Remember by the fourth or fifth movie, the trailers would always say, “If it’s Halloween, it’s SAW!” Even if the Saw movies are the furthest thing from a Halloween movie there could be. Not to say they are all terrible, but the are torture porn, not the same kind of horror you’d expect on Halloween. The Saw movies were a product of their time and we did get two huge names in horror from those movies. James Wan and Leigh Wannell, of course more so with James Wan. James Wan went on to direct movies like, The Conjuring, Insidious, Dead Silence and Aquaman. He has become a big deal.
I bought in to it back then, the Saw movies became an event. Horror, to me was at a low point and Saw was the big thing, like Freddy or Jason in the 80s, Saw was kind of the face of horror in the 2000s. The series grossed $976 million over the course of eight movies and that is worldwide. That is huge for horror, so yeah, I’d say Saw was the face of horror for its time. Even the regular people watched the Saw movies, not just your horror fans and gore hounds.
So, I though, you know, 15 years after the original was released, we should finally rank these movies. For better or worse, the Saw films are a part of the genre and there is a little section of horror fans who just love Jigsaw and these films.
8. Saw: The Final Chapter aka 3D (2010)
7. Jigsaw (2010)
6. Saw IV (2007)
5. Saw V (2008)
4. Saw VI (2009)
3. Saw II (2005)
2. Saw III (2006)
1. Saw (2004)
I mean, the first Saw brought something a little new and a little different. The others follow in a string with an ever changing continuity, everyone is connected. But, these are all one off viewings. Not meant for multiple viewings in my opinion. It was great revisiting them after so many years away.
