KEEPIN' IT REEL: The Saw Franchise

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Logo Credit to Nalini Harry Esposito

The Saw Franchise

Genre: Horror

Isabella's rating: ★★★★★

The Saw franchise is a widespread, well known movie series revolving around a notorious serial killer that implements his victims into games. The last movie connected to the series Spiral, premiered in 2021, with a new one coming out, Saw X, on Sept. 29, 2023. With the first Saw movie premiering in 2004, there have since been 9 more, making the newest the 10th.

All Saw movies are available on Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Saw (1) follows two men that wake up and are trapped in a room alone. The premise of the Jigsaw game is that people have to be put in a life or death situation to be reborn, as John “Jigsaw” Kramer states in the movie. The first movie is a surface level horror movie, but as the series progresses and expands, the story starts to build into a psychological trap these victims are put in.

Saw X, the tenth movie following the direct Saw series, follows John Kramer, the serial killer, on his journey to be cured of his tumor. During this trip he finds out that the whole plan is a scam, which causes John Kramer to perform more of his traps on victims he thinks deserves to be punished.

I have watched all 10 movies, and enjoyed each one thoroughly. I think every movie is worth watching for the story alone, although the gore and horror aspects add thrilling and suspenseful scenes to the movie. At some times in the movie the story gets a bit muddy for me, but overall, even if you don't pay attention to the story, each trap is impressive and interesting to watch. I would recommend these movies to people who like horror movies as well as people who can handle a lot of gore.