Is John Kramer from the Saw Franchise a Villain or a Hero?

The Saw franchise has gained a cult following from many horror fans. Even though some of the films weren’t exactly loved by all fans, the Saw traps that John Kramer created have each gained a lot of horror love.

The traps can be freaking brutal, featuring the worst deaths imaginable. Kramer would place his victims in each of these traps, punishing them for hurting others and not valuing their own lives.

Kramer’s reasons for placing people in his traps get stupider during the franchise, but I’m going to disregard the worst films in the franchise.

How some of these Saw films got made blows my mind. I'm not playing when I say this, but the franchise had a phase of turning into some kind of soap opera for horror fans. It was so weird.

The one film I think should be talked about is the recent Saw film: Saw X.

Major spoiler warning for Saw X! Please turn back if you haven't seen this film yet! Trust me, this is one of the best films in the franchise so far!

Saw X is probably the best one in the series so far. John Kramer returns for a prequel, where he runs into a group of people who are truly evil.

Kramer is desperate to heal from his cancer, and he meets a doctor who promises to help him and remove his sickness. He goes along with the procedure, paying $100,000 for the treatment.

Then Kramer finds out later on that the treatment was never done on him. They only pretended to operate on him, and took his money.

Yikes...that is so messed up.

John Kramer obviously gets super pissed off, and decides to exact revenge on the ‘medical team’ that dared to lie to his face and do such a disgusting act of greed to trick him. He goes after the group, and places each of them in their own trap.

He then learns that the group had taken a lot more money from other dying or sick people, using them as a way to become rich. Ouch.

John Kramer begins his usual method of torture upon these people, forcing them to participate in his sicks games, to see which of them wants to live or not.

Is John Kramer doing a good deed by punishing these people?

I gotta be honest here…I’m sort of a mixed bag.

Murder is bad, but damn; these people freaking sucked!

Stealing from innocent, sick people that were hoping for a cure...only to continue remaining sick or dying later?

THAT IS PURE EVIL.

And also so heartbreaking…so I don’t really blame John Kramer for kidnapping these bastards and subjecting them to horrible torture.

This group had every chance in the world to stop what they were doing, but greed got the better of them! Bastards.

And it's crazy how you find yourself rooting for Kramer during this film. I struggled to feel an ounce of pity for any of these characters. They showed off their selfish sides to Kramer, and they only pleaded for mercy once the consequences eventually caught up to them.

Whoever thought John Kramer would be their ultimate karma?

I’d rather go to jail and admit to all my crimes than get placed in a saw trap. You will cringe so hard from the torture Kramer subjects these people to. Definitely some of the most messed up traps in the franchise are featured in this film.

So…is John Kramer the hero or the antagonist?

I guess it’s up to you to decide.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn