Saw 2 Has The Franchise’s Worst Trap

The Saw movies are known for creative traps that inflict endless suffering on Jigsaw’s victims, but Saw 2 had, hands down, the worst trap in the franchise.

The movies revolve around a killer known as Jigsaw, whose real name is John Kramer, who devises meticulous traps for his victims in order to make them better appreciate their life. He targets people for a number of reasons, but never intends to kill them; as the films outline, quite simply: “the choice is yours“. The Saw movies have enjoyed a long run of success with eight films total, and a ninth installment, Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, set for a 2020 release. Part of this is because fans keep coming back to see what horrors Jigsaw will unleash, and what traps will be involved on his next batch of victims that undergo his insidious attempts at rehabilitation.

However, while there are many memorable devices and cringe-worthy sequences in the movies, the franchise peaked early with its most brutal trap in the sequel, which released in 2005. In Saw 2, which was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, eight people end up trapped in a house together that is rigged with many traps for each of them. Bousman, who is returning to direct Saw 9, has teased a scene in the upcoming film that will put that which is most regarded as the franchise’s most brutal, to shame.

Saw 2’s Needle Pit Trap Was A Franchise Best

Amanda Young, who survived Jigsaw’s reverse bear trap in the first movie, returned in the sequel as one of the guests inside the trapped house. A former addict, Amanda ended up being subjected to a trap known by fans as the “needle pit”. Equal parts physically painful and psychologically troubling, given her history with heroin, Amanda had to wade through a massive pit filled with hypodermic needles to get a key that would unlock a door in two minutes. Originally, the trap wasn’t even meant for her; it was meant for Xavier, but he threw her into the pit and forced her to do it in his place. This added another level of trauma, because Jigsaw’s traps all seem to be tailored – at least in some capacity – to his victims, and this managed to overlap despite being random.

As Amanda wades through the needle pit, she ends up getting cut and punctured  by needles all over her body, producing some troubling imagery alongside obvious pain and suffering. She manages to find the key and hand it off to Xavier, but he doesn’t make it to the door in time. The film sets up Amanda, who was the only known person to have survived Jigsaw, as the final girl. Yet, this all turns out to be a clever subversion of the tropes and genre stereotypes, as Amanda not only survived her trap in the first movie, but ended up becoming Jigsaw’s accomplice.

Amanda is depicted to admire him and even see him as a father figure of sorts; her trap was effective in making her truly realize her worth and value and – while she takes her traps to an extreme, later on, making inescapable ones for her victims – she seems to be one of few throughout the series who show the raw will and tenacity required to survive a Saw movie.

About The Author

Jack Wilhelmi
(581 Articles Published)

Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.

In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh.

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