Saw: Every Movie's Main Game Ranked

The best and worst of Jigsaw...

Saw 3D Joyce
Lionsgate

Every Saw film has a central game. While there are usually a few other individual traps in the earlier scenes, most of a Saw movie's traps are connected with an overarching game testing the latest individuals who have fallen into the clutches of Jigsaw and his disciples - horror cinema's most brutal servers of karma.

And with the pleasantly surprising Saw X having arrived in cinemas, it's as good a time as any to see how all of the central games in the Saw movies stack up.

Well, it'll surprise no-one who's familiar with this series to say that these central games are, much like the films themselves, a mixed bag across the board. Some are painfully suspenseful and genuinely thought-provoking psychological games that'll grip everyone brave enough to stomach these unrelentingly brutal movies. Others are, to put it politely, considerably less successful.

Still, it's arguable that most of Jigsaw's games are at least partly successful as horror storylines go, so that's something to praise.

So, out of the nine Saw games to date (Spiral doesn't have a central game to speak of), which flopped the most? And which comes out on top? It's time to find out...

9. Saw 3D - Bobby's Game

Saw 3D Joyce
Lionsgate

Game: Bobby (Sean Patrick Flannery), a conman who pretended to have survived one of Jigsaw's games in order to become rich, is put through a real game. He goes through a series of traps in which he must try and save various people who helped him in his scheme before reaching the final trap, where he must re-enact the test he pretended to have survived in order to save his wife.

Everything about this game sucks - yes, that means everything. Out of all the main games in the Saw movies, this is the worst and it's not even close.

The acting, writing and visuals are awful, and all five of the traps in the game are duds. Not only are they bland as hell, but they don't make any sense at all - they're either unfairly difficult or seemingly so easy that Bobby's failure to beat them is utterly exasperating.

Speaking of which, Bobby fails to save any of the other four victims and at the end we're treated to the miserable spectacle of his wife (Gina Holden), a woman who'd done nothing wrong, being roasted alive and dying an excruciatingly painful death. This whole game feels pointless as a result and it leaves a hell of a nasty taste behind.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.