Saw II: The Needle Pit

Okay, okay, Reverse Bear Trap stans, here’s where Amanda Young gets her belated recognition. Amanda, the woman put into the initial Reverse Bear Trap in Saw, returns in Saw II, and she is trapped in a poisoned house filled with more of Jigsaw’s horrifying death games, with antidotes as their prize. There are some real gnarly ones like a furnace someone has to crawl through before being burned alive, and a razor box that slices up a person’s arms as they reach for an antidote. But none of them generate quite the visceral reaction of the Needle Pit. Amanda wasn’t the intended player, but as the hotheaded Xavier throws her into a pit of dirty syringes in his place, she’s forced to rummage around them in search of a key. Saw loves to poke at viewers’ phobias, and despite everything the series has dished out over the years, the Needle Pit remains the trap I’ve been told most people tap out on. It’s almost a shame it comes so early in the series because then they miss out on everything that comes after.