Every Saw Movie Ranked Worst To Best

2. Saw

saw 2004
Lions Gate Films

Obviously, no movie in the Saw franchise is as important, is as landscape-changing, and is as fondly remembered as the 2004 original. Still, while this is clearly an excellent film, it's just nudged out to second spot when ranking the series' nine movies.

This is the film which introduced us to the twisted games of John Kramer, this is the film which launched the career of modern-horror royalty James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and this is the film which delivered genuinely one of the greatest twist endings in horror history.

What Saw also does incredibly well, is it's viewed as one of the forefathers of the torture porn subgenre, yet it doesn't show as much on-screen violence as you're led to think. Yes, there's clearly a lot of gnarly stuff going on, clearly a lot of blood spilt, but this first movie shows a brilliant restraint in what it does and doesn't show to its audience; leaving you to fill in the chilling blanks of what may have just happened.

Saw is where it all fantastically began for a franchise that has so far brought home over $1 billion at the global box office, against a combined budget of less than $100 million.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.