Saw Writer Reflects On Film's Legacy, Saying It Was Meant To Go Straight-To-DVD

Leigh Whannell is currently enjoying the success of his new film, The Invisible Man, which opened at the top of the US box office and has reviewed well. The director and writer, who has just signed on to create more horror films for Blumhouse, is also instrumental in one of the most important horror franchises of the 2000s--he wrote and starred in the original Saw, and then wrote Saw II and III as well.

In an interview with Fandom, Whannell has reflected on the Saw films--particularly the first one--and recalls that he and director James Wan had lower aspirations than you might expect. "We never intended that movie to connect with people the way it did," he says. "Our goal was to make a straight-to-video film. This was 2003. Video stores were still a thing." Whannell says that he and Wan were big fans of video stores, and that they thought "it would really be cool if we could land in Blockbuster on that shelf."

Saw went on to gross over $100 million worldwide on a budget of $1.2 million, and the series continued to expand from there. Whannell's last writing credit for the series was on Saw III, which ends with the brutal death of Jigsaw, the serial killer behind the film's murders. "The last Saw movie I wrote was the third one and I killed the villain," Whannell recalls. "Doesn’t get more definitive than that. He’s dead!"

But, of course, the series continued on after this, despite Whannell stepping away from writing them. "They came to me and said ‘Let’s get into it. Let’s do Part 4!' And I said 'No, I think we’re done here.' And they said 'No, we’re not done but thanks for your time!’"

Whannell says that he feels that they created a sort-of "millennial Freddy Krueger," as although Jigsaw's death was never reversed, he continued to be a part of the series from beyond the grave. "In the same way I used to go to sleepovers in my teens and watch Freddy movies, millennial kids were doing that with Saw movies. I still have people come up to me and go 'When I was a kid I grew up on Saw movies.' So that’s pretty cool."

A new movie in the Saw franchise, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, will release May 15, 2020. It will be the ninth film in the series. It has, by far, the most famous cast of any film in the franchise--it's is written by and stars Chris Rock alongside Samuel L. Jackson. Whannell is attached as a producer.

Tobin Bell, who played Jigsaw in the other eight movies, is not credited as appearing in Spiral--so if he does, it will be a surprise.