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Saw is a Horror fiction media franchise created by Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannell, which began with the eponymous 2004 film and quickly became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded from films into other media, including a television series, video games, comic books, music, theme park attractions, and merchandising including toys, masks, and clothing. Saw is one of the highest-grossing horror film franchises of all-time.
The series revolves around the fictional serial killer John "Jigsaw" Kramer and his apprentices. Kramer was introduced briefly in Saw and developed in more detail in the subsequent films. Rather than killing his victims outright, he traps them in life-threatening situations that he refers to as "tests" or "games" to test their will to survive through physical or psychological torture, believing that if they survive, they will be "rehabilitated".
In 2003, Wan and Whannell made a short film to help pitch a potential feature film concept, after having the original script written for several years. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to receive funding in their home country of Australia, Wan and Whannell traveled to the United States, after several producers expressed interest in the project. It was ultimately successful, and, in 2004, the first installment debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically that October by Lionsgate Films. After its immensely successful opening weekend, the Saw II was immediately green-lit. Five directors have worked on the series: James Wan, Darren Lynn Bousman, David Hackl, Kevin Greutert and The Spierig Brothers; while Whannell, Bousman, Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Josh Stolberg, and Peter Goldfinger have written the screenplays. Both creators remain with the franchise as executive producers.
The film series has been a box office success, grossing more than $1 billion from box office and retail sales. The first, second, third, sixth, and ninth films received mixed reviews, while the fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth films received negative reviews. The tenth film received generally positive reviews from critics, becoming the only film in the franchise to do so. An eleventh film was scheduled for September 2025, but was stalled in March 2025.
In December, Lionsgate confirmed Saw XI on their Instagram account, with a release date of September 27, 2024. However, in April 2024, the film was delayed to September 26, 2025. Koules stated the film would likely be a direct sequel to Saw X. Greutert was set to direct. In March 2025, it was reported that work on the film had stalled. Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, who wrote the fourth to the seventh film, turned in a draft of the script in mid-2024. However, in August later that year, Oren Koules confirmed it was cancelled due to "having a difference of opinion with, and we couldn't resolve it."
In June 2025, Blumhouse Productions bought Twisted Pictures' stake in the franchise, with Lionsgate still being involved. Franchise co-creator James Wan will be creatively involved with a new Saw film for the first time since Saw III (2006). In October 2025, Jason Blum announced Wan's creative return to the franchise, expressing that his creative outlook to return the "magic" to it involved bringing back the people that made Saw (2004) to begin with despite being impressed by how the producers made ten films without them, being grateful by how they were now allowing them to continue.
Saw, often referred to as Saw 0.5, is a 2003 short film that served as a promotional tool in pitching a feature-length version to Lionsgate. It is included on the second disc of the uncut DVD release of Saw. It has also been released alone, and on the Saw Trilogy DVD containing Saw Uncut Edition, Saw II Special Edition, and Saw III Director's Cut, packaged with a limited-edition 3D puppet-head box version of Billy the Puppet.
A mockumentary short film, Full Disclosure Report, was released in 2005 as part of the Saw: Uncut DVD-release. The story takes place between the first and second films and features reporters trying to figure out who Jigsaw is and discussing his victims. The short film marks the first appearance of detective Eric Matthews, before his appearance in Saw II.
Another mockumentary short film, The Scott Tibbs Documentary, was released in 2006 as part of the Saw II: Unrated Special Edition DVD-release. The story takes place between the second and third films, where Adam Stanheight's friend Scott Tibbs, leader of the rock band "Wrath of the Gods", is filming a documentary about Jigsaw and his victims.
Saw: Rebirth is originally a comic book released by IDW Publishing in 2005 and tells the story of the events that spurred the transformation of John Kramer into Jigsaw. Later, it was released as a short film in the form of a motion comic on the original Saw II website.
The series takes place primarily in an unnamed city in the United States. Flashbacks from Saw IV reveal the roots of the series, presenting John Kramer as a successful civil engineer and devoted husband to his wife Jill Tuck, who opened a rehab clinic for drug addicts. Jill loses her unborn child, Gideon, due to the unwitting actions of a drug addict named Cecil, who flees the scene. Saw VI later showed that another drug addict, Amanda Young, had been with Cecil on the night that he unwittingly caused Gideon's death, unbeknownst to John or Jill. Grieving the loss of his child, John distances himself from his friends and wife.
John and Jill eventually drift apart and divorce. John finds himself trapped by his own complacency until he is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Extremely bitter over his squandered life and the loss of his unborn son, he begins observing the lives of others and becomes even more depressed as he sees them squandering the gift of life that he had just been denied. He approaches an insurance executive named William Easton, asking for coverage for an experimental cancer treatment, but is denied. Flashbacks from Saw II show that, after surviving a suicide attempt where he drives his car off a cliff, John is "reborn", and nurtures the idea that the only way for someone to change is for them to change themselves. Then, in Saw IV flashbacks, he designs the first trap and test for Cecil, and decides to use the rest of his existence to design more of these "tests" or "games" as a form of "instant rehabilitation" that would change the world "one person at a time". John is soon given the nickname "The Jigsaw Killer" (or "Jigsaw"), because he removes a puzzle piece-shaped chunk of flesh from those who do not escape his traps. John states that this name was given to him by the media, and that the cut piece of flesh represent that the victims were missing what he called the "survival instinct".
Few of John's victims can survive his brutal mechanical traps, which are often ironically representations of problems in the victim's life and require them to undergo severe physical and/or psychological torture to escape.
Jigsaw depicts one of John's first games, which never becomes public. The only survivor is Logan Nelson, the man who accidentally mislabeled John's x-rays, causing his cancer to go undiagnosed until it was too late. Believing Logan should not die over an honest mistake, John saves him before he is killed by one of the traps, and recruits him as his first Apprenticeship. Logan helps John build several traps for future games, but for unknown reasons seemed to part ways with John by the events of Saw VI, since he is not mentioned in John's will or seen in any capacity.
In Saw V, police lieutenant Mark Hoffman's ties with John are revealed in a series of flashbacks. During John's first years of activity, Hoffman's sister was murdered by her boyfriend, Seth Baxter. Seth is sentenced to life imprisonment; however, a technicality allows him to go free after only five years. Hoffman then kills him in an inescapable trap designed to resemble a Jigsaw trap; everyone then believes that Jigsaw was behind the killing. John then kidnaps Hoffman and blackmails him into becoming his apprentice in his "rehabilitation" methods. Though initially forced to help, Hoffman later becomes a willing apprentice, and helps set up most of John's tests.
After beating her test, Amanda becomes the first publicly-known survivor of a Jigsaw game. She comes to see John as a hero who changed her life for the better and, on John's request, becomes his Mentorship and next apprentice. John shows her rehabilitation to Jill, who becomes aware of his traps and somewhat of an accomplice as well.
In Saw, John chains the man who diagnosed his cancer, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, in a dilapidated industrial washroom with Adam Stanheight, a photographer who has been tailing the doctor, believing he is cheating on his wife. Lawrence has instructions to kill Adam by six o'clock or his wife and daughter will be killed. Flashbacks show Detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing, who suspect Lawrence of being Jigsaw, following a trail of clues from other Jigsaw traps. Sing's death from a shotgun trap after saving a victim causes Tapp to obsess over catching Jigsaw. Later, he chases Zep Hindle, who monitors Adam and Lawrence's tests, and is shot in the chest. Eventually, Lawrence saws off his own foot to escape, leaving Adam in the bathroom while Lawrence tries to save his family and get help for Adam. It is later seen in Saw 3D that Lawrence finds a steaming hot pipe and cauterizes his wound, stopping the bleeding and ultimately surviving the trap. John catches up with Lawrence and makes him his next apprentice, a fact he hides from his other accomplices. Flashbacks from Saw III show that Amanda kidnapped Adam and later returned to suffocate him as an act of "mercy killing".
Saw X takes place between the events of Saw and Saw II, and sees John traveling to Mexico in hopes that a Norwegian cancer treatment will cure him. However, when the operation is proven to be a scam, John, with the help of Amanda and Hoffman, kidnaps those responsible and subjects them to his traps, ultimately ending with the death of all but Dr. Cecilia Pederson.
Saw II begins with the police tracking a severely weakened John to his lair. However, another test is in place, as he and Amanda have kidnapped the son of Detective Eric Matthews and trapped him and a group of seven convicts, previously framed by Eric, in a house that is slowly being filled with Sarin, with Amanda among them. He will trade Daniel Matthews' life for Eric's time, conversing with him until the game is concluded. Eric loses his patience and assaults John, forcing him to take him to the house, only to discover that the video feed from inside the house had been pre-recorded; the events in it actually took place much earlier. Eric's son was locked in a safe in John's warehouse and kept alive with an oxygen tank. Eric is knocked unconscious by a masked figure and wakes up imprisoned in the bathroom from Saw, which is part of the house's foundation. Amanda reveals herself to Eric as John's protégée before leaving him to die. In a flashback from Saw III, Eric manages to escape the bathroom by breaking his foot. He confronts and beats Amanda, demanding to know where his son is. Amanda fights him off and leaves him for dead. A flashback from Saw IV shows Hoffman later dragging Eric to a prison cell, keeping him alive for a future game.
The events of Saw III and Saw IV occur concurrently. Saw III begins with John, weakened and near death, confined to a makeshift hospital bed. Amanda has taken over his work, designing traps of her own; however, these traps are inescapable, as Amanda is convinced that John's traps have no effect and that people do not change. Lynn Denlon, a kidnapped doctor, is forced to keep John alive while another test is performed on Jeff Denlon, a man obsessed with vengeance against the drunk driver who killed his son. John, unwilling to allow a murderer to continue his legacy, designs a test for Amanda as well; she ultimately fails, resulting in the deaths of herself, John, Lynn, and Jeff. Saw IV, meanwhile, revolves around tests meant for Officer Daniel Rigg, which are overseen by Hoffman, who masquerades as a participant in the game. Rigg fails his test, resulting in Eric's death. Rigg is left to bleed to death by Hoffman, who later discovers the bodies of John and Amanda. When an autopsy is performed on John, a Compact Cassette coated in wax is found in his stomach; the tape informs Hoffman that he is wrong to think that it is all over just because John is dead, and he should not expect to go untested.
The events of Saw V show Hoffman's first solo test: five people connected to a disastrous fire that killed several others are put into four interconnected tests of teamwork, killing off one person in each trap. The two remaining test subjects realize at the final trap that each previous trap was meant to be completed by each of the five people doing a small part, rather than killing one person per trap. With this knowledge, they work together and barely manage to escape. They are found alive by Special Agent Dan Erickson. Meanwhile, Hoffman has set up FBI Agent Peter Strahm to appear to be Jigsaw's accomplice, while Strahm pursues Hoffman and is eventually killed due to his inability to follow Hoffman's rules, leaving Hoffman free to continue Jigsaw's "work".
Saw VI begins with Hoffman setting up a game as per John's instructions left in a box for Jill during Saw V. This game centers on the health insurance executive, William, who oversees a team responsible for rejecting two-thirds of all insurance claims. As William progresses through four tests, he saves as many people as he can and learns the error of his ways, which inherently "kill" the rejected. His last test is a test of forgiveness by the family of Harold Abbott, whom William refused a claim. Harold's son ultimately chooses to kill William with hydrofluoric acid. Meanwhile, Agent Erickson and the previously thought-dead Agent Lindsey Perez search for Agent Strahm with Hoffman's assistance. Finding irregularities in previous murder scenes, Perez and Erickson discover Hoffman's identity, but he kills them before they can go public with it. Hoffman travels back to the site of William's tests, where Jill attacks him to obey John's final request. She leaves him in a new trap John has left behind and does not leave a key for him to free himself. He is able to manipulate the trap and escapes wounded.
Saw 3D picks up with Jill and Hoffman battling for control of John's legacy. As Jill enters protective custody and makes Hoffman's identity public, Hoffman sets up a new game involving skinheads to find a way to Jill. Meanwhile, Bobby Dagen, a fraud who has written a book about escaping a Jigsaw trap he never experienced, is captured and forced to confront people who knew that he lied about being in a trap. Three of Bobby's friends die and his test concludes with him being forced to re-enact the trap he claimed to have escaped. He fails, causing the death of his wife. Meanwhile, Hoffman poses as a corpse and kills several officers to infiltrate the police station. He finds and kills Jill using the reverse bear trap. Hoffman attempts to leave town but is captured by Lawrence and his accomplices, then placed in the bathroom from Saw. Lawrence leaves Hoffman shackled in the bathroom to die.
The present-day portion of Jigsaw takes place roughly ten years after John's death in Saw III. When a new Jigsaw game leaves several people dead, the police come to believe that either John has been resurrected, or a Jigsaw copycat is involved. It is eventually revealed that Logan is the new Jigsaw Killer, and that he recreated the game he was once part of using new victims. Logan abducts corrupt detective Brad Halloran and kills him as revenge for him being indirectly responsible for the death of Logan's wife. Having successfully framed Halloran as the killer, Logan escapes and is free to continue Jigsaw's work.
Spiral takes place an unknown amount of time after John's death, as another Jigsaw copycat creates their own games to punish corrupt police officers and detectives. The case is investigated by Detective Zeke Banks, who eventually discovers that his new partner, Detective William Schenk, is the killer. Schenk kidnaps Zeke's father Marcus, who is largely responsible for the corruption in the police department, and reveals that his own father was killed by a dirty cop and that he hopes to recruit Zeke as a partner in cleansing the department of corruption. Zeke is then forced to choose between killing Schenk or saving his father; he manages to rescue Marcus, but Schenk calls a SWAT team and makes it appear that Marcus is the aggressor and is holding a gun. Schenk then escapes as the SWAT team restrains Zeke and shoots Marcus to death.
Billy is a puppet resembling a ventriloquist's dummy, sometimes seen riding a tricycle, that has appeared throughout the films and has become a type of mascot for the series. It is used by the Jigsaw Killer to communicate with his victims by delivering televised messages or occasionally in person to describe details of the sadistic traps and the means by which the victims could survive. Viewers have sometimes incorrectly identified the puppet itself as Jigsaw, because of its presence and connection to the killer.
Age and use of the puppet over the course of the films necessitated its reconstruction. According to James Wan, the original puppet's face for Saw involved clay, papier-mâché, and black ping-pong balls with the irises painted in for the eyes, but in later films more sophisticated construction included waterjet-cut foam for the body and remote-controlled animatronics.
The endurance and popularity of the franchise has resulted in the production of Billy merchandise, as well as references in other media and its use in promotions for the films.
"Hello Zepp"
"Hello Zepp" is a piece of instrumental music that was originally composed by Charlie Clouser for the first film in the series. In Saw, the implied villain, Zep Hindle, is revealed to actually be a victim of the Jigsaw Killer. The character's name in the script is spelled "Zep", whereas the music titles are spelled "Zepp" as a reference to the popular '80s band Zapp. Saw script on IMSDb. Accessed July 23, 2010. Saw track listing on UGO Networks. Accessed July 23, 2010. As the series continued, the piece was reused in every film as a leitmotif, often being renamed and remixed to accommodate the changing situations and characters. The music was used in every Saw ending, usually during the revealing of plot revelations and twists which Saw films often use and it serves as the main theme tune for the whole series.
Traps
An important component of each film is the variety of (usually mechanical in form) traps Jigsaw and his apprentices use on their captives to communicate his message.
According to David Hackl, all of the traps are real objects, and not CGI. They were designed to look horrific but ultimately be safe for the actors in them. Writer Marcus Dunstan said: "It's built to function there on the day", and added: "It works. So if there's a scalping chair—there really was a chair with working gears to grind and pull your scalp back." The most potentially dangerous item was a "water box" used in Saw V, in which one of the actors (Scott Patterson, as Peter Strahm) had to keep his head submerged as long as possible. Another element of the traps is that Hackl desired a specific look of rust and menace, but he also wanted them to have a type of beauty about them.
Saw IV premiered at number one with $32.1 million making it the second-best Halloween weekend opener. In Saw Vs opening weekend it placed second, being beat by , and made $30.1 million. It is Lionsgate's tenth-highest-grossing film. Saw VI opened in second place behind Paranormal Activity to $14.1 million, which is the lowest of all the Saw films worldwide. It is also the lowest-grossing film in the series. Saw 3D placed first grossing $22.5 million its opening weekend, with 92% of tickets coming from more than 2,100 3D-equipped locations. It had the fifth-best opening weekend in the Saw series. It is the most successful film in the franchise since Saw IV. In the United States and Canada, Jigsaw was released alongside Thank You for Your Service and Suburbicon, and is projected to gross around $20 million from 2,941 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $1.6 million from Thursday night previews at 2,400 theaters, just below the $1.7 million Saw 3D made from midnight screenings seven years prior, and $7.2 million on its first day. It went on to open to $16.64 million, finishing first at the box office but marking the second lowest debut of the franchise. In its second weekend the film dropped 61% to $6.56 million, finishing third behind newcomers and A Bad Moms Christmas. In its third weekend, the film dropped another 47% and made $3.43 million, finishing fifth.
The Saw series, when compared to the other top-grossing American horror series— A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Scream, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—and adjusting for 2023 inflation, is the fifth highest grossing series with $688.3 million. Halloween is the highest-grossing horror series in the United States at approximately $1.09 billion, with Friday the 13th in second at $908.4 million, The Nightmare on Elm Street series is in third with $793.5 million. The Scream film series is in fourth place with $779.5 million. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series is in sixth with $459.7 million, and the Child's Play film series rounding out the list with $305.2 million.
The box office numbers, unadjusted for inflation are as follows:
The first game in the series, Saw, set between the first and second film in the series, was initially released on October 6, 2009, with a sequel , released on October 19, 2010, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, ten days before the release of the seventh film, Saw 3D.
David Tapp and Amanda Young were released as part of the downloadable Saw Chapter for the video game Dead by Daylight.
Billy the Puppet has appeared as a skin in the video games , , , and Fortnite, and in a decal and as a goal explosion in Rocket League. Billy the Puppet was also appeared on Delta Force in addition to the franchise-based chainsaw and weapon skins.
In October 2021, Twisted Productions co-founders Burg and Koules confirmed a third Saw video game was in development for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
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