The Saw franchise, which began in 2004, is notorious for having brutal and gory traps. Not all of them have the grandiose design of a motorcycle revving on top of a funnel⏤most of the traps are simple, some with headgear, some with poison, some with sharp instruments. Here’s a ranking of the better traps in the franchise.
The laser collars
The first entry on this list, the laser collar, is from 2017’s Jigsaw. The attempted reboot of the franchise did many things right, getting two of its traps ranked on this list. The laser collars are great because they are an homage to another trap: the reverse beartrap. The lasers in the collars aimed upwards and slowly inched forward unless the victim confessed. A big part of why this trap is on this list is because of the narrative impact of one of the collars being fake and filled with vials of blood and this is instrumental in the twist at the end of the film.
The wax trap
The wax trap is from 2021’s Spiral: From the Book of Saw. This trap is one of the more interesting ones because of its simplicity. The victim was strapped to a table with hot wax dripping on her face from above. Unless Captain Garza used a blade to sever her spinal cord, she would suffocate with the wax, which unfortunately she did.
The cycle trap
Another trap from Jigsaw, the cycle trap is purely on this list for its imagination. Easily the most grandiose on this list, the cycle trap involves a motorcycle hooked up to coiled blades inside of a large funnel. As the motorcycle revs up, the coil spins, which would hurt anyone who touched it. The victim is lowered into the funnel to pull the hand brake located at the bottom if they do not come out shredded first.
The razor box
Saw II does not get enough credit for the number of great traps it contains, and the razor box is one of the best. The razor box is⏤you guessed it⏤a box with razor blades. Almost every trap in Saw II contains an antidote for a nerve agent that the victims in the movie were exposed to. The victim of the razor box would have to place their hands inside the bottom of the box, or so they thought, as it was revealed that there was a key on the other side of the box. Instead, when they placed their hands inside the box, sharp razor blades stopped them from being able to pull out their hands, which resulted in the victim bleeding out.
The needle pit
Are you trypanophobic? If you do have a phobia of needles, then the needle pit would not be the trap for you. A trap designed for substance abusers featured in Saw II, the needle pit is exactly what it sounds like: a pit full of needles. The trap was designed for a key to be attached to one syringe in a stack of thousands of used syringes. This trap is not as lethal as the others, albeit it might have some more lasting ramifications.
The bathroom trap
Maybe the most practical, but not the most flashy, the bathroom trap is one of the most iconic traps in the Saw franchise. Two men chained in a bathroom have to find a way to get out. The most iconic moments in the franchise occurred as part of the bathroom trap. Kramer revealed himself as the dead body in the middle of the room and Dr. Gordon used a saw to cut off his leg and escape. The room had many different parts and was quite intricate. Without the bathroom trap, we would not have the opening to Scary Movie 4 with Dr. Phil and Shaquille O’Neal, either, which makes the bathroom trap truly iconic.
The reverse beartrap
This is the big one: the reverse beartrap. The trap was a mainstay in the Saw franchise since director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell pitched their short film as a proof of concept to get the money to make the original Saw. Since then, it has been in most of the movies and might be the most thought-of trap when anyone mentions the franchise. The reverse beartrap is simple, a mechanical device secured to the head of the victim, and all one would need to do to find the key to unlock the padlock before the mechanism activated and crashed the victim’s head like Gallagher with a watermelon.
There you have it, the best and most iconic traps in the Saw franchise. Did we leave any out that you would include? Let us know!