Saw II is honestly overall the perfect Saw film and the perfect sequel to the first. It's the greatest mix of a well-constructed trap plot, police plot, characters and my favorite part: a great and strong twist ending. It includes my favorite trap of all of them (the Needle Pit) and of course is the first because of the sheer amount of Amanda as well. Saw III is a close second for my favorite film but Saw II is better by just a tiny bit.
The movie revolves around two new-ish characters, Detective Eric Matthews and Detective Allison Kerry. The two are a nice foil in detective personalities, playing "good cop" and "bad cop" while still seeming not to be cartoonish stereotypes of the trope. Their reactions to the situation are realistic while still being annoying at some points. Matthews is annoying on a rewatch but that's only because the twist just shows how unfair Jigsaw's games are and that's just such a perfect way to go about it. Despite the uh..police brutality, his impatience to such a horrible person is relatable to the audience and only gets to be a nuisance when you realize what's actually happening. The development of John Kramer as a person through the stories he tells and his more personality shown is also perfect as a sequel and a continuation of the twist at the end of the first movie.
And now...I talk about my absolute favorite thing. Nerve Gas House Party. As you can probably tell, this is my favorite series of traps ever in the entire series. Although I find some to be a bit...well, strange (*cough* shotgun eyehole *cough*) this is honestly just the most important trap plot and the best one of all. It is the turning point for Saw, one that goes from a story of someone trying to "fix" people to seeing that someone really is just killing for the sake of killing. Amanda sees this and although it's not necessarily fully explored until Saw III and so on, the exploration of how people don't actually change is something so important to the future of the series- especially Amanda as a character. I can talk about this later on my Mandy page but honestly, despite her idolization of Kramer, being stuck in a trap with other people showed her that no one really is gonna change because of them. And the Needle Pit is the biggest contender for that. It was Xavier's trap, he's a drug dealer and he's well built. If he went in it, he would be "rehabilitated" cause he's already in a life or death situation. But his first thought is to put Amanda, a recovering drug addict into it- basically triggering her into a complete relapse following the game. He still viewed those addicted to drugs as under him and something he could control, even in a horrible situation. It's only further showed by the other people in the trap. The entire cast of characters is amazing and somehow developed so well in such a short amount of time since literally all of them die before the end of the movie. Not to mention, Daniel and Amanda's relationship in the trap is so good...I know Amanda was faking a lot during the trap but I feel like somehow she wasn't at the same time. I'm talking so much but I just love the trap and the characters in it, even Xavier..kinda.
The twist is just absolute perfection. It takes a prestablished character and turns the audience's entire thoughts that they had around. Not to mention, the entire thing about it being a recording? Literally awe inspiring when I first watched it. It's such a perfect twist and a perfect ending. Along with Saw's first twist ending, I would absolutely fucking love to watch this movie with someone who doesn't know the twist because it left my mouth agape the first time I watched. Definitely one of the best movie twists I've ever seen.
Saw II is one of my favorite horror movies of all times, leaning closely on being one of my favorite movies ever! It's a perfect mix of everything I love about the Saw series bundled into an amazing little gore covered milkshake. This is probably the most I'll talk about any movie on here because I'm mansplaining Saw rn but just. Just watch the movie. If you ever want to watch a single Saw movie you must watch the second. Top tier movie 10/10 (I know there's flaws but I ignore them)
Saw III is the ending of what is usually dubbed the original Saw trilogy. After this, the original creator of Saw, Leigh Whannell stopped working on the series and the trilogy can be enjoyed as a standalone at least in my opinion. This is honestly one of the best plot-driven movies in the series, if it wasn't for the fact that Jeff is so...annoying...well then it'd be the best one. Despite the fact that I dislike Jeff and how slow he is and stupid, the Amanda/Lynn plot as well as the actual development of the characters is so good that it just makes up for it. Not to mention the traps are amazing here.
Honestly the fact that this is basically a medical drama with more gore is also just so fun to me. Yeah it's gross to see John's brain but at the same time the stress and the cinematogrophy makes it such a stressful sequence of events and the entire movie leaves you on the edge of your seats. The opening trap is a good introduction to the new idea of an "impossible" trap, although it was technically already shown in Saw. And after Troy's death we see basically my second favorite trap ever which is the Angel Trap. Although I love Kerry, her death felt needed and still showed more of Amanda's traps that are dissaproved by John. The main trap plot is a good idea but lacks in execution and that's what makes it so it isn't the first here. I simply think that they really could've just ...made Jeff a little more smart? His reactions is realistic but only to an extent and it leads to just annoyance at some points.
The one thing I see people get angry about except for me is Kramer's death. Jeff had absolutely no way to know that Lynn's collar was attached to John's heart so like...yeah dude I'd kill Jigsaw too LMAO. Amanda's "test" is amazingly done and so just...tragic. It's so upsetting to see her descent into madness after she has to deal with seing that Kramer's ideology is just made up. This is someone who she sees his teachings as literal law, someone who she views as her savior and she was basically betrayed. Like I know she's a murderer and everything but y'know he's such a manipulative little shit to her and the other apprentices but mostly Amanda. I always get a little choked up at the scene where she's about to kill Lynn because even without the new stuff revealed that was on the note, knowing all that happened to her has led to her not even being able to know her place in life is just painful to watch. Plus she's 100 times better than Jigsaw for admitting she's a murderer tbh #GIRLBOSS
Saw III is just such an amazing watch, even if there's times where I'm annoyed, on every rewatch there's never a moment where I start losing interest and that can't be said for the other movies. The original Saw trilogy is what I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't want to dedicate their time to watching nine full movies to be honest. It works so well and Saw III is a great closing of Whannell's original story idea. Amanda's development is handled the best here and the traps are to die for (haha see what I did there ;^)

Well of course the original had to be high on the list. It's iconic. From the twist ending blowing the minds of people around the world to the horrid but endearing acting of Leigh Whannell as Adam. The premise itself is one of the most interesting and leaving with such a cliffhanger not only opened the doors to the sequels but let it be an amazing movie by itself. The editing during trap sequences may be a little silly from time to time but it's dated in the best way possible and you can really tell the love put into it with how little of a budget it had. The first Saw will forever be remembered in horror history because of how much it changed the game. No other movie had literal annual movies coming out with the tagline "if it's Halloween it must be Saw." This changed the game forever and I can't thank the orignal Saw enough.
Though not perfect, especially regarding production and pacing, it's an amazing movie all around. The mystery aspect is focused on much more which makes the twist ending that much more surprising. We're led to believe that it's Zepp only for that damn dead guy to just stand up at the climax of the movie. Not to mention, it includes the most iconic trap, the Reverse Bear Trap and shows different views of Jigsaw; some thinking he's not a murderer and others wanting revenge on him for his unfair morals. It's such an amazing horror film there's no wonder it led to such a national phenomenon.

hi among us