With a new Saw movie imminent, I thought I'd do a recap of all nine (!) previous entries. Spoilers ahead...
Saw (2004)
The original (not counting 2003's short that gave us the reverse bear trap) and arguably still the best. A very simple setup - two characters chained up in a disused bathroom with a corpse in between them and a building mystery of how they got there, with flashbacks gradually fitting the story together like a jigsaw puzzle. As the mystery deepens, we find out more about the characters and tensions mount until a climax that delivers one headfuck after another. The least gruesome of the series, it somehow makes the unthinkable use of a hacksaw to escape imprisonment all the more tough to watch. And then we get That Twist. It's not perfect (Dr Gordon's marriage troubles don't get much detail) but it works as a standalone with a vicious payoff and takes its time (unlike a lot of the sequels). Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell would both later go on to create the Insidious movies.
Saw II (2005)
The first sequel, which pretty much sets the tone of things to come, giving us the grungey-grimey look of much of the series. The first of four entries to be helmed by Darren Lynn Bousman and almost acts like an audition piece rather like the plot itself kinda acts like a trial run for Amanda being Jigsaw's successor. It opens with a pale imitation of the reverse bear trap but instead the device will slam shut around its victim's head rather than tearing it open.
We also meet Jigsaw properly and it's the most sadistic portrayal that series star Tobin Bell gives us, grinning as he promises that "there will be blood". It builds from the first film by giving us more victims and going from one room (to which we return in a good twist) to a whole house. It's also the first film to play around with time and editing by revealing that two plot lines aren't necessarily taking place concurrently. Shorter than the first film, it's the first that feels a bit quick.
Saw III (2006)
The third and "final" of a trilogy scripted by Leigh Whannell, it's also - for me - still the most gruesome, with some nastiness right from the outset (Detective Matthews' improvised use of a toilet lid to escape imprisonment and Jigsaw's personal favourite trap, The Rack). It brings back some human drama by having a married couple (although we don't know that yet) playing separate-but-linked games that build to an explosive finale. The first entry to get the series the "torture porn" label with news stories of people fainting in cinemas (watching it on DVD, I found Jigsaw's brain surgery fascinating, myself). Despite the tease of a cliffhanger, it rounds off the Amanda storyline and very explicitly kills off Jigsaw and could have ended the series there (were it not for the introduction of Detective Hoffman).
Saw IV (2007)
The first post-Jigsaw entry with the promise that the games will continue (a clever use of the cassette tapes, thanks to the opening autopsy). Watching it the first time, I'd forgotten Hoffman had even been in the previous film. It sets up a new game for another previous supporting character and we're supposed to be led to believe that it takes place over the course of 90 minutes during which new characters are introduced, multiple traps are played out and numerous police interrogations take place. We also get Jigsaw's origin story so it functions as both a sequel and a prequel. Playing around with time again, having it revealed to be taking place concurrently with Saw III for the most part does little to serve the story except to help explain how they got to Jigsaw's body in the first place.
Saw V (2008)
The first I saw in the cinema and the one where the series feels like it's ground to a halt. The "fatal five" game is reduced to a subplot while Agent Strahm investigates Hoffman and it feels entirely perfunctory (at least the final part of it does involve saw blades and is pretty nasty). As with Saw IV, we get an origin story through flashback as we find out how Hoffman came to be Jigsaw's apprentice. It does start to feel like Tobin Bell is making a cameo in his own series, though.
Saw VI (2009)
Something of a return to form for the series - by far, the most interesting of the Hoffman movies, even if the Hoffman storyline is the least interesting thing in it. This time, Jigsaw is taking on American health insurance (from beyond the grave, thanks to pre-recorded videos in which Kramer himself appears). By dealing with an important social issue, it might have made for an interesting Blumhouse take on the series. The final twist for William Eastman's game is a good one ("It's not MY game!"). Again, with a story arc moreorless wrapped up, they could almost have ended things here.
Saw 3D (2010)
The last gasp of the series's original run (and it was planned as a two-parter). Opening with a callback to the original Saw by teasing the fate of Dr Gordon (his return in this film could have been handled in multiple ways), we then watch a game taking place in a shop window with characters that have nothing to do with the rest of the film (unless you listen to the Director's Commentary) and it's never referred to again. The main game concerns someone who became a celebrity through pretending to be a Jigsaw survivor and it makes an interesting subject (and arguably a fitting one to save for last). And again, it's the most interesting part of the film while the cops run around chasing Hoffman (Chad Donella brings some fun as Gibson, though). Perhaps also fittingly, the new player also fails the game in pretty much every single round.
The only one shot in 3D, resulting in different lighting, it doesn't serve the film much (one trap involving eyes does give us some creepy POV shots though). Directed by Kevin Greutert, it's almost hard to believe it's from the same guy who gave us the fairly decent previous entry. We also get an entirely pointless dream sequence which pretty much gives away how Jill Tuck's storyline is going to end (showing us later how the reverse bear trap works kinda takes the suspense out of the original too).
Tobin Bell's appearances in flashback are little more than cameos by now and in the end, the series ends where it began in the bathroom. Meh.
Jigsaw (2017)
A bit of a soft reboot and coming out a few years after the series ended, we have a new game being played with Jigsaw's inexplicable resurrection. It strips away the baggage of the previous entries and Bell is the only returning actor (his seemingly impossible onscreen entry is wonderfully eerie). The first in a while to play around with time (you can start to guess it during the course of the film), it functions as another prequel by revealing the central game to have been one of the earliest to have taken place (taking place in a barn, it's perhaps a bit of a stretch, not to mention the use of more modern-looking TV sets). I initially found it to be more of the same but it has grown on me and it adds an interesting aspect to the Jigsaw character - what if he was your neighbour?
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
Another attempt to reboot the series, with yet another apparent Jigsaw copycat - but this time with their own voice, puppet, and method of knocking out victims. John Kramer is now just a photograph and given a couple of mentions. There are some decently nasty traps (notably those involving shattered glass and a blade behind the neck) but I'm not sure I can take Chris Rock all that seriously in it (for me, he'll always be the Thirteenth Apostle in Dogma) but Samuel L Jackson brings some star quality (although sticking on a moustache for flashback scenes does look silly). I do like that the new killer is almost a bit of a Wesley Crusher-ish "nerd" and there's a potentially interesting way the series could go. It would be a shame if nothing else came of this or 'Jigsaw'.
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