What are the best horror movies like Saw X you can stream right now? If you’re anything like us, you were quite pleased to see the return of the Saw franchise. They’re not everybody’s cup of tea, we get it, but for a certain audience they’re everything a fan could want. In terms of mainstream, splattery horror, it doesn’t get much bigger and better.
Saw is back on the big screen this week with Saw X, and it’s receiving rave reviews from critics as one of the best horror movies of 2023 so far. Our own Jessica Cullen was less positive in our Saw X review, but there’s no denying that it’s receiving better notices than any of the new movies in the recent history of the Saw movies in order.
But if you’ve already seen Saw X, you’ll want to know about the best movies to watch next. We’ve delved through the catalogs of the best streaming services to reveal 10 of the best horror movies like Saw X to keep you busy. There’s no gore withdrawal here.
The 10 best horror movies like Saw X:
- Saw
- Hostel
- Would You Rather
- The Human Centipede
- You’re Next
- Nerve
- Martyrs
- Final Destination 2
- The Cabin in the Woods
- Escape Room
10. Saw (2004)
If you enjoyed Saw X, you’ll want to take things back to where it all began. We first met Jigsaw as the morally twisted mastermind behind locking two people up in a grubby bathroom with a dead body. It’s a taut, nasty little thriller with a heck of a twist ending.
It’s quite refreshing to head back and see how simple things were in the earliest days of these movies. Now, you need a degree in Jigsaw-ology just to keep track of the Saw timeline. At this time, it was just all about people taking their own feet off with a rusty hacksaw. Bliss.
How to watch Saw: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Starz
9. Hostel (2005)
Saw has a nastier little brother, if you can imagine that. While Hollywood reeled from the success of James Wan’s micro-budget gem, Eli Roth took a group of American tourists to Slovakia. They soon fell victim to a scheme in which rich people could pay for the opportunity to torture others. Yikes.
Roth’s movie isn’t as good as Saw, for sure, and it will require a bit of patience for those who enjoy the gore more than the character-based storytelling. However, there are some memorably gross scenes in the second half of this one. You get what you’ve come for.
How to watch Hostel: FuboTV and Amazon
8. Would You Rather (2012)
In the Saw movies, unwitting participants end up trapped in Jigsaw’s deadly games as a result of their own perceived moral failings. Things are a little different in Would You Rather, in which people choose to join these games for their own ends. Brittany Snow’s protagonist, for example, wants to help her younger brother with his leukaemia treatment.
You know the rest. There’s considerable blood and guts, though things are considerably more restrained than in Saw and Hostel. By this time, the idea of what came to be known rather reductively as “torture porn” was going out of fashion.
How to watch Would You Rather: Hulu and Amazon
7. The Human Centipede (2009)
Modern movies don’t come much more notorious than Tom Six’s button-pushing The Human Centipede. It’s based around the savage premise of a crazed surgeon who decides to kidnap three people and merge them into a single being with a shared digestive system. There are other bodily fluids aside from blood, let’s put it that way.
It’s certainly disgusting and it’s certainly there to court controversy, but it’s also one of the best body horror movies we’ve seen in years. The sequels are less worthwhile, but this first one is a killer idea executed in admirably scuzzy fashion.
How to watch The Human Centipede: AMC+ (via Amazon)
6. You’re Next (2011)
Adam Wingard, before he was given the keys to Godzilla and King Kong, delivered a bona fide contender for the best slasher movies with You’re Next. Sharni Vinson does a great job on final girl duties as everything unfolds within the Saw-like single location of a family home, with animal-masked assailants laying siege and picking off family members one by one.
There are added Saw comparisons to be found in the ways Vinson’s character conjures ingenious deathtraps to thwart the masked attackers invading the home. It’s like Home Alone, but with more arterial spray and less Christmas spirit.
How to watch You’re Next: Max and Amazon
5. Nerve (2016)
Nerve might be the most friendly movie on this list. It has its nasty moments, but it won’t have your family members turning to you in horror at the mere suggestion of watching it. Emma Roberts and Dave Franco find themselves trapped within the escalating danger of an online “truth or dare” game. It starts small, but becomes deadly.
This came and went in cinemas with very limited fanfare, but it’s an underrated teen thriller with plenty of edge and some fascinating things to say about an online world in which everything is content. If you haven’t seen it before, do yourself a favor and give it a go.
How to watch Nerve: Amazon Prime Video
4. Martyrs (2008)
If you like your extreme gore with a side order of philosophy, then this French thriller is the movie for you. Martyrs is a stomach-turning nightmare featuring graphic scenes of torture and, much like Jigsaw, there’s a twisted reason behind it all. The perpetrators think they’re doing something justified.
Martyrs is a fascinating tale that adds complexity behind its genuinely shocking brutality. If you’ve got the stomach for it, it’s a very rewarding watch. Just make sure you don’t watch the 2015 American remake by accident. It’s not quite the same.
How to watch Martyrs: Vudu and Tubi
3. Final Destination 2 (2003)
We’ve chosen to put the second entry in the Final Destination series on this list for the same reason that Goldfinger is the best of the James Bond movies in order. Final Destination 2 was the movie in which the format stuck, taking the idea of a group of teens cheating death and facing the consequences and giving it added flair and splatter. The barbed wire fence moment alone is unforgettable.
We’re big fans of Final Destination here and we’d recommend any and all of the films in the series, though it’s the sequel for which we have a real soft spot. In fact, to celebrate Saw X, we’ve looked into whether Saw or Final Destination is the bigger horror franchise.
How to watch Final Destination: AMC+ (via Amazon)
2. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Quite simply, The Cabin in the Woods is brilliant. It’s a witty and inventive spin on the idea of the supernatural horror genre, imagining the whole thing in a very Saw-esque way. We won’t spoil any more of the premise than that, on the off-chance that you’re unfamiliar with how it all pans out.
The gore is copious and delightfully grim, while the ensemble cast’s performances walk the line between horror and the best comedy movies with real aplomb. You also get a pre-MCU Chris Hemsworth on a motorbike, which is a massive selling point for any movie quite frankly.
How to watch The Cabin in the Woods: Max and Amazon
1. Escape Room (2019)
Benefiting from more money and greater access to CGI than Saw had in its earliest days, Escape Room is terrific fun from start to finish. Horror veteran Adam Robitel brings real skill and flair as he tells the story of a group of apparently random people trapped within a lethal escape room, relying on their wits to get through macabre death traps.
Escape Room is essentially a glossier, more Hollywood version of Saw, but that doesn’t mean it sacrifices any of the scares. Robitel finds real tension in his traps and that mostly carries through into the sequel, Tournament of Champions. They’re both worth seeking out.
How to watch Escape Room: Hulu and Amazon
If that’s not enough terror and bloodshed, you can also check out the best zombie movies and the best vampire movies. Or for more on the world of Saw, find out why Saw X is so violent that someone called the cops for real and read our guide to the Saw X traps explained.
Elsewhere in the horror world, we’ve got guides to some of the scariest 2023 movies still to come, including the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie release date and the Exorcist Believer release date. We’ve also explained why FNAF’s PG-13 rating doesn’t mean it won’t be great. And on the small screen, learn more about Wednesday season 2.