In anticipation of the new film “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” opening in theaters, Rewind of the Living Dead goes back to 2004 to review the original movie in the franchise — “Saw”….
When Australian director James Gunn and his writer friend Leigh Wannell graduated from film school, they decided to work together on a low budget horror film after being inspired by “The Blair Witch Project.”
Another film titled “Pi” by Darren Aronofsky convinced them they could self-finance the film and they started coming up with ideas. They decided the cheapest film possible would involve two characters being locked inside of a room together.
Wan then pitched the idea about two men being chained on opposite sides of a bathroom with a dead body in the middle as they scramble to figure out how they both ended up there. It wasn’t until months later when Whannel was convinced he might have a brain tumor after experiencing excruciating migraines that he came up with the concept about a character who only had a year or two to live and he decides to put other people into that same situation with only a few minutes to choose their fate.
After making a short film with a scene that would later be used in the full length movie, they were given funding and 18 days to shoot it. The end result was the start of a horror franchise that would go onto produce seven direct sequels and a new film called “Spiral” due out in 2021.
In the latest episode of Rewind of the Living Dead, we’re going to listen to the tape recorder and try to figure out how we got here as we review the 2004 film “Saw”….
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