YMMV / Saw

PLAY ME

WARNING: This page contains no small number of spoilers, but many of the examples below will assume you have knowledge of the spoilers of the first four films — and as such, those spoilers go untagged. Even then it's advised to have finished watching the series first. Read on or go back — make your choice.

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Subpages by movie:

• Saw
• Saw II
• Saw III
• Saw IV
• Saw V
• Saw VI
• Saw 3D
• Jigsaw
• Spiral
• Saw X

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YMMV tropes with their own pages:

• Franchise Original Sin
• Memetic Mutation
• Narm
• Signature Scene
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
• The Woobie

General examples:

Main franchise:

Main Franchise

• Epileptic Trees: In a crossover example, a rather popular theory among non-fans (usually known as "Kevin is Jigsaw") is that John Kramer and Kevin McCallister from the Home Alone series are the same person, saying that Kevin's booby traps are early versions of John's death traps (since while Kevin's traps aren't fatal, they should be with real life logic applied), and that plenty of Kevin's behavior matches John's.^{Such as}Problems controlling his temper, indulging in somewhat violent fantasies, spying on people, delighting in the pain of those caught in his traps (although much more prominently than John), and using video/audio recordings to communicate with people and trick them. Kevin's neglectful parents and troubles with the police also line up with John's distrust of authority and his particular contempt for police officers who abuse their power. Many versions of the theory also draw parallels to certain objects in Kevin's Home Alone films (such as the furnace he got scared by looking similar to the Reverse Bear Trap and being the basis of the Furnace from Saw II), and even compare◊ Macaulay Culkin's (Kevin's actor in his first two films) present appearance as resembling John at a younger age. Believers of this theory tend to overlook the fact that (among many other problems) John's motivations and the origin of his death trap methods were already established in the Saw series, and are very different to Kevin's intentions. Still, it hasn't stopped the theory from receiving numerous fanmade trailers and a short film based on it, several YouTube media channels making videos about it, and even being brought up in a program of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where Culkin is interviewed about various conspiracy theories in regards to Home Alone (at the 2:13 mark).
  • If this Reddit post is anything to go by, some have taken the theory further (though likely in a joking manner) by comparing the faces of the other Home Alone protagonists with those of other Jigsaw killers/copycats.
• I Am Not Shazam: 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 Mascot Villain. The villain's name is John Kramer, and the puppet is unnamed in the movies, but officially referred to as Billy by the producers; Jigsaw is the nickname given to John (and later wanted killers) by the press and police In-Universe, a fact that John himself points out in Saw II while adding that he never called himself Jigsaw.
  Eric: I thought you liked to be called Jigsaw.
  John: No. [laughs] It was the police and the press who coined the nickname Jigsaw. I never encouraged or claimed that.
• Shock Fatigue: The first film was praised for its gruesome Death Traps and the genuinely unexpected Twist Ending, helping to bring the Torture Porn genre to popularity alongside the next two installments. As the franchise wore on (and on, and on), audiences became turned off by the repetitive traps which almost always ended in the victims' gory deaths, despite that they're supposed to be escapable, bringing Too Bleak, Stopped Caring into play (which got even worse in later films thanks to the introduction of several successors who, unlike their mentor, don't believe in giving their victims a fighting chance). The video games tone this down considerably by having a number of people (obligatory and optional alike) for the player to save from traps.
• Wolverine Publicity: Despite only being a major character in the first film, David Tapp has had two video games dedicated to a scenario where he (and later his son Michael) plays his own game, and is the Survivor representative of the franchise in the Dead by Daylight DLC.

Movies:

#-F

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Jigsaw a true monster, or a legitimately sick and tragically misguided social engineer? Maybe even something to do with his deteriorating mind? Considering how brain damage can alter the personality of the person suffering from it, it's possible that his power fantasies may stem partly from his brain tumor.
• Awesome Music: The series' Leitmotif, "Hello Zepp".
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Hoffman, Hoffman, Hoffman. There really is no solid middle ground with this guy. Fans either find him to be devious and formidable as hell, or a lousy, crooked detective who doesn't hold a candle to Jigsaw.
  • Jeff and Bobby, the protagonists of Saw III and Saw 3D, respectively. Even with their sympathetic backstories/fates (the former being consumed with grief from the death of his son due to a drunk driver and the latter's lies causing the deaths of his staff and loved ones, including his wife), they both end up doing more harm than good with their incompetence, and arguably hog the plots away from returning characters who could've had a larger role in their respective films (such as Kerry and Dr. Gordon).
  • Logan Nelson from Jigsaw. Some fans are eager to see him one day make a return, as he seems to be the only Jigsaw apprentice who gets John's philosophy somewhat of the traps being tests, not for personal vengeance. On the other hand, many fans were simply exasperated that there was another secret Jigsaw apprentice.
• Better on DVD: Due to the highly serialized nature of the franchise, the general consensus is that it's best to watch the movies back-to-back on home video, which makes the increasingly convoluted plot much easier to follow.
• Broken Base:
  • The plot of the movies starting with the fourth one, which kept adding more twists about Jigsaw, his life, and how Crazy-Prepared he was. On one hand, plenty of fans find the plots and their twists genuinely entertaining, saying that they leave ways to keep people guessing, and that Jigsaw is an evil genius who has a point to all of his murders. On the other hand, some people find the twists to ruin the overall story, and that Jigsaw's plans (as well as those of some of his apprentices like Logan) are so close to clairvoyance that they break the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. There's not much middle ground.
  • For that matter, Jigsaw's role in the fourth film and beyond. Were the new villains trying to leave a Villainous Legacy for the Jigsaw Killer? Had his point already been proved? Or did it just not work at all?
  • The increasingly elaborate traps as the series progresses are either cool ways to ramp up the gore, or miss the point of the whole series. Again, not much middle ground.
• The Chris Carter Effect: The franchise is a rare example of a film series running into this, which started once the original creators departed from writing with the production of Saw IV. As new reveals and twists were constantly thrown into the overarching story, the series became less about a Poetic Serial Killer who forces people into Death Traps in order to prove a moral point (which is more or less granted, since he previously died at the end of Saw III), and more about the increasingly convoluted machinations of the people fighting over said killer's Villainous Legacy. Eventually, many viewers outside the fanbase gave up on following the plot, and were just there for the over-the-top gore effects. Once diminishing box office results started setting in with Saw VI, the writers and Executive Meddling eventually began to make an effort in tying off the many loose threads with the original finale, Saw 3D, but the result proved fairly divisive among fans. It wasn't until Spiral, an installment that — while acknowledging the previous films — has a pretty standalone plot within the timeline, that the franchise finally left the effect to an extent.^note Jigsaw also went with a time setting outside of the previous films, but crammed more storylines taking place during them.
• Continuity Lockout: Even with all the occasional retcons, each subsequent film is under the impression that you've at least watched the previous film (if not the first film up until that point), to the point where even its synopsis can spoil too much if you haven't watched past films.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Jigsaw, of course.
    Jigsaw: Yes, I am sick, officer. Sick from the disease eating away at me from the inside. Sick of people who don't appreciate their blessings. Sick of those who scoff at the suffering of others. I'm sick of it all!
  • Most of Jigsaw's disciples count too, but an honorable mention should be given to Hoffman for being a great Genius Bruiser who makes good use of Xanatos Speed Chess and is capable of fighting in badass ways neither Jigsaw nor the other disciples could do.
• Critical Dissonance: The movies were never popular with critics, yet they always had a rabid fanbase willing to have them do gangbusters at the box office.
  • This seemed to be in doubt when the 10th anniversary re-release of the first film fell hard at the box office, leading some to suspect that newer horror franchises (such as Paranormal Activity) had finally supplanted it. Then the eighth film, Jigsaw, was released in 2017 to the same rabid success as its predecessors, proving that rumors of the franchise's demise were greatly exaggerated.
  • History repeats with the release of Spiral, which opened to negative critical reception, but had positive fan feedback and a decent office performance despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Critic-Proof: None of the films after the first two received much praise from critics, many of whom regard the franchise as mindless Torture Porn. They still made millions of dollar profits regardless.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Hoffman has quite a large fanbase who see him as undeniably awesome for escaping the Reverse Bear Trap. In fact, many choose to disregard Word of God from the commentary of Saw 3D saying that he died in the Bathroom (especially due to the fact that there have been discussions to bring Hoffman in a later film and thus retcon this).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Adam from the first film is by far one of the most popular characters amongst fans, so much so that many maintain that he's not actually dead, either jokingly or seriously, using prop-related inconsistencies and errors as evidence.
  • While Saw V is often seen as one of the worst in the series, fans certainly have taken a liking to Brit. While she's underdeveloped and by no means a good person like the other four (see the Unintentionally Unsympathetic entry in the film's YMMV page), she's also probably the smartest character across the entire franchise. For instance, she, after surviving the necktie trap, is shown smashing the glass boxes with her shoe and taking the keys, and also immediately has the smarts when it comes to the bathtub trap. In fact, fans continually held out hope that she'd show up in VI or 3D.
    • Saw 3D confirms that Mallick survived because he's seen at Bobby's survivor group meeting, so it's implied that Brit is also still alive, since Mallick was in worse shape than her.
• Epileptic Trees: In spite of the fact that the films clearly depict that Amanda rigged her traps to doom her victims, some fans have theorized that Amanda was entirely innocent for the rigging and Hoffman was the actual culprit as part of a plan to usurp John as the head of the Jigsaw legacy, with common pieces of evidence to prove their theory including how Amanda talked to John about Hoffman in their flashback from Saw VI, and the fact that Jeff's second game in Saw III was never shown (with fans explaining that Hoffman wanted to "rescue" Corbett himself so that he could be regarded as a hero).
• Evil Is Cool:
  • John Kramer, a menacing and charismatic villain with an intriguing MO. Even when fans felt that the films were going downhill, Tobin Bell could always be counted on to be menacing and creepy.
  • Many can still see the succeeding Jigsaw killers this way, but only Hoffman could really surpass John, depending on one's opinion.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Adam's surname is never stated in the first film itself; it was Radford in the original script, Faulkner according to the film's producers later on, and eventually retconned to Stanheight in later Saw films. Due to this, he's often referred to by fans as "Adam Faulkner-Stanheight" or other variants.
  • People (fans and non-fans alike) are far more likely to refer to Brent from Saw VI as "Rodrick" rather than his actual name, courtesy of his actor being Devon Bostick and the fact that his name is rarely said and hard to catch in the film itself.
  • Hoffman is sometimes referred to as "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.
  • Spiral has Saw IX, although it's mostly given by viewers outside the fanbase.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Fans of Hoffman generally ignore Word of God stating that Hoffman died in the bathroom at the end of 3D. Since there have been recent discussions among producers about bringing Hoffman for a later installment, this is understandable.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: In the first film, Lawrence is married to Alison, but next to no fans like their pairing. Instead, most ship Lawrence with Adam, mainly due to them being the only two people in most of the film, the two being forced to work together, and Adam being a fan favorite. Even after many sequels and Adam being long dead, Adam/Lawrence (also known as "Chainshipping") remains the most popular pairing from the franchise as a whole. The official Saw account on Twitter acknowledged the ship on its Valentine's Day 2022 tweet.
• First Installment Wins: The first movie is hailed as a horror classic. The sequels are not as liked (at most there's a pass for the second and third, as they keep original writer Leigh Whannell and the latter was initially meant to close the series), especially for their overreliance on Gorn and making the plots increasingly complicated and stupid.
• Foe Yay Shipping: 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 Fan-Preferred Couple above), but a lot of their ships are this. There's Amanda/Lynn, Amanda/Kerry, Hoffman/Strahm, Zeke/Schenk....

G-R

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • 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 Kick the Dog moment is retroactively Laser-Guided Karma, as it gives Amanda a good dose of karma before she commits even more atrocities.
  • IV shows that Cecil was responsible for Jill's miscarriage. In VI, it was revealed that he didn't want to rob Jill because she had always been good to him, but Amanda kept goading him to.
  • In the first film, Detective Sing makes a crack at Tapp obsessively working on the Jigsaw case in favor of going out and having a beer with him, saying that "maybe [he] should find [himself] a girlfriend." Per Saw II: Flesh & Blood, Tapp did in fact have a wife and son (named Kara and Michael, respectively), but his focus on his work resulted in him neglecting and ultimately abandoning them when Michael was young.
  • Also in the first film, Lawrence promises his daughter that he's not going to leave her. By the time the seventh film rolls around, his wife's divorced him because of his mental instability and taken their daughter with her. Not to mention that he's now working with the same guy as the man who held her hostage, after telling her that "The Bad Man" didn't exist and wasn't hiding in her room.
  • Saw 3D featured Chester Bennington of Linkin Park as one of the victims of Jigsaw's traps. He wound up committing suicide on July 20, 2017, the same day that the first trailer for Jigsaw came out. It didn't help that the villainy of Chester's character (being a leader of a racist skinhead gang) is just mentioned instead of being depicted on-screen, and in real life, Chester was a nice guy with deep seated problems with depression.
• He's Just Hiding: Some fans refuse to believe that Adam is dead and theorize his body in the sequels has been replaced with another one because of a continuity error (his corpse is shown to be chained by his right ankle while in the first movie he was chained by his left).
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Saw II:
    • Oh yes, there will be blood... when I drink your milkshake!
    • Emmanuelle Vaugier (Addison's actress) had starred in a Charmed (1998) episode not too long before where Tobin Bell played the Monster of the Week tormenting her.
    • Erik Knudsen would later star in Scream 4, the first scene of which mocks the Saw franchise.
    • It has been pointed out that one of the jump-cuts in the opening trap's scene uses the same stock sound that Five Nights at Freddy's 2 uses for its jumpscares. This would be hilarious enough on its own, if the trap in question also didn't have the victim die by having his head crushed with a helmet filled with spikes, similar to how the FNaF franchise's villain would later die in the third game.
  • In Saw V, Scott Patterson plays an authority figure whom a serial killer is trying to frame. Come Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Patterson voices The Commissioner Gordon, who happens to be Jack the Ripper; therefore, he really is the killer unlike in this film.
  • A month after Saw 3D's release, the infamous pink blood became far funnier when Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc came out in Japan, which also depicts blood as bright pink, though it was 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 Deadly Game, and the ''Saw' series is among its inspirations.
  • Jigsaw: Tobin Bell and Laura Vandervoort have both acted in R. L. Stine television adaptations (Bell had appeared in The Haunting Hour, while Vandervoort appeared in three episodes of Goosebumps (1995)).
• Ho Yay:
  • Believe it or not, it's been suggested by many fans between Lawrence and Adam.
  • Brad and Ryan, who choose to save each other instead of their girlfriend Dina.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • "Chainshipping" for Lawrence/Adam, named for the chains on their feet that keep them bound to their assigned trap with one another. Alternatively, they are also referred to as "Bathroom Boyfriends."
  • Likewise, Amanda/Lynn is known as "Shotgunshipping," courtesy of Lynn's shotgun collar trap installed by Amanda in Saw III.
  • Keeping up the theme of pairings named for their assigned traps and/or motifs, Hoffman/Strahm is known as "Coffinshipping," (named for the Glass Coffin Trap Hoffman winds up killing Strahm in) and the pairing of William/Zeke is "Spiralshipping" (named for the spiral motif present throughout the film and William's true identity as the Spiral Killer.).
• I Knew It!: In Saw 3D, it's revealed that Dr. Gordon survived the first film and had been a disciple of Jigsaw working behind the scenes since then. Some fans theorized this originally based on a brief part of the video shown to Michael Marks in Saw II. A cloaked figure with a limp (assumed later to be Jigsaw) is seen next to an operating table. Saw 3D reveals that this WAS in fact Dr. Gordon.
• Improved by the Re-Cut: The Director's Cut/Uncut versions of most of the films are generally considered superior to the theatrical versions due to having new scenes, longer versions of some already-present scenes, and more detailed dialogue. The only exceptions are arguably Saw IV, whose theatrical version is notably more polished with exclusive shots that make some scenes more coherent (such as Hoffman actually being seen untying himself from his chair at the end), and Saw VI, whose Director's Cut ending received backlash for adding a connection between the two unrelated outcomes that happen (namely, the trigger of the Acid Room also starting the timer for the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0).
• It Was His Sled: At this time, it's impossible to read anything about the franchise — including this page — without finding out the identities of Jigsaw and his apprentices/accomplices, alongside some other antagonists. Many once-shocking twists are also naturally lost on anybody who watches the films out of order.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Given the moral ambiguity of various characters, it's no surprise that the franchise is no stranger to this trope.
  • Saw 3D: Bobby is an obnoxious writer who pretended to be a past victim of a Jigsaw trap in order to get fame and money. While Hoffman (his abductor) is at his absolute worst in this film, he eventually received a direct comeuppance via an And I Must Scream fate. Bobby, on the other hand, only received punishment through proxy due to failing to rescue all of his loved ones and staff from the gruesome traps he should have been put into himself, and while injured, he survives in the end.
  • Jigsaw: Most, if not all, of the victims in the Barn game are pretty despicable themselves, including the former first apprentice of the long-dead Jigsaw. However, the most dislikable of the bunch is Anna, who feigns innocence in spite of killing her baby and pinning the blame on her husband, who ended up killing himself out of guilt. Ultimately, her selfishness doomed her and another trapped victim, who was left to rot besides her.
  • Saw X: Anyone who's watched the film is likely to say Cecilia is the most detestable person in the franchise, or at least one of the most detestable, especially given her contrast with John throughout the movie. While John is, well, Jigsaw, he has many humanizing moments in the film; Cecilia, on the other hand, easily shows that she's a lot more immoral than him. For starters, aside from being the ringleader of a medical fraud group that robs from the dying and desperate, she kills one of her own underlings (Gabriella) despite her succeeding in her trap, tries to use the intestines of another dead one (Valentina) to get an advantage for her personal survival, and forces Carlos, a child, into the Bloodboarding Trap to John's horror.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The main reason most people watched the later films was for the death traps and their gory aftermath, such that the series became the Trope Codifier for Torture Porn (a genre that's likewise awash in this trope). Fans of the series know that the first film was actually fairly light on blood, and that the series as a whole has a fairly intricate Myth Arc about the various Jigsaw killers and the cops hunting them... but a casual viewer would be hard-pressed to tell you which killer is taking up the Jigsaw mantle in any film past Saw III, because that's not what they're paying attention to.
• Magnificent Bastard: John Kramer, aka the Jigsaw Killer, was a law-abiding civil engineer before losing his unborn son, becoming estranged from his wife, and being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in quick succession. Jigsaw uses his skills and intellect to become a prolific Serial Killer, designing elaborate death traps and picking his victims on the basis of their perceived lack of gratitude for the blessing of life. Fostering multiple protegés, only some of whom are even aware of each other, Jigsaw blackmails a hospital orderly to impersonate him to allay suspicion, manages to escape from police custody by manipulating the lead detective responsible for capturing him, uses his more devoted followers as back-up insurance against those who do not follow his teachings properly, and is responsible for schemes planned so far in advance that he continues to affect events even a decade after his death.
• Misaimed Fandom: Some fans think that what Jigsaw does isn't murder because he gives his victims a way out, and that Jigsaw's principle is noble in that those who survive his games will become better people. This despite his philosophy being so full of holes you could use it to strain pasta, his hypocrisy, his sadism, his very-much-a-murderer actions and his pretentiousness and pride of such magnitude that he never once entertains the concept that almost none of the people who survive his traps were better off for it.
  • Perhaps because of this, one of the main themes of Saw III was that Jigsaw's work was ultimately a failure, and that those who survived his games weren't changed at all. Amanda, for example, had resumed cutting herself, and still had the same psychological issues that she had before Jigsaw 'helped' her. If anything, she now had murder as an outlet for them. In fact, both Amanda and Hoffman are good reflections of the flaws in his intentions; neither changed their ways after dealing with him and made more murderous (and usually inescapable) traps, turning them into worse people even after supposedly "understanding life". Only one apprentice, Logan, kept his sanity and followed John's manners of work closely (even though he didn't really adhere to his philosophy either) - and only because he was mostly sane and rational to begin with.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Many people believe that Hoffman is beyond redemption after all the things he had done, including mimicking Jigsaw's traps to commit murder in the first place and blackmailing Amanda to make her look bad in front of John.
  • Lampshaded In-Universe by Mallick in Saw V, as he says that everyone of the Fatal Five, including himself are all monsters who deserve Jigsaw's punishments. Zig-zagged in that Mallick acknowledges his own sins and is remorseful, so it could be the first step of his redemption.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • "Hello Zepp", used in the Continuity Porn-laden ending of each film.
  • And, of course, "Game over".
• Older Than They Think: A man is drugged, and awakens in a room with a tape player. The tape informs him that there's a trap in the room, and if he tries to leave, he'll die. If he can disarm the trap within three hours, he'll be permitted to live, but if he fails, he'll die, and if he triggers it, he'll die. I think I saw that before, right? Wrong. This is the plot of the 1964 Twilight Zone episode "The Jeopardy Room", predating Saw by a full 40 years (39 if you count the short film).
• Only the Creator Does It Right: The movies released after the departure of creators Leigh Whannell and James Wan as writers (they were involved in the following movies up to Saw 3D, but only as executive producers) are highly regarded as inferior to the first three movies, with the frequent exceptions of Saw VI and X.
• Paranoia Fuel: If you have ever done something bad in your life, or are doing it right now, Jigsaw will find you and put you through a terrifying, bloody test that will drain your mental health to a grain of salt, or kill you painfully. Admit it, a lot of people had this thought after watching at least one movie.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • For those who disregard Saw IV-3D (and sometimes the following ones as well) in comparison to the first three movies, Hoffman is generally seen as a worse Big Bad in quality to Jigsaw, starting with his Ass Pull introduction as an apprentice in Saw IV.
  • Gibson from Saw 3D, who replaced far more well-regarded law enforcement officers in the series like Kerry, Eric, Rigg, Strahm and Perez. Unlike the others, he doesn't even survive halfway through his introductory film.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The first film features Michael Emerson (Zep) and Ken Leung (Sing) a few years before they became more widely recognized for their roles in Lost.
  • Aiden Pierce's voice actor is Michael Marks.
  • Joseph Seed was Mallick, one of the Fatal Five in Saw V.
  • Wynonna Earp is one of the people killed on the Shotgun Carousel in Saw VI.
  • While Devon Bostick's most known role is Rodrick Heffley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and its first two sequels, he was previously present in many other movies at younger ages. The most infamous case is likely his appearance as Brent Abbott in Saw VI, which led many people in the Internet to joke that they don't remember Brent's scenes from Diary of a Wimpy Kid or that "Rodrick went insane" (since Brent kills William at the end of Saw VI).
    • That wasn't his first role in the Saw franchise either (in fact, he's the only actor in the franchise to have played more than one character, asides from Leigh Whannell if you count the original short film). Before that, he played background character Derek in Saw IV. According to an interview, he said that Derek was originally going to play a larger role in the movie, but was glad that it was cut so that he could play Brent later.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • Jigsaw, as the titular character of this Villain-Based Franchise who fans started to get behind after awhile ala Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, etc. His status as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds wins him a lot of sympathy points, and his Affably Evil justifications for the things he does and people he does them to do at times have some merit (but are not completely foolproof).
  • Quite a few people are behind Hoffman because of his actions in Saw V and VI painting him as a badass Determinator who improvises plans on the fly whenever things start going bad for him. Even though, just as many if not more people are happy he got his final comeuppance in 3D.

S-Z

• The Scrappy: As the sequel number increases, so do the number of characters generally perceived as annoying or useless. The first film is arguably the only one that doesn't have a scrappy in it. It gets rather frustrating when the main character being tested is the scrappy, and even more frustrating when it appears that a scrappy is going to get out of the heap, but ends up getting killed instead. Special mentions include:
  • Even before Dead Meat made him a further joke by coining the Fan Nickname "Slow-Ass Motherfucking Jeff", Jeff from III was very disliked for taking way too much time to do literally anything and for screwing things up once he eventually got down to doing them, resulting in the deaths of six people, including his own wife.
  • Brent, the horribly annoying and murderous teen from VI. Not even having recently lost his father can make him in any way endearing or likeable.
  • Gibson from 3D is often considered the worst cop protagonist in the series (his competition being surprisingly varied, thanks to the series' propensity towards making cops the main characters in an effort to better tie in the movie's A-plot with the B-plot), due to taking a role in the film that could have been given to Strahm, Perez or Fisk had they not been either killed or outright written off so unceremoniously, as well as his actor's narm-y performance. Adding to this is the fact that he dies halfway through his movie, whereas the rest of the cops at least survived their debut film or made it to its third act.
• Sequelitis: People inside and outside the fandom have debated whether the series has suffered from Sequelitis, and if so, at what point. Some say it was the second film ("Saw never needed a sequel!"), others say it was the third ("the second film only counts!"), and a largely synonymous third group say it was the fourth ("the third movie finished the series perfectly!") or the fifth ("that movie just plain sucked!"). Oddly enough, most of these usually agree that the sixth was a surprising improvement and felt like a return to form for the series. 3D was almost universally panned by fans and critics alike at first, but opinion eventually became too wildly varied to pin down any fan consensus, even if it remains the most widely-disregarded film.
• Squick: Lots of it. Every film in the franchise (following the first) is practically built on it.
• Star Trek Movie Curse: The franchise is a good example of this. To wit:
  • The first three films (sometimes referred to as the "original trilogy"), which had the original creators involved in the writing, are generally considered the best entries, though the latter two aren't left without a divisive reception.
  • Saw IV, the installment where the creators derparted from writing and limited themselves to executive production, was, in contrast, poorly received, due to its numerous Ass Pull twists (most notably the Sequencing Deception that most of its events take place at the same time as Saw III) and the plot having the characters act a lot more idiotic. Saw V only worsened things, due to spending more time building further on past events rather than actually continuing the plot, and most characters except the villains achieving absolutely nothing out of sheer stupidity. Many also consider that these two films were the beginning of the series devolving into a Kudzu Plot, in spite of them still making plenty of money and having decent audiences.
  • Saw VI, although the film that earned the least money at the box office, was received by fans as a vast improvement over the previous three films that places a good start for the series to reshape itself.
  • And then Saw 3D runs smack-dab into the trope, with many considering it the very worst of the films. While pointing out all of its criticisms would make things very long here, it's worth noting that most of the criticized points were a consequence of distributor Lionsgate retorting to Executive Meddling measures after the poor box office results of Saw VI (including cramming the plots of two planned films into what we know as Saw 3D).
  • Then seven years later, Jigsaw came out, which, despite its mixed-to-negative reviews, was considered by fans to be a far more superior film than Saw 3D. It wasn't until four more years that the franchise would return to a good mainstream reception with the release of the even better-received Spiral.
• Surprisingly Good Accent:
  • Costas Mandylor, who plays the American Mark Hoffman in Saw III to 3D, is Australian and impressively, his accent never slips noticeably once throughout the five movies where Hoffman appears.
  • Angus Macfadyen, the actor of Jeff Denlon in Saw III and IV, is Scottish, and he also does an admirable job of keeping his natural accent from slipping too much.
  • Matt Passmore, the actor of Logan Nelson in Jigsaw, is another Australian who pulls off a reasonable accent.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Hello Zepp" is extremely reminiscent of "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A common issue fans have with the series is that it tends to be too trigger happy with some of the major characters when they still had a lot of story left to offer. Some examples incude:
  • Allison Kerry in Saw III. A major character in the previous two movies, she appeared to be stepping into a leading role this time around... only to fall victim to Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome and never be mentioned again until the next film.
  • Peter Strahm in Saw V. He's a badass FBI agent who had upgraded from supporting character to a main protagonist after the previous film, began piecing things together about Jigsaw and his apprentices, and was eventually set up as Hoffman's overall antithesis; yet he's killed in an incredibly nasty way at the end of this film, which didn't really amount to a strong impact on the plot anyway, as he still hadn't done any contribution in foiling Hoffman by then.
  • Lindsey Perez in Saw VI. A popular character who died offscreen and was brought back (with the previous death being retconned into an attempt at faking it)... only to be unceremoniously killed off again. Though this time it was onscreen, at least.
  • A non-death example is Fisk, who's introduced in Saw IV as a significant (but not major) detective involved in the Jigsaw investigations, and he's implied to be a close colleague of Hoffman before he's completely written off without explanation with Saw VI. While he didn't get as much attention as the aforementioned characters, some fans have wondered how Fisk could have been like had he gotten a larger role for Saw VI or 3D, especially with how he would react to the moment Hoffman is exposed as one of the Jigsaw's successor.
  • The latter three are made even more confusing with Saw 3D, which introduced a brand new character for the role of cop protagonist when one of them could have taken that place, providing a character whom audiences already had an investment in (rather than wasting time developing a new character for the original finale^note Some further development could have been necessary for Fisk too, but not to an extent as major as in Gibson's case.) while also creating a stronger connection to the previous films.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: While the franchise started off with effective use of psychological and tragedy elements to provoke feelings on audiences, later films make it hard to care about the protagonists and other characters, due to the movies' constant use of Anyone Can Die and Downer Endings. More often than not, a protagonist who's making good progress will abruptly die as a form of Shoot the Shaggy Dog or Yank the Dog's Chain at the end of their debut installment, and if they don't, it will happen in the next one with the application of Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome or Decoy Protagonist. The progressively larger amount of Scrappies as the storyline advances doesn't help either.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • After Leigh Whannell left as a writer from the third film onwards, the executives tried to portray John as a Tragic Villain whose Start of Darkness was caused by a Trauma Conga Line 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 simply smoking), even punishing innocent ones just because they were related to a guilty victim, this portrayal fell flat.
  • Amanda's death in Saw III appears to be intended to invoke Alas, Poor Villain, as she had suffered many tribulations throughout her life, Saw VI reveals that she didn't actually want to kill Lynn at the end because she was being blackmailed by Hoffman, and she dies in agony knowing that she disappointed John. However, the fact remains that she was a complete jerk to Lynn throughout the movie even before the point in time of her being blackmailed, and there is no guarantee that she wouldn't have still refused to let Lynn go even without the blackmailing, seeing how she has been rigging tests for a while at this point, and a deleted scene even has Lynn obtain the key from Amanda only to find that it doesn't fit the lock on the collar, suggesting it indeed was rigged. Furthermore, even if she had been willing to let Lynn go, many viewers will never forgive her for what she did to Kerry. For said viewers, instead of a sympathetic death, this was nothing but her getting her well-deserved comeuppance for rigging tests to be inescapable and harassing Lynn throughout the movie.
  • 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 Social Darwinism. Even Mallick, who's arguably the most decent of them (being unaware of the building's residents and feeling 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 monsters for what they've done, and as such willingly sacrifice their hands to the last trap instead of forcing the other to do it on their own.
• Wangst: Jeff Denlon, the protagonist of Saw III, suffers from this badly. Understandably, he is still grieving the death of his young son two years after the accident that caused it happened, but to the point that he can't function properly, ignores his still-living daughter and isn't able complete any of his tasks by himself, which results in getting several people killed, including his wife. He also directly kills John, believing that he actually did some good as a means to an end. He eventually gets his from Strahm in Saw IV.

Video games:

Video Games

• Game-Breaker: Punching with your fists is an easier and much quicker way of defeating an enemy than using any weapon in the game, perhaps barring the revolver.
• The Problem with Licensed Games:
  • A minor case for the first game; though praised for its story and immersive environment, the game received mixed reviews due to its wonky controls and combat system.
  • Flesh & Blood was panned even moreso than the first game, due to replacing most of the combat system with quick time events, which eliminated much of the suspense that the first game got right.

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