Over the course of 20 years and 10 movies, the “Saw” franchise has delivered some seriously disturbing traps. Initially created by Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell), a terminally ill man who believes he’s able to deliver a kind of morally superior justice through his complicated and brutal puzzles, the traps are probably the franchise’s greatest draw. There are devoted fans who dive deep into franchise lore and can easily explain the entire complex “Saw” timeline, of course, but the average movie goer just wants to see what kind of twisted, gory traps the filmmakers have come up with in each installment. It’s like the “Final Destination” films and their increasingly complex, Rube Goldberg-like deaths, as both franchises lean into creative and horrifying deaths, occasionally with some level of humor or wry wit peppered in. The “Saw” movies have some truly great traps, like the pit of needles in “Saw II” and the stomach-churning “10 Pints of Blood” in “Saw V,” but there’s one trap that truly stands out to series co-creator James Wan, who also directed the first film in 2004.
In an interview with People for the 20th anniversary of “Saw,” Wan was asked which terrifying trap was his favorite out of the entire franchise, and he (perhaps unsurprisingly) picked a design that he had a very personal hand in creating: the original Reverse Bear Trap from the first “Saw.”
James Wan’s favorite trap is the Reverse Bear Trap
Wan created the “Saw” franchise with screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who also starred in the first film as one of the men trapped in the bathroom with their feet chained and a saw as their only chance of freedom. Both Wan and Whannell went on to have massive careers in horror as directors, screenwriters, and producers, but 2004’s “Saw” is what really rocketed the Australian creatives to international fame. So it’s really no surprise, then, that Wan has a soft spot for one of the traps from the first (and best) “Saw.” As he explained to People:
“It’s really the jaw trap. 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” is what most fans refer to as the “Reverse Bear Trap,” which threatens to rip its wearers head open from the mouth backward if they cannot find the key in time. It was originally worn by Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) in the first “Saw,” though it reappears throughout the franchise. It’s also the first complicated trap seen onscreen (as the saw/chain trap is pretty simple by comparison), and it remains absolutely terrifying.
The trap has even deeper connections to the Saw franchise
Wan went on to explain that the Reverse Bear Trap actually came from the short film that he and Whannell made together in Australia to try and sell producers on the idea of “Saw.” He said that they filmed a version of the scene with the Reverse Bear Trap to try and win over investors because they “figured it would really capture people’s attention.” They made the right choice, as Wan elaborated:
“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.”
The Reverse Bear Trap was the “Saw” trap that started it all, really, so it deserves Wan’s love even beyond his personal connection to it. It might not be the most terrifying trap in the entire “Saw” franchise, but it is the most important one.
