5. Saw VI (2009)

In Saw VI, Jigsaw tackles the injustices of the healthcare system which, in many ways, deserves the punishment. This film’s game involves health insurance executive William Easton (Peter Outerbridge) and his colleagues who cheat their clients, including John Kramer, out of medical coverage.

Saw VI features one of the best traps in the entire series, as William’s co-workers are strapped to a spinning merry-go-round that will unleash shotgun blasts unless he stabs his own hand to save them. The tension reaches a fever pitch as the playground equipment keeps spinning and shooting while his co-workers scream, plead, bribe, and beg for their lives. It’s a bold and lacerating visual that forces us to confront the reality of the human lives behind soulless corporations. There’s also another horrifying trap that involves acid injected into someone’s entire body.

The movie continues to paint Hoffman as a cruel and sadistic apprentice who enjoys seeing his victims suffer and sometimes not even giving them the opportunity to escape. He’s the stark opposite of Amanda (Shawnee Smith), Jigsaw’s first apprentice and one of his few survivors, who has a big heart. Hoffman turns this latter half of the Saw franchise into a really dark rollercoaster ride.