6. Saw
The Saw franchise has produced a great many entries in a relatively short tenure on our screens, but even from its first movie, it has been one of the most-respected in the genre. The franchise follows a killer known as Jigsaw who puts his victims into elaborate and sadistic traps and forces them to choose between unimaginable pain or certain death. It’s dark, it’s gruesome, and it’s massively popular.
The franchise has always had its detractors, and like any other franchise, it has its weaker entries. However, it also has many strong stories, including several multi-film over-arcing narratives, and that makes it one of the best horror movie franchises ever made. There’s a level of vision and forethought that has gone into its many films that deserves to be more widely appreciated.
Though some find it difficult to see through the spectacle of its traps, the Saw franchise has a lot to offer. They may be occasionally heavy-handed, but there are deeper themes and ideas at play within its stories, and much more story than its detractors would have you believe. If you can stomach some of the creatively violent set pieces, the Saw franchise is one that offers up a good deal of horror alongside its liberal gore.