All 10 Saw movies ranked from worst to best

7. Saw IV

The fourth installment of the Saw series came out in 2007 and was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman once more, from a script written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. This time around, we pick up shortly after the events of the third movie in a world post-Jigsaw’s death. That isn’t stopping the torture and traps, though. Through plans Jigsaw set up while he was alive, the detectives must play a game another time in order to figure out the new kidnappings.

At this point in the franchise, things are really feeling stale. Even though Jigsaw is no longer in the picture — physically, at least — the movie still follows basically the same formula as before without much originality. If you’d been following along with the story until this point, as I had been, then there’d be no reason to stop watching now. You might as well continue. But is the quality the same as the earlier films? No, definitely not.

But despite the less-than-stellar storytelling this time around, the traps are still as gruesome as ever. And of course, if you’re into the Saw movies, you’re looking for that. Some of the most memorable in Saw IV include the scalping seat trap and the terribly bloody knife chair trap.

There’s no shortage of gross moments and innovative traps in Saw IV, keeping it from the bottom of this list. As for the financial success, the fourth entry was another hit, making nearly $140 million at the box office on a reported $10 million budget.