Patrick Bennet 
Greetings and welcome. I would like to play a little game.
Do those ominous words ring a bell in your mind? If they do, let me remind you why they just gave you goosebumps-these are the iconic words of that terrifying doll from the “Saw” franchise.
The “Saw” movies have been around for a long time, with the first movie being older than a decade now. It was quite the cinema phenomenon when it came out back in 2004 with it’s simple setting, low budget yet incredible tension and pacing. And who could forget that iconic theme song paired with one of the best plot twists in cinema! Back in 2010, the seventh installment of the series came out, with a claim that it was the final one. Not really though. Just recently, Jigsaw came out, becoming the eighth film in the series and the first one in seven years.
As per usual, there’s a lot more to the story than just disturbing gore scenes and intricately brutal puzzles. There’s always lines between the lines with the “Saw” movies and now I’m here to show you a few things you may have missed while watching the latest movie. There were a lot of Easter eggs to look out for in the movie, so don’t consider this a complete list, because it definitely isn’t one.
Be prepared, a lot of spoilers for the new movie, as well as some for the older ones, ahead! Wouldn’t want to ruin all those mind-blowing plot twists now, would you?
1. The “X” mark
In the beginning of the movie, during the scene with the SWAT team, if you look closely, there’s an “X” displayed on a horizontal beam in the background. Now why is this important? We’ve all heard the phrase “X marks the spot” and this is precisely what it means here as well, as the symbol has been used in the franchise before, especially in the first two installments. In this particular case, it gives off the location of where Nelson is camping with his sniper rifle. I could elaborate a bit more on this motif but it would be far more difficult to explain it than to simply watch the movies, so I’ll leave that up to you.
2. We can see that the people behind the movie are going back in time and practically resurrecting two characters with spiritual successors
The first one, Detective Keith Hunt, a former field agent who recently became a detective, is very similar to a character from the first movies named Daniel Rig who used to be a SWAT member who was nearly obsessed with the Jigsaw killings, doing loads of detective work on his own due to the trauma of seeing most of his colleagues becoming victims of the serial killer. The second character we could refer to as a spiritual successor would be one of the doctors in “Jigsaw” who bears an uncanny resemblance, especially physically since we don’t realy learn much about her, to Lynn Denlon, also a doctor, who was a crucial character, kidnapped with the intent of being used to prolong Jigsaw’s life in “Saw 3”.
3. The Same Person?
A small connection we noticed was that during the autopsy scene, the cause of death was identified as being Hydrochloric acid by one of the coroners. When asked how she knew about this, she said she had seen it before. This leads us to believe that there is a high possibility this is the same person from the sixth movie. It’s really small details like this that make Saw’s continuity so interesting.
4. Sacrificing blood
One of the more symbolic pieces of intricacy we noticed was that the first challenge the victims had to participate in “Jigsaw” included sacrificing blood. This was actually not the first time we’ve seen this motif in the franchise. Back in the fifth movie, one of the traps required participants to slice into their hand on a sawblade in order to fill a vial of blood. The idea of sacrificial blood stems from ancient times. Those were the times where religion practically ruled over every tribe and nation. This is yet another example of the killer’s cultist ideas. He recruits followers, who wear masks and do everything he asks them to. His wish is to purify the land of people he considers a plague to society. The traps he puts his victims through are like a religious purification ritual. He himself often portrays himself as a godly figure, untouchable and righteous. He believes his actions are justified as they are but a tool for the greater good in his deranged, yet incredibly calculating mind. Jigsaw is truly one of the most narcissistic movie villains of all time.
6. Pigs
One of the most consistent motifs in the franchise are pigs and “Jigsaw” is no exception. Thanks to the newest movie, we not only get a lot more referrences to them, but we also learn a bit more about the meaning behind the killer’s obsession with these animals. During the previous movies, we learned that the pigs represented Jigsaw’s legacy, seeing as his unborn son would’ve had his birthday during the year of the Pig according to the Chinese zodiac. He never had his child because his wife suffered a miscarriage because of someone else’s selfishness, which lit the flame of his hatred towards the selfish. Whenever recruiting new members, his followers always wear pig masks to honor Jigsaw’s legacy, as his son would have, if he had been born. All of this is important for the movie, as the trap is set in a pig farm. Here, the participants are seen as the “pigs” that will die if they don’t change their ways. The ones that survive are faced with a proposition-to help Jigsaw in his quest to purify humanity. It doesn’t end here though. During an autopsy, it is revealed that the deceased carried a rare pig disease which was a clue that helped the detectives find the pig farm later on in the movie. As a symbol, the disease can be seen as people’s sinister nature and how their worst actions are the most contagious to others. Just like a disease, the more selfishness spreads, the more lethal it becomes.
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