6) Saw
Everyone enjoys a good horror movie, and the first Saw had a certain charm to it. Written and directed by then-emerging filmmaker James Wan, who has since gone on to make notable horror efforts like Insidious, The Conjuring, Insidious: Chapter Two, and The Conjuring 2, Saw envisioned the antics of a madman named Jigsaw, who, suffering from an inoperable brain tumor, decides to make others appreciate life more by putting them through horrific traps they must escape: the most famous one being the bear trap which featured on some of the film’s promotional posters.
What made Saw particularly pleasing, and a stand-out from other indie horror flicks that were being released at the time, was its focus on the various mysteries. Why were the two people there? Who was this Jigsaw Killer? What was his end goal for them? Why was there a dead body in-between the two guys?
Sadly, the sequels chose to abandon this in favor of doubling down on the gruesomeness of the traps. To call them torture porn would be appropriate as they became increasingly more interested in tormenting their protagonists than telling a coherent story. While Saw: The Final Chapter was, as its name implies, meant to end the franchise, it’s instead being continued for what little name recognition the brand contains now with the upcoming Jigsaw.