Though not the primary antagonist of the popular Saw franchise, Amanda Young became the main killer of the asymmetrical horror game, Dead By Daylight in 2018.
Amanda Young was first introduced in the first Saw movie in 2004 as a potential victim of John Kramer. She survived her trap, which has become known to fans as the “reverse bear trap”; Amanda was tasked with finding the key to the device in the stomach of her dead cellmate – who was actually alive – in order to escape before time ran out. The device was fashioned like a traditional bear trap, but fitted to go completely over the head and, when activated, would rip the wearer’s head open by snapping it at the mouth like a backwards hinge.
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Subsequent films in the series saw Amanda becoming Jigsaw’s assistant of sorts; the second movie tried to set her up to seem like the film’s final girl, but Amanda revealed she was dedicating her life to carrying on Kramer’s work because she believed in it and him. Part of her reasoning for this is because, a former drug addict, she is convinced that Kramer’s trap truly saved her life. However, in later installments, her efforts to carry on his work turned even more deadly, as she failed to understand that the primary point of them is survival; it is a test of someone’s will to survive, so they might go on – as she did – with a greater appreciation of their life. Amanda’s traps had no escape option. While certainly a layered, nuanced character, Amanda wasn’t the primary antagonist in the Saw movies, but became the killer for Dead By Daylight anyway.
Amanda Young Became Saw’s Main Killer In Dead By Daylight
Dead By Daylight is stylized as a four vs. one survival horror game where a team of survivors must try to outsmart and evade a killer, who is controlled by a fifth player. Through various different maps, the survivors must work together to repair five generators which power exit gates that allow for their escape. Killers must work to hunt, chase, and overpower survivors – who cannot fight back directly – and place them on sacrificial hooks for a being known as The Entity. While the survivors can work together in various different types of strategy in order to evade and distract the killer, each one is given a set of abilities that relate to their character to help assist in their pursuits.
Amanda Young, known as “The Pig” in the game, was introduced in The Saw Chapter in 2018. She joined the ranks of other famous horror movie killers such as Michael Myers from Halloween, Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even the Demogorgon from Stranger Things to be one of the game’s purchasable killers. Her corresponding survivor was Detective Tapp, from the first film. Amanda relies primarily on her stealth abilities to hunt down survivors; from there, she can attack swiftly and suddenly and is given a choice: she can either place a reverse bear trap on their head, place them on a hook, or both. The bear traps are on a timer, similar to what is done in the franchise, and survivors must find various “Jigsaw boxes”, which are marked with Billy the puppet, to have a chance at escaping the trap. If this isn’t done before time runs out, the trap activates, and they die.
While certainly a marked difference from her character in Saw, Amanda’s characterization in Dead By Daylight speaks to her cunning nature and crafty wiles along with her determination to see her victims fate sealed instead of giving them their own opportunity for escape.
