The Saw franchise turns 20 years old today, and James Wan is looking back on the iconic horror saga to reveal his favorite trap, which he says “will always be my baby.” Wan directed 2004’s Saw, which has since gone on to spawn nine sequels, all of which he’s been involved in as an executive producer. An 11th installment is tentatively set for a 2025 release, and will once more feature Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw setting elaborate traps for unsuspecting victims to try and free themselves from before the clock runs out.
Speaking with People, Wan took a trip down memory lane to go over all the devious traps in the franchise, and it was then that he disclosed – to our surprise – that the jaw trap is his favorite of the bunch. Fans will recall the reverse bear trap made its first appearance in the original movie, and was revived in Saw VI, and again in Saw 3D, where we finally saw the full effect of its devastation after Jill failed to escape its clutches. “It’s really the jaw trap,” Wan says when pointing out his favorite. He then adds:
I mean, that one has become so iconic. Obviously, it ended up being on the poster, so that one is the most… that one would probably mean the most to me.
The Jaw Trap Was Pivotal to Saw’s Success
Placed over the head of Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) in Saw, the jaw trap was (and still is) the thing of nightmares. Audiences watched in horror as she used a scalpel to first kill a sedated Donnie, and then cut him open to reach inside his guts and pull out a key, frantically freeing herself from the contraption just before its metal teeth snapped shut. It was such an iconic scene that Wan says it was the one he used to gain funding for Saw by creating a short film around it before presenting the idea to investors.
“We picked that particular scene, the scene with the jaw trap, just because we figured that it would really capture people’s attention. And sure enough, when we made the short, the producers in town who saw it were like, ‘What the hell is this?’ They’re like, ‘We don’t know what the hell we’re looking at, but this is fascinating.’ And so for me, that will always be my baby.”
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To date, there have been at least 73 traps all set by Bell’s character of Kramer and his various allies in the Saw franchise, but none have really come close to the menacing structure of the jaw trap. While some have obviously been more unique than others, that one stands the test of time, and it’s easy to see why it’s Wan’s favorite, and a favorite of many fans who to this day still use it as cosplay material at horror conventions. Unfortunately, now that we’ve finally seen the damage it can do, it’s highly unlikely that it will ever reappear in future movies, as Wan and company come up with creative new ways to move things forward in the ever expanding world of Jigsaw.
- Release Date
- October 1, 2004