One of the biggest selling points of the Saw franchise is seeing what traps the test subjects get placed into. After two decades and 10 films, we’ve seen so many different traps varying in terms of creativity and brutality, so picking the best one can be difficult.

It depends on what you’re looking for in the trap. In terms of sheer pain, the Rack Trap in Saw III has to rank high, as does Saw IV‘s Scalping Seat. Some are creative but lead to instant death like the Venus Fly Trap Death Mask in Saw II or the Ice Block Trap in the maligned Saw IV.

Others aren’t even gory, yet so hard to watch like the Needle Pit in Saw II, while some are just as mentally torturous as they are physically damaging, like The Bathroom Trap in the original Saw. However, James Wan, who directed that first film, has named his favorite and it’s one we don’t see in action for a long time.

James Wan Says The Best Saw Trap Is The Reverse Bear Trap

When We Finally See The Trap In Action, It’s Brutal

Director James Wan has admitted that his favorite trap in the Saw franchise is the Reverse Bear Trap (via Slash Film). It makes sense since it’s the trap that’s most ᴀssociated with the franchise and it was actually first seen in the original Saw movie that Wan directed. Wan said:

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.

In that film, Dr. Gordon was told about a woman who survived one of Jigsaw’s traps. That was Amanda, who was placed in the Reverse Bear Trap and had to cut the key out of someone’s stomach before unlocking it herself. Her survival might be a big reason why the trap is so well remembered.

Due to Amanda’s survival in the Reverse Bear Trap, she believed Jigsaw had saved her and ended up becoming his apprentice. The fact that we don’t see the full effects of the trap also plays a part in its popularity. Every other trap is blatantly shown to us except this one, meaning the mystery adds a lot of intrigue.

The Reverse Bear Trap Was Only Teased Until Saw 3D

It Finally Gets Used On Jill

Fans didn’t get to see the Reverse Bear Trap in action until the seventh film, yet it was always prevalent. After first being seen in the original film, it kept popping up for various reasons from Amanda simply flashing back to it in Saw II to her reiterating that it saved her life when talking to Dr. Lynn Denlon in Saw III.

The Reverse Bear Trap truly reared its head as the franchise neared its initial conclusion. At the end of Saw VI, Jigsaw’s ex-wife, Jill Kramer, trapped his unhinged apprentice Mark Hoffman in it. Though it looked like we’d finally see what the trap could really do, Hoffman broke his wrists and escaped the trap, only having his cheek ripped open.

It wasn’t until Saw: The Last Chapter (or Saw 3D) that the Reverse Bear Trap was fully utilized. Hoffman got his revenge by placing Jill in the trap, and this time, audiences got to see her face get blown open. The trap had lived up to the hype and James Wan was right to name it his favorite Saw trap.

There have been dozens of traps in the Saw franchise over the years but it feels like the Reverse Bear Trap is the one to top them all. Some are more brutal and some are more sadistic but this is the iconic one that is most ᴀssociated with the franchise.