Episode 35 — 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 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”…. 

Music courtesy of Andrew Scott Bell and Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

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