CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF SAW (2004)!!!

SAW (2004) d. James Wan (USA)
SAW II (2005) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA)
SAW III (2006) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA)
SAW IV (2007) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA)
SAW V (2008) d. David Hackl (USA)
SAW VI (2009) d. Kevin Greutert (USA)
SAW 3D (2010) d. Kevin Greutert (USA)
JIGSAW (2017) d. Michael Spierig / Peter Spierig (USA)
SPIRAL (2021) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA)
SAW X (2023) d. Kevin Greutert (USA)

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Before there was “The Saw Franchise,” there was just SAW (full DVD review HERE), a relatively low-budget thriller from a pair of Australian horror kids who wanted to make a good impression. Strapped for cash but no shortage of imagination, the duo of actor/screenwriter Leigh Whannell and director James Wan whipped up a short-film scenario that could take place in a single room. The movie, shot in a mere 18 days, exploded at the box office in October 2004 to become one of the most profitable horror features of all time, much to the surprise of its participants and creators. The rest, as they say, is history.

Charlie Clouser’s driving industrial musical score combines well with David A. Armstrong’s grim lighting and cinematography to create a thrilling nightmarish atmosphere, while editor Kevin Greutert has a fine sense of pacing in concordance with Wan’s feverish vision. While it is great fun to detail the multitude of quibbles and logistical flaws that show up throughout, there’s no denying that SAW sparked the imagination of a hungry horror landscape littered with J-horror remakes and Scream pretenders.

Oddly enough, it is these “flaws” that created such fertile ground for subsequent screenwriters Darren Lynn Bousman (who would also direct the next three sequels) and the team of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (who would script Saw IV-VII) to reverse engineer John “Jigsaw” Kramer’s (Tobin Bell) motives and modus operandi through a series of flashbacks, while conjuring additional scenes of long-dead characters to flesh out the bare bones of Wan and Whannell’s original concept.

Join AC and his awesome panel of guests (Jason Coffman, Katie McLean Hainsworth, Nicola McCafferty, Daniel Millhouse) as we celebrate the highs and lows of this epic franchise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMAur6WdLU

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