Saw

Saw is a horror movie franchise spanning seven installments. The first installment, released in 2004, was made by James Wan and Leigh Wannell, and the other six installments came out on a yearly basis with different directors at the helm of each movie.

The movies concern a serial killer who goes by the name of Jigsaw. His M.O. is that he kidnaps people who are known to have troubled pasts, and then he puts them in a death trap to test their will to live. Usually, each trap involves either a deadly endurance test or inflicting severe physical harm on yourself or on others. And if you fail, you die. He gets his name from the fact that he takes a jigsaw-shaped piece of flesh from every one of his victims, the rationale being that the victim was missing a vital part of the human puzzle.

The series is also known for having an extremely convoluted overarching storyline. It is complex, involves a lot of characters, spans every installment of the franchise... and it makes it virtually impossible to talk about the later installments of the franchise without spoiling something. Especially after Saw III, given the nature of the ending of that movie.

Saw in Fanfiction
Saw fanfiction can go in any one of two directions:

AU: AU fanfiction is particularly common because of the absurdly huge amount of characters the franchise has. (Also, it stems from the fact that in your average Saw movie, at least three quarters of the cast is dead by the time you get to the final six or so minutes.) What is also common in AU fanfiction is improbable shipping between some of the characters, and crack is not uncommon, particularly when pairing people from one movie with people from another.

OC Death Trap: Given that Jigsaw traps are usually accompanied by huge metaphorical undertones, it is actually very easy to write an OC who gets put into a Jigsaw trap. Mary Sues are not commonly found in this category of fanfiction, as most authors understand that the victim has to have a very messed up life/no appreciation of it, and that victims rarely survive their traps. Almost all Saw﻿ crossovers fall into the OC Death Trap category, except that the OC/OC group is replaced with either one canon or a group of canons from another continuum.

Saw badfics in either category include character warping. In the case of the Death Trap, it is also possible for badfic authors to forget the traps are supposed to be metaphorical; almost every trap in the franchise has some significance to the people taking part in it.

Missions in the Saw Continuum

 * Mission 5: Playing Pointless Games - Agents Florestan and Eusabius (Crossover with My Little Pony.