How to watch the 'Saw' movies in order (2025)

Jigsaw (2017)

Technically, the Spierig brothers’ reboot-cum-sequel — the first Saw film released after a seven-year gap — should be the first and last title on this list. A clever inversion of the series’ time-hopping antics, Jigsaw (spoiler alert) takes place both before the original Saw and several years following the events of that film. But we don’t find that out until the end.

The plot concerns pathologist Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore), who’s investigating the mysterious deaths of five people trapped in a grain silo and forced to hack themselves to bits for one of Jigsaw’s games. At the end, we learn the game we’ve been seeing throughout the film actually occurred 10 years before the events depicted here and several years before the events of Saw.

Nelson reveals himself to be Jigsaw’s first apprentice — he was in the barn, presumed to have died in the opening scene — and explains that he re-created the decade-old game to frame the detective (Callum Keith Rennie) who let his wife’s murderer walk free. It’s remarkably complicated, but what about this franchise isn’t?

Where to watch Jigsaw: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw (2004)

Wan’s feature debut is a queasy tale of two men — Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Whanell) — trapped inside a dirty restroom, forced to unravel Jigsaw’s sickening plans for them and their loved ones. Danny Glover puts in time as the dogged red herring… er, detective tracking the murderer before he can claim his next victims.

Relatively muted in violence and gore compared to its sequels, Saw lays the groundwork for each subsequent film almost by accident. Little of what we see plot-wise would have a massive impact on the franchise’s future, with the exception of a few winking character and location cameos. However, the subsequent films were very much made in the spirit of this film’s ambiance and tone. Not to mention the template itself: the wild traps and rapid-cut montages; the cops getting shot and blown to pieces as they try to unravel the case; and of course, the last-minute twist that challenges everything we’ve just seen.

Where to watch Saw: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw X (2023)

John Kramer ventures to Mexico for an experimental cancer treatment administered by money-hungry charlatans in this slick but not particularly inventive revival sequel, which takes place between the events of Saw and Saw II.

Directed by Saw veteran Kevin Greutert, Saw X disregards much of the backstory the other films try so hard to maintain. The plot is blessedly self-contained and uncomplicated: Jigsaw gets scammed, kidnaps his tormentors, and, with the help of his victim-turned-accomplice, Amanda (Shawnee Smith, regrettably bewigged), makes them fight for their lives — all while taking the necessary steps to set up a (presumably more labyrinthine) sequel.

A post-credit sting involving the return of Costas Mandylor’s villainous Agent Hoffman (first seen, release-wise, in Saw III) hints at some delectable directions Saw XI might explore.

Where to watch Saw X: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw II (2005)

The first sequel to Wan’s horror hit takes place one year after the original's conclusion, and after Jigsaw’s trip to Mexico. Amanda, introduced only briefly in the first movie, takes center stage as she and a group of troubled (and particularly shouty) people try to fight their way out of a house jerry-rigged with all manner of nasty devices. Donnie Wahlberg makes his series debut as a cop trying to track down Jigsaw — and his own son, who's inside the house with Amanda.

Saw II, the first of four in the series directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, approaches Jigsaw as a more rounded character than the pig-masked ghoul from the first film. His toxic relationship with Amanda is also expanded upon here, setting the characters up for multiple sequels down the road.

After spending the film with Amanda and believing she’s once again been victimized by Jigsaw, it turns out she’s now working in cahoots with him. That reveal leads directly into…

Where to watch Saw II: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw III (2006)

Saw III is where the series came to its natural conclusion… though fans weren’t mad to get seven more installments (and counting). Following the previous film’s events, Amanda kidnaps a surgeon (Bahar Soomekh) to monitor a critically ill Jigsaw — and eventually perform brain surgery on him.

Bousman returned to helm this trilogy-capper, which does an admirable job closing the initial storyline, introducing new characters, and grossing us the hell out (ground-up pig carcass, anyone?).

Those who have stayed with the series through its ups and downs will no doubt feel a pang of nostalgia for when it carried a certain narrative weight. The finale — in which Jigsaw, Amanda, and just about everyone else meet their maker — gives the initial storyline a satisfying conclusion, sending future screenwriters reaching for increasingly inane ways to revive the central characters.

Where to watch Saw III: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw IV (2007)

After Jigsaw’s death on the operating table in Saw III, he’s dissected by a pair of zealous morgue technicians who find, within his body, a wax-sealed tape on which the devious torturer has included one “final” game.

Saw IV is when the series pivoted its focus from the victims to cops (played by Lyriq Bent and, brilliantly, Gilmore Girls’ Scott Patterson). It also marks when the writing went into overdrive to keep the franchise alive. The plot is a bunch of nonsense about Jigsaw’s legacy and his impressive penchant for planning ahead, but it’s really about watching eyeballs pop and limbs get messily ripped from their intended sockets.

The murder maestro’s widow, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), figures prominently in this installment, with FBI Agent Strahm (Patterson) pursuing a pet theory placing her at the center of the crimes. This installment also establishes Jigsaw’s tragic backstory, showing how he was compelled to kill offenders after a violent drug addict caused Jill to miscarry their child.

Where to watch Saw IV: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw V (2008)

Saw V picks up in the moments following the fourth film’s conclusion. Agent Strahm is once again on the case, and he suspects the dodgy Agent Hoffman (Mandylor) might have something to do with Jigsaw’s continued presence at crime scenes.

This fifth entry spends a great deal of time setting up future installments and very little time doing anything interesting. That said, there's a particularly compelling Edgar Allen Poe-style device towards the film's end with passive implications for the central players.

Where to watch Saw V: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw VI (2009)

The sixth film sees Hoffman advance Jigsaw’s work by confining a weaselly health insurance exec (Peter Outerbridge) to a disused carnival where he encounters all manner of horrific traps.

There’s a lot of business about why Jill is working with Hoffman to keep her late husband's legacy alive, but the filmmakers are clearly more interested in the gore portion of the story.

Where to watch Saw VI: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Saw: The Final Chapter (2010)

Eh, not really. The seventh movie finds Hoffman and Jill still battling for supremacy over Jigsaw’s estate, with both pretty much in the same position they were previously. But this time, only one will make it out alive...

Where to watch Saw: The Final Chapter: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)

Remember when Chris Rock made a Saw movie?

Bousman returned to the franchise with this bizarre toss-off, a movie that attempts to completely reboot the brand while doing exactly the same thing the other films did.

Rock plays Zeke Banks, an honest, tired-looking cop who’s forced to reconcile his thorny professional history and his relationship with his retired cop father (Samuel L. Jackson). Before long, his colleagues (all of whom are corrupt) start turning up dismembered. Aside from some voiceover and that well-known theme music, nothing here relates back to the rest of the franchise, arguably making Spiral a standalone movie.

Where to watch Spiral: From the Book of Saw: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)