (2023)

Jigsaw in 'Saw X'.
Alexandro Bolaños Escamilla/Lionsgate

Finally, after 19 years and 9 films, Saw X casts Jigsaw as the protagonist. Set between the first two Saws, the film follows John Kramer (Tobin Bell) as he seeks an experimental cancer treatment that goes awry. So Kramer rolls up his sleeves to exact revenge on those responsible, pulling the audience into his corner despite the visceral brutality of his actions.

Director Kevin Greutert told EW that Bell was heavily involved in shaping his role in X: "He has an integrity that's really recognizable in John Kramer's character. If he thinks we're doing something that violates the lore of the character and the whole Saw saga, he'll make it clear to us that he thinks it should be a different way." —Wesley Stenzel

Ick Factor: 9/10. A trap victim sucking out her own bone marrow is somehow not the grossest thing that happens in this one!

Where to watch Saw X: Starz

3. Saw (2004)

Shawnee Smith in 'Saw'. Everett Collection

The movie that started it all is practically a chamber piece, with family man Dr. Gordon and young photographer Adam (Leigh Whannell) squaring off in a dank, filthy bathroom in which they have both awoken, shackled to opposite sides of the room. Between them lies an apparently dead man, and two rusty hacksaws that aren't sharp enough to cut through their chains.

Contrary to its fearsome reputation as the elder statesman of torture porn, the first installment favors psychological terrors rather than overt yucks. While the budget undoubtedly constricts the film's aspirations, particularly in the bizarre performance given by Elwes, the finished product is a taut thriller that was one of the first movies to take horror seriously again after the post-modern fad initiated by Scream in 1996. Its twists are well-parceled out, and there are a few moments of genuine fright. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 3.5/10 — Much worse on your mind than it is on your eyes.

Where to watch Saw: Peacock

2. Saw IV (2007)

Lyriq Bent in 'Saw IV'. Everett Collection

SWAT officer Rigg (Lyriq Bent) is kidnapped by a pig-masked Jigsaw apprentice and put through a nightmarish series of traps in order to save his colleagues, Matthews and Hoffman, who are trapped in an electrified pool between two ice cubes. In flashbacks, we see the event that led Jigsaw to his first victim and a future of murderous moralizing.

Saw IV is a resolutely filthy film, with a collection of disgusts so genuinely queasy-making that by the end you can only applaud. It is undoubtedly the most fun — and most rewatchable — film in the series, a brilliantly prolonged horror house of popped eyeballs, ripped scalps, and medically accurate autopsies. Saw IV possesses a gleefully nasty spirit, harking back to old-school Video Nasties like Absurd (1981) or New York Ripper (1982), where the intent was nothing more than to give you and your friends something to puke about. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 278/10 — Truly off the charts.

Where to watch Saw IV: Peacock

1. Saw III (2006)

Angus Macfadyen in 'Saw III'. Everett Collection

Amanda kidnaps brain surgeon Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) and outfits her with an explosive necklace that will detonate if Lynn does not perform brain surgery on a seriously ill Jigsaw. Simultaneously, Lynn's husband Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) is trapped in a game that forces him to confront his own anger over the accidental death of their young son

Saw III is the most character-driven and emotional chapter in the franchise, so airtight you would almost swear the creators knew there would be more than one film in the series. It aptly fuses the twisty thriller elements that began the series with the baroque torture set pieces that the sequels became known for into a splendid mélange. This is a near-perfectly calibrated mix of medical thriller, pseudo-slasher, and chase flick anchored by strong central performances from Shawnee Smith and Soomekh, who handle the soap opera theatrics with the weight of Shakespearean prose. —D.G.

Ick Factor: 10/10 — Anyone up for brain surgery and maggot-infested pig carcass soup? Anyone...?

Where to watch Saw III: Peacock