Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind Saw as the smash hit horror celebrates its 20th anniversary…
The success of Saw literally transformed the horror industry through the introduction of filmmaker James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell, and also the launch of one of Hollywood’s most profitable horror franchises. As the original film celebrates its 20th anniversary we look back at the story of what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of the worldwide pop-culture phenomenon.
The Blair Witch Project & Darren Aronofsky’s Pi influenced the filmmakers of Saw
James Wan and Leigh Whannell truly left a lasting impression with audiences when they made Saw. However, the journey that led to that unexpected success was not an easy one. After concluding film school, both James Wan and Leigh Whannell who hailed from Australia wanted to embark on their own project by writing and funding it on their own. They creative duo were inspired by the low budget found footage horror The Blair Witch Project as well as Darren Aronofsky’s feature directorial debut Pi to go on their own steam and they thought the cheapest script to shoot would involve two actors in one confined space.
Thinking back at that moment Whannell said, “So I actually think the restrictions we had on our bank accounts at the time, the fact that we wanted to keep the film contained, helped us come up with the ideas in the film”. At the very beginning one idea the pair were entertaining involved two individuals stuck in an elevator and being shot from the point of view of security cameras. However, it was Wan who got the brain wave and pitched the idea which saw two men chained to opposite sides of a bathroom with a dead body in the middle of the floor and them trying to figure out why and how they are there.
The title of the film just came to Leigh Whannell’s mind
The conclusion of the first Saw film featured one of the most unforgettable twists seen in modern cinema and all credit goes to Wan for thinking up that great ending. Whannell initially didn’t know how to react to Wan’s idea the day he revealed it over the phone. Whannell recalled that moment saying, “I’ll never forget that day. I remember hanging up the phone and started just going over it in my head, and without any sort of long period of pondering, I opened my diary that I had at the time and wrote this one word… ‘Saw‘.” At the time neither he nor Wan had thought of a title for their fledgling effort but at that moment the title of the movie just came to Whannell’s mind and the rest as they say is history. “It was one of those moments that made me aware that some things just really are meant to be. Some things are just waiting there to be discovered”, Whannell revealed during an interview.
The character of Jigsaw didn’t materialise until a few months later
To say Jigsaw is one of modern horrors most iconic villains would be a monumental understatement. Surprisingly, though, the character didn’t materialize until a few months later, when Whannell and Wan were still crafting their script together. Following a series of severe migraine attacks Whannell was concerned that the cause could be something more insidious and went and visited a neurologist to get an MRI done. Whilst nervously sitting their in the waiting room he thought: What if you were suddenly given the news that you had a cancer and were going to die very soon? How does one even react to such a revelation? Whannell imagined Jigsaw as being a man given a terminal diagnosis with very little time to live and combined the concept of Jigsaw putting others in a literal version of that hellish situation but only providing them a few minutes to choose their fate. Wan wanted to make the story play out like a mystery thriller, as opposed to it being a cheap torture porn flick.
The short film proved to be a successful way to garner attention
Whannell and Wan initially had only $30,000 to produce their film, but as time progressed and the script underwent changes it became clear that the pair were going to require more funding to make their dream a reality. With this intention in mind, the script was optioned by a producer in Sydney for over a year but the deal unfortunately fell through. After multiple attempts to get their project off the ground from 2001 to 2002, literary agent Ken Greenblatt read their script and suggested the duo travel to Los Angeles, where the odds of finding a financier would be better. Initially skeptical about this idea they were convinced in the end by their agent Stacey Testro.
In order to generate interest Whannell and Wan decided to produce a short film based on the script’s infamous jaw trap scene and Whannell himself provided $5,000 of his own money to finance it. Whannell himself played David, the hapless soul wearing the reverse bear trap. The duo gained the technical assistance of cameramen working at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the making of this short film. Their effort proved successful enough to attract the attention of Evolution Entertainment. The independent studio immediately formed their very own horror genre arm called Twisted Pictures and allocated Wan and Whannell the budget they needed.
The iconic Jigsaw doll was built from scratch by James Wan
After getting the go-ahead from the studio Wan and Whannell were given a production budget of $1.2 million and the film was shot in a mere 18 days. One of the most unforgettable scenes in the movie involves the first appearance of “Billy the Puppet”, the disturbing male ventriloquist dummy that doles out the punishments for Jigsaw’s captors and ends his creepy session by delivering the chilling line “Live or die. Make your choice”. The credit for the doll’s creation was the handiwork of none other than horror maestro James Wan himself. Rather than go the easy route by buying a doll from a store and altering it, Wan used clay and papier-mâché to construct Billy and utilized black ping-pong balls with the irises painted in for the eyes. The ventriloquist doll underwent several changes in the sequels that followed, but the essential design remains unaltered.
Tobin Bell was primarily cast because of his voice
Tobin Bell started his acting career in the late 1970s and early 1980s mainly engaging in background work in feature films and doing stand-ins. His first feature film role came in 1988’s Mississippi Burning, and throughout the next two decades Bell appeared in a number of films and television shows in supporting roles including The Firm, Unabomber: The True Story, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Sopranos and 24. His breakout role, however, came with a little low-budget, horror flick whose ingenious story caught the actor off guard, “I did Saw because I thought it was a fascinating location for a film to be made. These guys locked in a room, to me, was fresh. I did not anticipate the ending when I read the script, so I was quite caught by surprise and it was clear to me that if the filmmakers shot the scene well, the audience would be caught by surprise as well. The film was worth doing for that moment alone.” He was also interested in working along side Danny Glover, whom he had not worked with before. The main reason James Wan cast Tobin Bell was because of his unique voice.
Cary Elwes was drawn to the film’s uniqueness & originality
Cary Elwes, who’s better known for his roles in The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, was immediately drawn to the “uniqueness and originality” of the concept when he was sent a DVD of the short film. Elwes read the entire script in one sitting and immediately signed up to play Dr. Lawrence Gordon in the movie. In order to prepare himself for the role, Elwes even spent time with a doctor at UCLA’s department of Neurosurgery. After the release and subsequent success of Saw, however, Elwes filed a lawsuit against the producers of the flick, as well as the production company alleging a “breach of contract and unjust enrichment” since he received only a nominal salary with backend revenues when he was promised 1% of the producer’s net profits from the effort, which he did not receive. The case was later settled out of court and Elwes even reprised his role a few years later with 2010’s Saw 3D.
Shawnee Smith accepted the role only after seeing the short film
Shawnee Smith made her feature film debut in the 1982 musical comedy-drama Annie. After making her stage debut two years later in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday she made several guest appearances in the small screen in efforts like Murder, She Wrote and The X-Files in the 1990s. Her big break came when she was cast in one of the lead roles of the CBS sitcom Becker, which ran for six seasons before being cancelled. The actress was contacted by James Wan’s casting director Amy Lippens to play the part of Amanda but she initially turned the offer down. After Lippens reached out again, at Wan’s insistence, Smith watched the original short film conceived by Wan and Whannell and accepted the role. Interestingly, the performer was Wan’s first choice to play Amanda and she even went on to reprise her role in subsequent sequels as well.
Certain violent scenes had to be trimmed down to avoid an NC-17 rating
In comparison to the gore-filled, torture porn-esque sequels that followed, Saw was relatively tame in its execution. However, the original cut shown at the Sundance Film Festival featured more violent material which had to be trimmed down and re-edited in order to secure an R rating. The MPAA originally rated the Sundance version NC-17 due to the film’s strong graphic violence. Some of the scenes that were cut for the theatrical release were Amanda sifting through the intestines, Paul struggling through the razor wire and a few forensic related scenes.
Saw contains many references to Italian Giallo movies
Dario Argento has had a tremendous influence on filmmakers as well as the horror genre in general. His efforts, which gained immense popularity in the 1970s and 1980s include the likes of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Suspiria and Inferno. Argento was famous for employing bold color schemes and shock inducing imagery to heighten the sense of terror and peril in his movies. Being film school students both Wan and Whannell amalgamated many references and trademarks that were unique to Argento’s work such as the inclusion of a creepy painted puppet similar to the one seen in 1975’s Deep Red and the unseen killer donning a pair of black gloves.
Box-office success, the start of a franchise & the birth of horror legends
The production budget of Saw was an unbelievably low $1.2 million and the movie went on to make an astounding $103.9 million at the worldwide box-office making the effort one of the most profitable horror films of all time. Initially, the flick was slated as a straight-to-video affair but the positive audience response at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival prompted Lionsgate to purchase its distribution rights and go for a theatrical release and the box-office numbers sure didn’t disappoint. The overall critical response, however, was somewhat of a mixed one with the effort dividing opinions of film critics. Many compared it to David Fincher’s neo-noir thriller Se7en released a few years prior because Jigsaw’s motivations mirrored John Doe’s sadistic machinations. The film’s jaw-dropping twist ending was also another aspect that critics thought Saw had in common with Se7en.
The overwhelming success of Saw launched an entire media franchise which includes films, video games, comic books and theme park attractions and as of writing the Saw franchise is the fifth highest-grossing horror film franchise with a total box-office haul of $688.3 million. Saw also functioned as the start of horror maestro James Wan’s and writer/director Leigh Whannell’s careers in Hollywood. After Saw, the pair went on to launch several popular horror franchise with the Insidious series and The Conjuring Universe films. Wan even branched off from his horror roots to direct more mainstream blockbusters like Furious 7 and Aquaman to great success, and Whannell too has had his fair share of success with such commendable efforts as Upgrade and The Invisible Man. Here’s hoping both Wan and Whannell will keep cranking out more movies like Saw for the enjoyment of us horror aficionados in the years ahead.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
