20 Perfect Scenes In Otherwise Terrible Horror Movies
12. Saw V - The Glass Cube
Saw V might be a monumentally dumb film, but it just so happens to contain perhaps the smartest character decision in the franchise - at least, the smartest one not made by the villains.
The Water Cube trap presents us with one hell of a frightening concept: FBI Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) has his head in a box that's slowly filling with water. He's being drowned from the neck up, and there is no escape... except there is. Strahm uses a pen to stab himself in the neck, performing a tracheotomy which allows him to breathe through the wound in his neck until help arrives. Genius.
When main antagonist Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) sees Strahm alive, he's just as shocked as the audience is, for the trap was meant to be inescapable. By establishing such a frightening concept and then beating it was such an ingenious decision, Saw V managed to produce the only great scene within the arguable nadir of the whole franchise, which is otherwise sunk by forgettable traps and atrocious editing and pacing.