John Kramer

"I want to play a game."

- The Jigsaw killer's catchphrase. John Kramer (also known as The Jigsaw Killer, or simply Jigsaw) is a serial killer with a difference. He does not kill his victims directly, but instead relies on various lethal traps in which he places his victims. In most cases, they must subject themselves to excruciating pain or trauma to escape and prove their will to live. The theory behind these tests is that by subjecting people to seemingly impending death that they would truly appreciate life. His main choice of victims tend to be people who have either attempted suicide or who have committed some sort of crime to try and get them to turn their life around.

Battle vs Phantom of the Opera & Clyde Shelton (by Wassboss )
A light flickers on in a room, lighting it up and revealing its horrendous condition. The floor and roof is covered with mould and the place stinks of human faeces. There is a small camera in the corner of the ceiling and the room has several doors, all tightly locked, and each leading to several different rooms. The most important detail however is the seven people all slumped up against the wall, alive but heavily drugged. One of them has a reverse bear trap on her head but the others unharmed but have bruises and cuts on their bodies.

The one in the reverse bear trap is Brenda. Brenda is a corrupt police woman, who through taking a bribe from a local mobster; unwillingly lead to the death of her best friend’s family. Next to her is a 30 year old man called Andrew. Andrew is a lawyer who is known for making ludicrous statements in court but still wins the case. However so desperate is he to get a good case he has often planted evidence leading to the wrongful imprisonment of many people. On the other side of Brenda is a young stripper named Roxy. She has been in and out of prison several times this year and has often tried to kill herself by taking a overdose, each time failing.

Next to her is Desmond. Desmond is a 70 year old retired gardener who can’t afford to pay his rent. This has forced him to blackmail people into giving him large amounts of money even pushing one of them to committing suicide. On Desmond’s left is a teenage boy named Sam. Sam is 18 years old and a daredevil, often sacrificing his own and others safety for fame on YouTube. His stunts have caused the injuries of many innocent bystanders, some of whom will never recover and are disabled forever. On Andrews right is a 44 year old man. His name is tony and he is a hit man. He has killed many people over the year’s even defenceless children and crippled pensioners. Lastly on his right is jess. Jess is an identical twin whose sister died earlier this year. Shocked by her death she tried and failed to hang herself but did succeed in losing her daughter to kidnappers, who broke in a stole her child while she tried to take her own life.

Slowly one by one each of the test subjects awake. Brenda is the last to awake and screams when she finds herself stuck in the reverse bear trap. “Help me, get it off me help” she screams pulling on the trap and banging it against the wall. Andrew runs over to her and holds her hands away. “Don’t worry we will get you out of this i promise”. “Oh and how are we supposed to do that” says jess who is sitting in the corner, her voice solemn and devoid of emotion. “I don’t know” says Andrew “but we will and would two stop that” he says staring at Tony and Desmond who are kicking and punching one of the doors. Tony turns to him and shouts “well how the f**k are we supposed to get the f**K out of here just stand here and wait for someone to open the f**king door”.

“Yes” says a sudden voice, seeming to be coming from nowhere but loud enough for everyone to hear. “Who said that” shouts Roxy banging on the wall. “Stop that or you will never leave this room”. “What” says Desmond “no let us out now, now or i will kill you”. Brenda sobs in the corner and manages to blurt out “i don’t want to die”. The voice continues “and you won’t if everyone cooperates”. “I and my acquaintances have brought you here to help you understand the errors of your ways”. “Wait what do you mean error of our ways” says jess, her voice still emotionless. “All of you in this room have committed a foul act or acts and have caused many people pin, suffering and even death” the voice say “now listen up if you want Brenda to survive i have a little task for you”. Brenda springs up and runs up to the camera shouting at it “what is it, what do i have to do, save me”. “In the brown door is a cat flap and on the other side is a key, you must retrieve the key in order to remove the helmet which is now on 2 minute timer. If you should fail to retrieve the key in time then the trap will rip your jaw in half”.

Brenda runs over to the cat flap but is stopped by tony who tells her “no, you won’t be able to reach with this thing on your head” he says calmly “one of us will have to do it”. They all stand around looking uneasy until Sam proclaims “I’ll do it”. Desmond looks shocked and says “but it could be a trap you could be killed”. Sam just smiles at him “Life’s too short to worry about death" he says, and with that walks over to the cat flap and, reaching through, grabs hold of the key and tries to pull it through. “It seems to be stuck on something” he says straining as the key starts to come out. He starts to stand up as he does so, putting his head in line with the eye-hole. He yanks back and pulls out the key. “See nothing to worry abo-” but he doesn’t get to finish his sentence as a loud bang is heard and he slumps over dead. Brenda and Roxy scream and Andrew and tony look away in disgust. Jess slowly stands up and walks over to Sam’s lifeless body and pick up the key. She then walks over to Brenda and, unlocking the bear trap, pulls it off her head.

Brenda shouts in joy and tries to hug jess who pushes her away. “Don’t get all soppy on me you would have done the same”. Andrew looks shocked and says “wait how can you be happy a young boy has just died”. Roxy walks over and comforts him “Don’t worry Andrew it’s not her fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not your fault, it’s none of our faults. It’s that evil persons fault he killed Sam”. The voice starts again “well it seems like Brenda is safe but Sam has unfortunately lost his life to my cleaver trap”. Roxy yells at the camera “you monster how could you kill that poor kid he hasn’t even lead a long life”. “I did not kill him he died because he wanted to live in the moment get it over with and because of that he took no caution and did not check for a trap”. Roxy gose silent and looks at the floor but Brenda shouts out this time “shut up, just shut up, you made the trap, it killed Sam and thus you killed him”. The voice ignores this comment and continues “however there is a catch”. Tony and Desmond both look at the camera and say perfectly insigne “what catch”. The voice continues “one of you must put the bear trap back on their head”. They all stand there in shock before jess says “no way you can’t just make us put that thing one of our heads it’s inhuman”.

The voice starts again “if one of you dose not put the tap on his or her head then you will be trapped in this room forever”. This shuts jess up and they all stand solemnly, looking at each other. Finally Andrew says “I’ll do it, for the sake for the team I’ll do it”. He then picks up the bear trap and puts it on his head. “Well it looks like one of you has a heart” says the voice more sinister this time “oh and by the way the key you just used will not unlock the trap this time you will need another one”. Andrew looks shocked and turning to the camera says “where is the other key”. There is no answer but a door opens. They all look through and see a key, hanging from the ceiling. “One of you and i mean only one of you must go into that room to retrieve the key in order to save tony”. “Okay who is going to go in there” says Brenda. “I’m not going in their” Tony says stepping back. “Me either” Roxy states. Everyone else stands silent until Desmond says “I’ll do it I’m an old man I’ve lived a long life if this is a trap then at least the person who has lived the longest life will not be missing out on much”. “No way” says Brenda “you may be old but that doesn’t mean you have to risk your life and any-”. Desmond stops her mid sentence and says “I’ve done some things in my life I’m not proud of and for that i must go into that room”. Desmond turns to the door and walks into the room.

Suddenly the door shuts behind him and he turns and bangs on the door. “Let me out let me out” he screams and Tony runs to the door and tries franticly to open it but to no avail. “Desmond” the voice bellows. “Yes” he says his voice quiet and shaky. “I want to play a game” say the voice. “You Desmond are what call a bully. You could not afford you rent and thus you blackmailed others forcing them to pay you thousands of pounds and driving them to bankruptcy, including jess’s sister”. Jess’s mouth drops wide open and she clenches her fist in anger. “You blackmailed her into giving you 10 thousand pounds and when she could not pay it to you threatened her and she became so scared she poisoned herself”. Jess runs at the door and starts kicking and punching it yelling “I’m gonna kill you how dare you, you killed my sister you B***ard”. Tony pulls her away from the door and holds her still and whispers in her ear “Calm down, just calm down”. “Before i was so rudely interrupted” the voice continues “i was about to say jess you have two choices. Choice one; as you can see though this glass window in the door this room is filled with gun powder barrels kindly donated by a friend of mine. If you want you can set these gunpowder barrels off and kill Desmond but the key will remain in the room and Andrew will die. Choice 2; you can spare Desmond and he will get the key and both of them will survive. You have 2 minutes to decide starting from now”. A timer slides down from the ceiling and starts counting down. “Listen” Andrew says grabbing jess by the shoulders and looking her in the eyes “I know what this guy has done is wrong and he deserves to die but do i deserve to die”. Jess looks at him and he continues “Please jess I’m begging you i don’t want to die”.

He gose down onto his knees and puts his hands together. “Please i have a wife and 3 kids”. “1 minute people” says Brenda, who has been watching the timer. “But he killed my sister” jess says tears coming to her eyes. “Andrew i just can’t set him free, it just can’t”. Andrew looks at her a look of shock on his face “No you can’t let me die please no”. “I’m sorry I’m so sorry” jess say turning away from him. “Game over” says the voice “Jess you have decided to kill both Desmond and Andrew". Andrew looks her and shakes his head “You selfish b***h” he says and the trap snaps open ripping his head in half. Desmond screams as a single match is lit and the gunpowder barrels explode killing him. Jess falls down onto her knees and starts to sob. Tony walks over to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. “Its okay” he says in a soothing voice “I would have done the same”.

“No it’s not okay” say Brenda coldly. Tony and Roxy both look at Brenda in disgust. “Come on he killed her sister” says Roxy. “Yes but what did Andrew do” say Brenda. Roxy looks down at the floor in shame. “Exactly” says Brenda who walks over to jess and looks her strait in the eyes “He was right you are a selfish b***h”. Jess carries on crying but all of sudden the voice starts again. “So Jess couldn’t let go of the past, she had to get her revenge, even if it meant killing a slightly more innocent man”. Another door opens and the voice says “all of you go through the door”. Roxy and Brenda head straight through the door and tony helps jess to her feet and walks her into the room. Suddenly ropes fly out of the walls and wrap around tony’s, jesses, Brenda’s and Roxy’s feet. “What the hell” shout tony and he tries to pull the rope off his feet but to no avail. “God Dammit what does he want now” says Brenda. “I want to play a game”. “As you know your feet are trapped by these ropes in the middle of this room is a bomb kindly donated by another friend of mine. Hacksaws are being lowered from the ceiling you must use these to cut through the ropes and escape before the timer runs out. You have 1 minute and 30 seconds. Let the game begin". Immediately they all grab hold of the hacksaws and start to cut through the ropes holding them down. Roxy is the first one to escape with 40 seconds to spare, tony is the next one to free himself and scrambles out of the room with 30 seconds to spare. This leaves only Brenda and jess. Brenda frees herself first and turns to face jess. “You don’t deserve to live” she says and slashes her throat with the hacksaw before running out of the room and closing the door behind her.

As jess lies there bleeding heavily and listening to the timer count down the remaining ten second she remembers her sister. Her sister is smiling and laughing and for a few second she feels happy but then she remembers the argument they had before she killed herself. Tears come to her eyes and she whispers “I’m sorry Katie” before the bomb gose off. “Where is jess” says tony as Brenda exits the room. “She’s dead” Brenda says acting like she feels sympathy for Jess. “Well i see that jess was unable to escape the bomb room in time” say the voice before adding “No thanks to Brenda”. Tony looks at Brenda and says “what is that supposed to mean”. “I don’t know” Brenda replies.

The last remaining door opens and the voice says “step through this door to your freedom”. They all run through the door and find themselves in a dining hall with a massive chandelier above them. The door closes behind them but they hardly notice, to busy thinking about the possibility of escape. “This game is perhaps the hardest yet for in order to escape this room one of you must die”. “What?” says Roxy “One of us must die how do we decided that”. “As you can see above you is a chandelier, in 5 minutes the chandelier will fall crushing whoever is standing underneath. To make sure someone is actually under the chandelier when it falls there is a series of poisonous gas releasing compartments in this very room. If one of you is not killed by the chandelier then the gas will be released and you will all perish. Let the game begin”. “Right” say tony trying to be calm “there is only one way to solve this”. “How is there a way to solve this” Brenda who is getting more and more frantic. “The way to solve it is simple” tony begins “we tie up Brenda and throw her underneath the chandelier”.

“What” say Roxy and Brenda at the same time. “When i got out of the bomb room i turned back to see how Brenda and jess were getting on”. He pauses for breath as the timer reaches halfway point. “I saw Brenda stand up and using the hacksaw slice open jesses neck”. Roxy looks at Brenda in shock “is this true”. Brenda hangs her head in shame “yes it is i killed her”. Roxy looks at her jaw wide open before uttering “You f**king b***h”. She then jumps on Brenda and starts punching her the face. Tony runs over and manages to pull her off Brenda before she can do too much damage. “Why” screams Roxy trying to get out of tony’s grip. “I thought she doesn’t deserve to live she killed a completely innocent person for revenge against another one”. Roxy manages to break free of tony’s hold and punches Brenda in the face so hard it completely knocks her out. “Let’s do this” she says and both her and tony drag Brenda’s unconscious body underneath the chandelier and wait untill it collapses.

“Well done” says the voice almost mockingly “Now move on to you final test” a door opens and they both walk through it. When they are fully in the room the door closes behind them. The room is empty apart from a single pistol in the middle of the room. “Well done you two” say the voice “You have managed to survive me and my friends cleaver traps but there is one more task ahead of you. In the centre of this room is a gun fully loaded. Once you get hold of the gun use it to kill the other person. The person who is alive at the end is the winner and will escape. Let the game begin".

Roxy run toward the gun first but tony grabs her by the shoulder and pulls her back. She however hooks her leg around his leg and trips him up. As he falls however he grabs her arm and pulls her down with him. Tony stands up first and stamps on Roxy’s head before leaping and grabbing hold of the gun. He then points it at her face but she lunges forward and slams herself into him sending them both crashing to the floor. They struggle with the gun for a while but eventually she knees him in his manly area causing him to drop the gun and instead clutch his crown jewels. Victorious Roxy stands up and pints the gun at tony’s head. “I’m sorry” she says and pulls the trigger.

Tony closes his eyes and waits for the impact. Nothing. He waits a little longer but still nothing. “Ah for fu-” he says opening his eyes only to see Roxy lying on the floor dead with prongs stuck in her hands that have protruded out of the gun. “Well done tony” says the voice “you are now free”. A final door opens leading out to the street. “Have a nice day” the voice says and tony runs out into the street jumping for joy.

Meanwhile in another room inside the house jigsaw, Clyde Shelton and The phantom are all stood around a computer screen watching tony leave the building. “Well that was fun” say Clyde “but I’d better get going”. “Not so fast” says jigsaw reaching into his pocket and pulling out a hacksaw “you ain’t going anywhere”. “Oh and why is that” say Clyde turning back to face him. “You haven’t learnt that revenge is never the answer you must be tested” says jigsaw. “No way” says Clyde and pulls out his prison shank “hey you weirdo” he says looking at the phantom. “Who are you calling weirdo” he says pulling out his rapier. “Oh come on two against one” Clyde moans. “Oh I’m not helping him” says the phantom “Once you’re gone he will be next”. “Looks like we got ourselves a 3 way free-for-all “ says jigsaw smiling.

Clyde makes the first move lunging at jigsaw with his shank but he parries with the hacksaw and swings it at him cutting his arm bit. “God Dammit” says Clyde who turns his attention to the phantom. The phantom however ignores Clyde and instead tries stabs jigsaw in the head but he again dodges he jumps on the phantom and tries to cut his throat. The phanton blocks with the sabre and pushes jigsaw off him. He stumbles back and clyde stabs him in the neck. "Nighty-night" he says and ,as jigsaw's body falls limp on the floor,turns back to face the phantom.

Clyde smiles at the phantom “Looks like it’s just you and me” he says and lunges forward again managing to stab the phantom in the leg."AHHHH" the phantom says and kicks clyde in the head sending him sprawling. He tries to stab him but clyde dodges and the sabre gets stuck in the ground. Clyde smiles and punches the phantom in the face and he falls to the ground. "Oh i bet you think that it was jigsaw who killed your beloved Christine Daea". The phantom looks at him and utters "Christine"."Well" clyde says mockingly "it was me". The phantom looks at him and says "my christine how could you" he springs up rage in his eyes and kicks clyde in the crotch and then fly kicks him in the face sending him sprawling. Clyde stands up and charges ,knife held infront, of him at the phantom but the phantom steps out of the way and decapitates him with the sword. He then sheathes his sword and looks at clyde's dead body. "No one hurts my Christine and gets away with it". He the walks off to reak more havoc on the city.

2 hours later

A SWAT team enters the building followed by a detective. They burst into the room and find both jigsaw’s and Clyde’s dead bodies. “Wow” One of the SWAT men says “He killed jigsaw and Shelton no way”. “Well it looks like it” the detective “this phantom guy could be a real threat”. Just as he says this a chandelier falls down and crushes them all. The detective with his last ounce of strength looks up and sees the phantom standing above him. “Welcome” he says “To the new opera house”.

Winner: The Phantom

Expert's Opinion
The phantom won because he was good traps and his melee weapon was far superior. While jigsaws traps where very devastating they almost always had a way to escape making them much less dangerous. When it came to the melee fight his old age and his cancer made him unfit to fight. Clyde traps got more kills but when it came to the melee fight his blade was much too short.

To see the original battle, weapons and votes, click here.