Saw Producers Have Their Own Thoughts On The Franchise's Best Traps [Exclusive]
Warning: this post will contain spoilers for "Saw X."
Throughout the 10 extant "Saw" movies, there have been at least 94 on-screen deaths, most of them quite gruesome. A few people do manage to escape the death traps that Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) locked them into, but many of the vengeful villain's victims aren't so lucky. Audiences have witnessed human bodies being ripped apart, burned, or colorfully torn to pieces. And we all have our favorites, don't we? Ranking the traps and/or deaths in the "Saw" movies is a common practice among horror fans. /Film even ranked all of the franchise's deaths back in 2017, when there were only 81 to sift through.
Many might agree that the "reverse bear trap" from the very first "Saw" is probably the best one. Indeed, it was so notorious, that it would be brought back for "Saw VI" and "Saw 3D." In the latter film, it finally managed to kill its wearer. I'm fond of the trap that was essentially a massive spear strapped to a rocket train. It's so gleefully absurd. A resourceful machinist like Jigsaw might have the wherewithal to construct a reverse bear trap, but the constriction of a rocket sled strains credulity. Although to be fair, that was part of a nightmare sequence.
/Film's own Jacob Hall recently sat down with Mark Burg and Oren Koules, the producers of "Saw X," to ask them what traps throughout the ten movies were their favorites. As might be predicted, they prefer some of the traps seen in the newest film. They also revealed a surprising cameo appearance that Koules made in the very first "Saw" movie. You may not know the name of the character, but you'd recognize who he is immediately.
Twisty Tim
Burg listed three favorites, saying:
"I think my favorite right now is probably the 'blood boarding' trap in 'Saw X.' I also love the trap where we scalped a woman, kind of pulled her hair back, which I thought was kind of brutal. We called the one trap 'Twisty Tim,' where we took the man's arms and just kind of twisted them on the cross, which looking back on it, I don't know how we got away with that, it's kind of sacrilegious. I know Oren has a favorite."
The scalping trap appeared in "Saw IV," and featured a trap that automatically twisted a woman's hair around a rotating rod while she remained trapped in a chair. One of the victims of the scalping chair (Sarain Boylan) managed to escape only partially scalped. The Twisty Tim trap referred to a cross-shaped contraption that splayed out a victim's arms and legs, holding their head totally still. A character named Tim (Mpho Koaho) was locked into it, and, thanks to some times triggers, slowly began to rotate his limbs one by one until they broke. The final timer was attached to his head and would essentially turn it backward. He didn't escape.
The details of the "blood boarding" trap will merely have to be seen in theaters.
Koules' favorite trap was the reverse bear trap, of course, but not for the reasons you might think. It turns out he was part of the scene. "You remember the first saw trap," he said, "Where Amanda takes the key out, and she cuts out the guy's stomach first to get the key in it? I'm the guy on the floor."
Yes, Shawnee Smith was digging through Kouels' guts to get the key that saved her life.
The man with the key in his stomach
The conceit of the scene was that the Shawnee Smith character, Amanda, was a drug addict who had trouble turning her life around. Jigsaw felt that facing death and fighting to stay alive would give Amanda a new lookout and motivate her to get clean. Darkly, Jigsaw proves to be right. Darker still, the "fight" Amanda had to go through was to slice open a dead man's abdomen to find a key that Jigsaw had inserted into his intestine. Darker still, it was revealed at the last minute that the dead man ... was still alive.
The still-living key carrier was producer Kouels who, he reveals, played the part for no pay. "Saw" was a low-budget production and they needed to cut costs in whatever way they could. Koules said:
"She cuts my stomach out. It was kind of surreal that they put a leather, almost a saddle thing, and she kept hitting this leather. Instead of paying actor a thousand dollars for the day, I laid there for free."
Burg noted that the film was "budget challenged" and added:
"I remember going to Oren, I'm like, 'Who do we get to do this?,' and he's like, 'We went to a couple of people, it was like a thousand.' And Oren's like, 'Hey, save the money. I'll do it.' I was like, 'Great, lay down.'"
One can certainly appreciate a "Saw" death trap if they get to be a victim of it. Indeed, over 90 lucky actors have been fortunate enough to be splattered, smashed, or sliced up by Jigsaw. Producer Koules merely got to be the first.