Saw Movies Chronological & Release Order Explained (2025)

Few horror franchises have captivated—and terrified—audiences quite like Saw. Since its chilling debut in 2004, Saw has grown into a sprawling franchise full of complex traps, shocking twists, and a narrative web that’s left even the most devoted fans scratching their heads.

Whether you’re a longtime devotee or a curious newcomer, you might be wondering:

• 👉 What’s the correct order to watch the Saw movies?
• 👉 Should you follow the release order or the chronological timeline?

Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered. This guide breaks down the Saw movies in both release and chronological order, explains how the timeline works, and even shares how to enhance your horror movie marathons by using a VPN with fellow horror enthusiasts!

Want to Watch Saw Movies Online? Use a VPN! 🔥

The Saw films aren’t always available on the same streaming platforms globally. Depending on your region, you might find some titles missing from Netflix, Prime Video, or Hulu.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) can help you unlock region-restricted content by changing your virtual location. Here’s how:

🔹 How to Watch Saw Movies Using a VPN:

1. Subscribe to a reliable VPN (ExpressVPN is the top choice).
2. Download and install the VPN app on your device.
3. Connect to a server in a country where Saw movies are available.
4. Access the streaming platform and start watching!

👉 Pro Tip: VPNs also encrypt your data, keeping your online activities private—essential for streaming safely.

Saw Movies in Chronological Order

Here’s where things get tricky. Due to flashbacks, plot twists, and interconnected storylines, the chronological order isn’t the same as the release order. Here’s how you should watch the Saw franchise if you want the story to unfold sequentially:

Chronological Order	Movie Title
1️⃣	Saw X
2️⃣	Saw
3️⃣	Saw II
4️⃣	Saw III
5️⃣	Saw IV
6️⃣	Saw V
7️⃣	Saw VI
8️⃣	Saw 3D (Saw: The Final Chapter)
9️⃣	Jigsaw
🔟	Spiral: From the Book of Saw

Saw Movies in Release Order

The Saw franchise was released out of chronological order, leading to some confusion. Here’s how the films were originally released:

No.	Movie Title	Release Year
1️⃣	Saw	2004
2️⃣	Saw II	2005
3️⃣	Saw III	2006
4️⃣	Saw IV	2007
5️⃣	Saw V	2008
6️⃣	Saw VI	2009
7️⃣	Saw 3D (also known as Saw: The Final Chapter)	2010
8️⃣	Jigsaw	2017
9️⃣	Spiral: From the Book of Saw	2021
🔟	Saw X	2023

👉 Watching them in release order offers the same experience as theater audiences, allowing you to appreciate the storytelling and twists as they were unveiled.

The Saw Movies in Order of Release:

1. the Saw

1. IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
2. Runtime: 1h 43m
3. Director: James Wan

Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam Stanheight, two guys, find themselves shackled to pipes when they wake up in a filthy bathroom. The only thing that can liberate them is a saw. Between them, a man is laying on the ground with his brain oozing out of his skull.

Detective Tapp (Danny Glover), meanwhile, is pursuing Jigsaw. There’s also the fact that The Saw takes place the day before the 9/11 attacks.

By this time, Kramer has gotten quite skilled at playing sly tricks, to the point where he plays the dead body and abandons Adam to perish when Gordon escapes – with a foot missing.

He recruited Adam to spy on Gordon after coming to the conclusion that he was the real murderer. Then Kramer assigned his trainee Amanda, who managed to survive the reverse bear trap, the mission of abducting the two.

2. the Saw 2

1. IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
2. Runtime: 1h 33m
3. Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

One year has passed since the events of the original Saw movie, and Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) has finally caught Kramer. His son Amanda and a few others are imprisoned in an unidentified structure that is loaded with traps, but there is another game going on.

The “live” feed Matthews and the other officers were watching was really recorded days prior to Kramer’s arrest, and his son was kept on life support with a ventilator inside a safe. This realization causes Matthews and the other officers to scramble to find where they are.

Soon after, he is kidnapped by a man wearing a pig mask and awakens chained in the same bathroom from the previous movie. Amanda then explains how she got to be Jigsaw’s apprentice as a result of her experience and seals the door.

3. the Saw 3

[NOTE: Almost six months have passed since The Saw II when The Saw III and IV’s events take place, and they both occur simultaneously. So, you better put up two screens if you wish to give the series its proper historical treatment.]

1. IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
2. Runtime: 1h 48m
3. Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Jigsaw is dying in The Saw III, so Amanda abducts Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) and commands her to keep Jigsaw alive under the pain of having shotgun rounds ripped out of her brain.

As Matthews attempts to exit the restroom by shattering his own foot with a toilet lid, The Saw II picks up right where it left off. Also, we witness Detective Allison Kerry being kidnapped and held captive in the notorious Angel Trap. She was made to plunge her hand into a beaker of acid to collect a key, but she was torn apart nevertheless.

Lynn operates on John as Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen) finishes his game. She requests to be released after it is successful, but Amanda refuses. Before Jeff enters and shoots Amanda, she shoots her.

At this point, Kramer admits that the entire incident was a test for Amanda, whom he had suspected of fixing the games to be unbeatable, thus defying his instructions and undermining the entire purpose of his strategy.

4. the Saw 4

1. IMDb Rating: 5.9/10
2. Runtime: 1h 43m
3. Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman

While Matthews and his partner Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) are being put to the test, Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), a detective, works with FBI Agents Strahm and Perez (Scott Patterson and Athena Karkanis) to find Jigsaw’s second secret apprentice in The Saw IV.

Hoffman had been the apprentice all along, and he locks Rigg and Strahm in a warehouse. After The Saw III, Hoffman discovers a cassette containing a recording from Kramer promising him the games will go on within Jigsaw’s body during an autopsy. This is how the movie comes to a close.

5. the Saw 5

1. IMDb Rating: 5.8/10
2. Runtime: 1h 38m
3. Directed by: David Hackl

After the developments of The Saw III and IV and Kramer’s demise, The Saw V is a more straightforward continuation of the narrative. Hoffman mercifully intervenes to save Jeff’s daughter, who had previously been destined to perish in a closed space.

After Strahm escapes the box trap, Hoffman plays a fresh set of games with him and a number of others who are wearing ropes around their necks.

Hoffman is ultimately determined to be Jigsaw’s second apprentice by Strahm. He tells Hoffman to go inside a box in a room, but Hoffman ignores his advice and gets pushed inside instead, which reveals the hidden game: if Strahm had gone inside the box, he would have been OK. Meanwhile, the walls close in and he is falsely accused of being Jigsaw’s apprentice, continuing Hoffman’s reign of terror.

Kramer gives Jill instructions as well; these instructions will be crucial to a later movie.

6. the Saw 6

1. IMDb Rating: 6/10
2. Runtime: 1h 30m
3. Directed by: Kevin Greutert

After The Saw V, the sixth movie picks up a few days later. Hoffman is unharmed and Strahm has been destroyed, so he continues where Jigsaw left off by pursuing health insurance CEO William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), who denies Kramer coverage that may have saved his life.

Hoffman is jumped by Jill after William suffers a horrifying death at the hands of hydrofluoric acid, and she applies a modified reverse bear trap to his skull in accordance with Kramer’s orders. He is able to escape, although his right cheek gets disfigured in the process.

7. the Saw 3D (the Saw: The Final Chapter)

1. IMDb Rating: 5.5/10
2. Runtime: 1h 30m
3. Directed by: Kevin Greutert

The last chapter of the saw, which isn’t the last chapter at all, is about Jill and Hoffman’s conflict over Jigsaw’s legacy. When Jill tries to turn Hoffman over to the police in return for immunity, Hoffman uses the original reverse trap to kill her. In between these two plot moments, there is a lot of filler, but nothing else is really important.

When Hoffman attempts to demolish his workshop, three people wearing pig masks grab him; one of them is Dr. Lawrence Gordon from the first movie. Gordon had to fulfill Kramer’s final request: he had to keep Jill safe.

He ties Hoffman up in the bathroom where it all began, tosses the hacksaw in the trash, and then shuts the door, leaving Hoffman to perish. Indeed, it’s game over.

8. Jigsaw

1. IMDb Rating: 5.7/10
2. Runtime: 1h 32m
3. Directed by: The Spierig Brothers

Detectives are looking for a new murderer in Jigsaw, which is set ten years after The Saw III and IV. Eventually, pathologist Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore) and Brad Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) find themselves in a laser neck trap where they must confess their crimes in order to survive.

Brad makes Logan go first but perishes anyhow. One more twist is possible: Logan gets up off the ground, adjusts his trap, and exposes that he is the real murderer. Brad is killed, and the door is then sealed.

Logan was the target of the trap because of his medical carelessness, which caused Kramer’s diagnosis of an incurable brain tumor to be made much later than it should have been. Kramer, instead of Amanda, became Logan’s first pupil because of Kramer’s own error of judgment that caused Logan to remain unconscious throughout the game.

9. Spiral: From the Book of Saw

1. IMDb Rating: 5.2/10
2. Runtime: 1h 33m
3. Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman

Finally, the spinoff phase has begun. The exact timeline for Spiral is unknown, however, it takes place after the events of all the Saw films by a number of years. All of its gruesome fatalities and plot twists occur chronologically right at the conclusion, so you may watch it to find out.

Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks and his newbie companion take leadership of an investigation into brutal killings that strangely resemble the city’s macabre past while toiling in his father’s shadow. Zeke is unwittingly drawn into a growing mystery and finds himself at the heart of the murderer’s sinister plot.

11. Saw X

• Genre: Horror, Mystery
• Director: Kevin Greutert
• Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes
• Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, Michael Beach
• Availability: Streaming on Prime Video, rentable on various platforms

Released in September 2023, it serves as both a sequel to the original Saw and a prequel to Saw II, bringing back Tobin Bell as the infamous Jigsaw killer. Here’s what you need to know:

Plot:

John Kramer, terminally ill with cancer, seeks a desperate cure through an experimental procedure in Mexico. Discovering it’s a scam, he becomes enraged and turns the tables on the con artists, employing his signature devious traps with a newfound personal vendetta.

FAQs

Conclusion

The Saw franchise continues to fascinate horror fans with its intricate plotlines and unforgettable traps. Whether you watch in release order to experience the original twists or prefer the chronological order for a clearer storyline, the journey is a thrilling ride.

And remember—if streaming restrictions get in your way, a trusted VPN like ExpressVPN or NordVPN can be your best ally.