Hold onto your heart rate monitors and stay away from rusty bathroom fixtures—Netflix is becoming Jigsaw’s new playground on March 19!
If you’ve been looking for a reason to binge-watch over 20 years of “I want to play a game,” this is your moment. Here is the complete rundown of the Saw franchise heading to your queue:
The Original Trilogy (The Foundations)
Saw (2004): The one that started it all. Two men wake up chained in a filthy bathroom with a corpse between them. It’s a low-budget masterpiece with the greatest twist ending in horror history.
Saw II (2005): Jigsaw ups the ante by trapping a group of ex-cons in a house filled with nerve gas. This one introduced the infamous “needle pit”—a scene that still makes people physically recoil.
Saw III (2006): The emotional (and very messy) core of the series. While a dying John Kramer oversees a final test for a grieving father, his apprentice Amanda struggles to keep the “rules” intact.
The “Mid-Series” Bloom (The Lore Deep-Dive)
Saw IV (2007): Taking place at the exact same time as the third movie, this entry follows Officer Rigg on a timed mission to save his colleagues, proving that Jigsaw is still pulling strings from beyond the grave.
Saw V (2008): It’s a game of “teamwork or die” for five strangers, while Detective Hoffman tries to cover his tracks as Jigsaw’s new secret successor.
Saw VI (2009): Widely considered one of the best sequels, this one takes aim at the health insurance industry. The “Shotgun Carousel” is a standout trap, as tense as it is bloody.
The Final Chapters & Reboots
Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010): Originally intended to end the series, this one follows a man who lied about surviving a Jigsaw trap. It’s over-the-top, features pink blood (due to 3D grading), and brings back a massive legacy character.
Jigsaw (2017): A decade after Kramer’s death, bodies start turning up again. Is he back from the dead, or is a copycat looking for a “fresh start”?
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021): A Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson spin-off. It’s more of a gritty police procedural, following a killer targeting corrupt cops using Jigsaw’s iconography.
Saw X (2023): The critically acclaimed “mid-quel” set between the first and second movies. A desperate John Kramer travels to Mexico for a miracle cancer cure, only to find a scam. Needless to say, the scammers regret it.
Pro-Tip for Binging
If you want the most “accurate” experience, watch them in release order. The timeline is famously tangled (think Pulp Fiction but with more hacksaws), so watching them back-to-back on Netflix is the best way to keep track of who is actually working for whom!
