Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
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Weird
Everyone has a streaming guilty pleasure. For some, it’s The Bachelor franchise. For others, it’s whatever’s playing on The Food Network. However, one of my biggest cinematic guilty pleasures is as graphic as it is disturbing. I love the Saw franchise.
In my heart of hearts, I know that these aren’t good movies. They barely make any sense, and the only thing keeping them from being actual torture porn is an R rating. But whether because it’s an exercise in gruesome tolerance or because I started reading Stephen King too early in life, I’ve seen every one of these confounding movies multiple times. I’m not entirely sure why Saw has become such a big part of my life, but here we are, horrifying reverse bear traps and all.
In case you’re like me and have a soft sport for the sicker side of horror, I have you covered. Here’s your guide to where you can stream every Saw movie. Not only that, but this guide includes brief descriptions of some of the franchise’s most memorable deaths. Happy watching, and remember — John Kramer is insane.
‘Saw’
It’s the gruesome horror flick that started it all. Though Saw is now known for its gory reputation, the first movie, released in 2004, was far more of a thriller than the torture porn the series would become. Starring Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, and Michael Emerson, the first installment focuses on two men trapped in a bathroom with a dead body. But there’s a catch — the movie’s trapped photographer isn’t as trustworthy as he seems.
‘Saw II’
This murderous sequel was the first movie that really started bringing on the gore. It’s next to impossible to track the actual plot of these movies, so I’m going by memorable moments. This is the one that starts with a key buried in a man’s eye and largely focuses on eight terrified people attempting to escape a bobby-trapped house. This one has a lot of horrifying classics — the syringe pit, the glass box with the arm hole blades, and the crematory. It’ll probably give you nightmares, but that’s the point, right?
‘Saw III’
As far as being a movie with a discernible plot and actual stakes — you know, movie things — this is one of the most successful installments. This one largely follows Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen), a man who is unable to move on after his son was killed by a hit-and-run accident. Jigsaw decides to “help” him let go of his vengeance by putting him in a murder puzzle because John Kramer is a very crazy man. This one features a frozen lady, liquidized pig chunks, and a distraught father who almost chooses toys over another human’s life. Also this is the one where Jigsaw finally dies. So much family fun!
‘Saw IV’
This is an odd sentence to write, but this is the movie where the Saw franchise started going off the rails. With Jigsaw finally dead, the rest of the franchise focuses on training his replacement and jumping to flashbacks basically whenever the movie gets bored. Instead of taking place in a confined location, this time Saw hits the streets as the late Jigsaw tests Lieutenant Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent), a cop who’s super into saving people. Weird.
‘Saw V’
Up till this point, all of Jigsaw’s puzzles have operated under the same twisted logic. The victim will die unless he or she performs some deeply disturbing and torturous task. After a victim crushes his hands and is still sliced in half, this installment proves the game has changed. While the police try and figure out who’s behind this new string of Jigsaw murders, five people wake up with blade-covered collars around their necks. The only way to free themselves is to complete a series of increasingly deadly puzzles. Can they do it? Maybe! But not without a lot of pain. This is also the one where they learn far too late they were supposed to be working together the entire time.
‘Saw VI’
There are a lot of memorable openings in Saw, but Saw VI, which features a woman sawing off her own arm, takes the cake. However, this movie’s central victim is William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), the insurance agent who denied John Kramer’s coverage request. After surviving a series of tests including a memorable smoker’s lung challenge and that dreadful carousel, William’s life is ultimately placed in the hands of a captured mother son duo. Meanwhile, our rule-breaking Jigsaw replacement hunter becomes the hunted after Jill (Betsy Russell) gives Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) an ominous letter.
‘Saw: The Final Chapter’
It would make sense that in Saw’s “final” movie the franchise would get meta. The main victim of this movie is a man who falsely claims he was the victim of a Jigsaw puzzle. That obviously doesn’t go well for him, and he’s forced to watch as all of his friends, loved ones, and co-conspirators die. It’s brutal. But on a happier note, this is the movie where the police finally find Jigsaw’s location and one of his closest allies faces a brutal end. This one also features an appearance from the late Linkin Park lead singer, Chester Bennington.
