History YMMV / Saw

* FranchiseOriginalSin:
** As noted in [[http://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3465779/fault-saws-jigsaw-can-learn-franchises-mistakes/ this article]], the first film had two {{Signature Scene}}s and [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality an acceptable break from reality]] that, in hindsight, foreshadowed the problems that plagued the franchise in its later installments.
*** The first was the Reverse Bear Trap's scene. The series' reputation as the TropeCodifier for TorturePorn is so infamous that few people realize just how light on blood the first film actually was, with many {{Gory Discretion Shot}}s instead of even a single arterial spray. Jigsaw's traps were modest in scope, such as being forced to crawl through razor wire, walk barefoot over broken glass, or cut one's foot off in order to escape being locked away forever. The Reverse Bear Trap was among the few exceptions, relying on intricate machinery to tear open the victim's jaw, but even then, it was a small contraption that a skilled engineer like Jigsaw could build in his spare time -- and furthermore, the scene ended with the intended victim Amanda ''escaping'' from the trap rather than being subjected to its violent punchline. There was also the Drill Chair, but again, not only was the device a comparatively simple one and its intended victim rescued, but it was portrayed as an experimental design on Jigsaw's part.\\\
Overall, the scene didn't factor much into the plot (Amanda's importance came entirely in the sequels), but it was still a standout moment that was featured on one of the film's posters, and so the sequels decided to up the ante. The SequelEscalation wasn't too bad in ''Saw II'', but by ''Saw III'' it had begun to stretch WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief as to just how a lone nutjob was able to build these [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts overly-complicated clockwork monstrosities]] that often took up entire rooms, with the Angel Trap that ripped out Kerry's ribcage being the tipping point for many. The fact that the new killers [[LegacyCharacter taking on the Jigsaw mantle after John's death]] weren't engineers like he was (instead being a recovering junkie, a police detective and later on [[spoiler:a military veteran]]) only strained credibility further, even though John ''did'' teach them how to build the traps. Furthermore, the Reverse Bear Trap was the first trap in the series where somebody ''had'' to die, as the only way for Amanda to escape was to cut open another person's stomach to retrieve the key. Jigsaw's original motivation (punishing people he deemed to be wasting their lives, but also giving them a chance to survive and redeem themselves) was lost as later films had far more traps that were either inescapable, required one of the participants to kill the other to survive, or left the victims with no agency and required somebody else to save them. The inescapable traps were initially justified by Amanda deviating from the original plans and seeking to outright murder those they judge unworthy, but even this motivation was eventually abandoned, as Amanda and John were both killed off and Hoffman was introduced as a Jigsaw apprentice with his own agenda too. By ''Saw IV'', it was well-established that the reason people [[{{Pun}} saw]] these movies wasn't to be scared, but rather, to be [[JustHereForGodzilla amazed at what twisted death traps they'd come up with next]]. It's telling that later films would sometimes go out of their way to have characters die in traps previously left unused or escaped (e.g. Strahm in ''Film/SawV'' by a death room which had one component seen in the previous film, and Jill in ''Film/Saw3D'' by the Reverse Bear Trap).
*** The second was the film's twist ending. TheReveal that the seemingly dead man in the middle of the room wasn't only still alive, but was in fact Jigsaw didn't really have much of an effect on the plot once you thought about it, especially given the more important reveal in that scene concerning Zep's tape, but it worked at its intended goal of [[ShockingMoments shocking the audience]], and when paired with Charlie Clouser's downright epic "Hello Zepp" theme, it became a great moment. The plot twists in the second and third films were better integrated into their stories, but they also gave the series a reputation for a complex, overarching storyline. Once Creator/{{Lionsgate}}'s executive producers overseeing the series chose to [[ExecutiveMeddling keep the series going]] [[FranchiseZombie over the wishes of the original creators]] (who wanted to end the series at the third film), the MythArc went from complex to [[KudzuPlot convoluted]] as new twists and killers were piled on in the sequels, while Jigsaw's original motive was slowly forgotten. Perhaps the increasing levels of {{gorn}} were an attempt to compensate for TheChrisCarterEffect...
*** Lastly, [[TheBadGuyWins Jigsaw won in the first film,]] in no small part thanks to [[GambitRoulette plans that make less sense the more you think about them]] and numerous mistakes on the part of his pursuers, and his victims made a good number of bad decisions as well. But the premise was still fresh enough that the audience could remain engaged and overlook some of these, and the film played somewhat fair by allowing Tapp and Sing to score some victories against Jigsaw by tracking him to his workshop, shooting him, and saving the hostage in the Drill Chair via CuttingTheKnot. Adam and Lawrence also made some good decisions like using their shirts to grab the tape recorder and trying to fake Adam's death. Plus, the audience learned Jigsaw's true identity at the end, giving the story some sort of closure. While a KarmaHoudini villain in one horror film is a good SequelHook, the same villain (plus later {{Big Bad}}s following his death) constantly evading justice and increasing his victim count to dozens despite being only human (not helped by Jigsaw's successful posthumous schemes, including one against another Big Bad) is obvious JokerImmunity that had to be fueled by constantly adding stupid decisions on the part of his pursuers. Combine this with the series' eventual reliance on [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims,]] and the idea that [[MisaimedFandom the creators]] [[TheExtremistWasRight agreed with Jigsaw]] since he was presented as infallible and only hurting bad people, and TooBleakStoppedCaring, quickly took hold in many viewers' minds.
** ''Saw III'' would throw in a couple more issues too:
*** To begin with, ''Saw III'' was the first entry in the series to adopt the formula of a person undertaking a series of traps in which they themselves are generally aren't in any mortal danger, but have to save the lives of people who are somehow connected to them, while learning some sort of life lesson on the way. Here, it made for a new approach after the first two films, in which the goal was for the protagonists to simply escape or survive the situation they were in. Many of the future sequels would fall back on this formula (be it entirely or partially in proportion to their runtime) with minimal changes to its basis (at most just playing around with it while prioritizing differences on the surrounding circumstances instead), eventually causing fans to complain that the series had grown stale.
*** Then there's Jeff's constant inaction and mistakes, which result in the deaths of several of the people he's tasked with saving. While it doesn't do much to make him a likeable or sympathetic protagonist, it at least makes sense in the context of the film itself, given that Jeff is shown to be a broken-down wreck of a man when the plot starts, and the people in the traps are ones he has a personal grudge against. By contrast, the protagonists in later films are people who should theoretically be competent, and they actually ''would'' want to save the victims caught in the traps, making their own similar failures much more glaring.

!!YMMV tropes with their own pages:

[[index]]
* [[CatharsisFactor/{{Saw}} Catharsis Factor]]
* [[Narm/{{Saw}} Narm]]
* [[SignatureScene/{{Saw}} Signature Scene]]
* [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot/{{Saw}} They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]
* [[Woobie/{{Saw}} The Woobie]]
[[/index]]

* ''Saw X'': "Saw [[WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol Patrol]]."[[labelnote:explanation]]When Saw X's release date was moved to September 29th, it placed it on the same release date as ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrolTheMightyMovie''. With this occurring not long after the release of ''Film/{{Barbie|2023}}'' and ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'', whose simultaneous release created the Barbenheimer meme, many have labeled this release date as "Saw Patrol" and state it to be a sequel to Barbenheimer.[[/labelnote]]

** Hoffman is sometimes referred to "Hoffmanator" due to his uncanny ability to continually weasel his way out of getting caught at the last minute, such as tricking Strahm into throwing him into the glass box that lowers him to safety while leaving Strahm to die, killing everyone at the precinct as soon as they're able to unscramble his voice filter, and managing to escape the Reverse Bear Trap by wedging it between two metal bars and ripping part of his face off after it partially opens.

*** To begin with, ''Saw III'' was the first entry in the series to adopt the formula of a person undertaking a series of traps in which they themselves are generally aren't in any mortal danger, but have to save the lives of people who are somehow connected to them, while learning some sort of life lesson on the way. Here, it made for a new approach after the first two films, in which the goal was for the protagonists to simply survive the situation they were in. Many of the future sequels would fall back on this formula (be it entirely or partially in proportion to their runtime) with minimal changes to its basis (at most just playing around with it while prioritizing differences on the surrounding circumstances instead), eventually causing fans to complain that the series had grown stale.

* FoeYayShipping: The franchise's fans aren't necessarily known for being regular shippers who leave a large catalogue of ships to choose from (asides from the Adam/Lawrence pairing mentioned in FanPreferredCouple above), but a lot of their ships are this. There's Amanda/Lynn, Amanda/Kerry, Hoffman/Strahm, Zeke/[[spoiler:Schenk]]....

** The Needle Pit scene in ''Saw II'' becomes this once the twists in both ''II'' and ''III'' come in. Since Amanda is even more evil than Jigsaw, Xavier's KickTheDog moment is retroactively LaserGuidedKarma, and gives Amanda a good dose of karma before she commits even more atrocities.

** The Needle Pit scene in ''Saw II'' becomes this once the twists in both ''II'' and ''III'' come in. Since Amanda is even more evil than Jigsaw, Xavier's KickTheDog moment is retroactively KickTheSonOfABitch, and gives Amanda a good dose of karma before she commits even more atrocities.

** The "Fatal Five" involved in the main game of ''Saw V'' can be pretty hard to root for, since as the trial itself and the ending to it establishes, they're ''not'' good people. Brit hired a drug dealer to pay off Mallick with heroin in exchange for burning down an abandoned apartment building, not caring about the eight people still living inside who would die in the blaze; Luba is a corrupt city planner who accepted a bribe from Brit to give her company a permit for the land the building was on after the fire had occurred, and had no compunctions attacking Charles and trying to kill Mallick for the sake of surviving; Ashley is a fire inspector who figured out it was arson, but took a bribe from Brit for her silence; and Charles was a reporter initially looking into the fire but was bribed by Mallick's father to stop digging, and had no problem trying to kill Mallick quoting SocialDarwinism. Even Mallick, who's arguably the most decent of them, was unaware of the building's residents and felt very much guilty about their deaths, was still a drug addict willing to commit arson for just an ''ounce'' of heroin. The only saving grace for Mallick and Brit is that they consider themselves [[IAmAMonster monsters]] for what they've done, and as such [[spoiler:willingly sacrifice their hands to the last trap instead of forcing the other to do it on their own]].

** After Leigh Whannell left as a writer from the third film onwards, the executives tried to portray John as a TragicVillain whose StartOfDarkness was caused by a TraumaCongaLine and was motivated by a misguided desire to help people, in contrast to Whannell's portrayal of him as a hypocritical, vengeful man using said desire as a mere front for his true motives. However, given that the later movies had him target people for pettier reasons than Whannell's version (like smoking), even punishing innocent ones just because they were related to a guilty victim, this portrayal fell flat.

*** ''Saw 3D'' confirms that Mallick survived since he's shown at Bobby's survivor group meeting, so it's implied that she's also still alive, since he was in worse shape than her.

** Most of Jigsaw's disciples count too, but an honorable mention should be given to Hoffman for being a great GeniusBruiser who makes good use of XanatosSpeedChess.

** With [[spoiler:Halloran]]'s death scene in ''Jigsaw'', his head splitting into eight pieces has drawn comparisons to a plum, Terry's Chocolate Orange, [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Patrick Star]] or the [[Series/StrangerThings Demogorgon]].

*** The Hoffmanator [[labelnote:Explanation]]Hoffman was given this nickname at the time of the film, due to him becoming a SpreeKiller and [[TookALevelInBadass leaping on multiple levels of badass]] to the point that he may or may not have turned to an over-the-top persona for the series. The nickname itself is a {{Pun}} between "Hoffman" and "Franchise/{{Terminator}}".[[/labelnote]]

** Hoffman is popularly given the nickname "Hoffmanator" at the time he explicitly becomes a SpreeKiller in ''Saw 3D'' and [[TookALevelInBadass leaps on multiple levels of badass]] to the point that he may or may not have turned to an over-the-top persona for the series. The nickname itself is a {{Pun}} between "Hoffman" and "Franchise/{{Terminator}}".

Overall, the scene didn't factor much into the plot (Amanda's importance came entirely in the sequels), but it was still a standout moment that was featured on one of the film's posters, and so the sequels decided to up the ante. The SequelEscalation wasn't too bad in ''Saw II'', but by ''Saw III'' it had begun to stretch WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief as to just how a lone nutjob was able to build these [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts overly-complicated clockwork monstrosities]] that often took up entire rooms, with the Angel Trap that ripped out Kerry's ribcage being the tipping point for many. The fact that the new killers [[LegacyCharacter taking on the Jigsaw mantle after John's death]] weren't engineers like he was (instead being a recovering junkie, a police detective and later on [[spoiler:a military veteran]]) only strained credibility further, even though John ''did'' teach them how to build the traps. Furthermore, the Reverse Bear Trap was the first trap in the series where somebody ''had'' to die, as the only way for Amanda to escape was to cut open another person's stomach to retrieve the key. Jigsaw's original motivation (punishing people he deemed to be wasting their lives, but also giving them a chance to survive and redeem themselves) was lost as later films had far more traps that were either inescapable, required one of the participants to kill the other to survive, or left the victims with no agency and required somebody else to save them. The inescapable traps were initially justified by Amanda deviating from the original plans and seeking to outright murder those they judge unworthy, but even this motivation was eventually abandoned, as Amanda and John were both killed off and Hoffman was introduced as a Jigsaw apprentice with his own agenda too. By ''Saw IV'', it was well-established that the reason people [[{{Pun}} saw]] these movies wasn't to be scared, but rather, to be [[JustHereForGodzilla amazed at what twisted death traps they'd come up with next]]. It's telling that later films would sometimes go out of their way to show characters dying in death traps previously escaped (Jill in [[Film/Saw3D the seventh]] in the Reverse-Bear Trap, and Strahm in a [[TheWallsAreClosingIn closing walls]] in [[Film/SawV the fifth]]. [[note]] WordOfGod is that the idea for Strahm to die that way came from the son of the director, who pointed out that, in all other media with a similar trap, the characters in it always survives. [[/note]])

*** Lastly, [[TheBadGuyWins Jigsaw won in the first film,]] in no small part thanks to [[GambitRoulette plans that make less sense the more you think about them]] and numerous mistakes on the part of his pursuers, and his victims made a good number of bad decisions as well. But the premise was still fresh enough that the audience could remain engaged and overlook some of these, and the film played somewhat fair by allowing Tapp and Sing to score some victories against Jigsaw by tracking him to his workshop, shooting him, and saving the hostage in the Drill Chair via CuttingTheKnot. Adam and Lawrence also made some good decisions like using their shirts to grab the tape recorder and trying to fake Adam's death. Plus, the audience learned Jigsaw's true identity at the end, giving the story some sort of closure. While a KarmaHoudini villain in one horror film is a good SequelHook, the same villain (plus later {{Big Bad}}s following his death) constantly evading justice and increasing his victim count to dozens despite being only human (not helped by Jigsaw's successful posthumous schemes, including one against another Big Bad) is obvious JokerImmunity that had to be fueled by constantly adding stupid decisions on the part of his pursuers. Combine this with the series' eventual reliance on [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims,]] and the idea that [[MisaimedFandom the creators]] [[TheExtremistWasRight agreed with presenting Jigsaw]] since he was presented as infallible and only hurting bad people, and TooBleakStoppedCaring, quickly took hold in many viewers' minds.

Overall, the scene didn't factor much into the plot (Amanda's importance came entirely in the sequels), but it was still a standout moment that was featured on one of the film's posters, and so the sequels decided to up the ante. The SequelEscalation wasn't too bad in ''Saw II'', but by ''Saw III'' it had begun to stretch WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief as to just how a lone nutjob was able to build these [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts overly-complicated clockwork monstrosities]] that often took up entire rooms, with the Angel Trap that ripped out Kerry's ribcage being the tipping point for many. The fact that the new killers [[LegacyCharacter taking on the Jigsaw mantle after John's death]] weren't engineers like he was (instead being a recovering junkie, a police detective and later on [[spoiler:a military veteran]]) only strained credibility further, even though John ''did'' teach them how to build the traps. Furthermore, the Reverse Bear Trap was the first trap in the series where somebody ''had'' to die, as the only way for Amanda to escape was to cut open another person's stomach to retrieve the key. Jigsaw's original motivation (punishing people he deemed to be wasting their lives, but also giving them a chance to survive and redeem themselves) was lost as later films had far more traps that were either inescapable, required one of the participants to kill the other to survive, or left the victims with no agency and required somebody else to save them. The inescapable traps were initially justified by Amanda deviating from the original plans and seeking to outright murder those they judge unworthy, but even this motivation was eventually abandoned, as Amanda and John were both killed off and Hoffman was introduced as a Jigsaw apprentice with his own agenda too. By ''Saw IV'', it was well-established that the reason people [[{{Pun}} saw]] these movies wasn't to be scared, but rather, to be [[JustHereForGodzilla amazed at what twisted death traps they'd come up with next]].

*** Lastly, [[TheBadGuyWins Jigsaw won in the first film,]] in no small part thanks to [[GambitRoulette plans that make less sense the more you think about them]] and numerous mistakes on the part of his pursuers, and his victims made a good number of bad decisions as well. But the premise was still fresh enough that the audience could remain engaged and overlook some of these, and the film played somewhat fair by allowing Tapp and Sing to score some victories against Jigsaw by tracking him to his workshop, shooting him, and saving the hostage in the Drill Chair via CuttingTheKnot. Adam and Lawrence also made some good decisions like using their shirts to grab the tape recorder and trying to fake Adam's death. Plus, the audience learned Jigsaw's true identity at the end, giving the story some sort of closure. While a KarmaHoudini villain in one horror film is a good SequelHook, the same villain (plus later {{Big Bad}}s following his death) constantly evading justice and increasing his victim count to dozens despite being only human (not helped by Jigsaw's successful posthumous schemes, including one against another Big Bad) is obvious JokerImmunity that had to be fueled by constantly adding stupid decisions on the part of his pursuers. Combine this with the series' eventual reliance on [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]] and the idea that [[MisaimedFandom the executive producers agreed with presenting Jigsaw as infallible and only hurting bad people]], and TooBleakStoppedCaring quickly took hold in many viewers' minds.

** A month after ''Saw 3D''[='=]s release, the infamous [[BlackBlood pink blood]] became far funnier when ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' came out in Japan, which also depicts blood as bright pink, though it was more for censorship reasons rather than a deliberate change to depict it as the correct color in specific viewing formats. Incidentally, the visual novel is also about a DeadlyGame, and the ''Saw' series is among its inspirations.

'''John:''' No. ''[laughs]'' It was the police and the press who coined the nickname Jigsaw. I never encouraged or claimed that. The jigsaw piece I cut from my subjects was only ever meant to be a symbol that that subject was missing something, a vital piece of the human puzzle. The survival instinct.

* IAmNotShazam: Many people who don't know the franchise think that "Saw" or by extension, "Jigsaw", is the name of the franchise's first main villain, or even the puppet that serves as its MascotVillain. The villain's name is John Kramer, and the puppet is named Billy; Jigsaw is the nickname given to John (and later wanted killers) by the press and police InUniverse, a fact that John himself points out in ''Film/SawII'' while adding that he never called himself Jigsaw.

* IAmNotShazam: Many people who don't know the franchise think that "Saw" or by extension, "Jigsaw", is the name of the franchise's first main villain, or even the puppet that serves as its MascotVillain. The villain's name is John Kramer, and the puppet is named Billy; Jigsaw is the nickname given to John (and later wanted killers) by the press and police InUniverse.

*** To begin with, ''Saw III'' was the first entry in the series to adopt the formula of a person undertaking a series of traps in which they themselves are generally aren't in any mortal danger, but have to save the lives of people who are somehow connected to them, while learning some sort of life lesson on the way. Here, it made for a new approach after the first two films, in which the goal was for the protagonists to simply survive the situation they were in. Many of the future sequels would rely on this formula with minimal changes (be it entirely or partially in proportion to their runtime), eventually causing fans to complain that the series had grown stale.

** ''Saw 3D'': Bobby is an obnoxious writer who pretends to be a past victim of a Jigsaw trap in order to get fame and money. While Hoffman ''is'' at his absolute worst in this film, he eventually [[spoiler:received a direct comeuppance via an AndIMustScream fate]]. Bobby, on the other hand, [[spoiler:only received punishment through proxy due to failing to rescue all of his ''[[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure loved ones and staff]]'' from the gruesome traps he should have been put into himself, and while injured, he survives in the end]].

* StockParodyJokes:
** Jigsaw inviting a victim to play a ''regular'' game (such as soccer, video games or board games).
** Jigsaw kidnapping [[Series/MacGyver1985 Angus MacGyver]] and then [[CurbStompBattle getting his ass kicked by MacGyver]] as a result, often via his signature MacGyvering.
** Billy the Puppet becoming sentient.
** French audiences mocking the title of ''Film/SawVI''.[[labelnote:Explanation]]''Saw VI'' pronounced in French [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike sounds exactly like]] "saucisse" ("sausage").[[/labelnote]]

* AcceptableTargets: Many of Jigsaw's victims are deplorable characters, such as thieves, racists, gangsters, killers, rapists, [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking and lawyers]]. [[SubvertedTrope In some cases, though]], the victims have only made [[DisproportionateRetribution minor mistakes in their lives]], and others are completely innocent.