Welcome to Spooky Season’s first Behind The Scenes Saturday!! Today is dedicated to the film that put some of my favorite horror filmmakers on the map, Saw! Saw started a franchise filled with intense games, creative kills, and twists that make you question everything you see on the screen. I’ve been wanting to do a post on this film for a long time, and I’m glad I finally get to do it for you guys today! So, try to cut through the chains, don’t lose the key down the drain, and enjoy these fun Behind The Scenes pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com, facebook.com, and IMDb.com)

(WARNING!! PICTURES, ALTHOUGH FAKE, MAY BE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!!!)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• All the bathroom scenes were shot in chronological order to make the actors really feel what their characters were going through.
• The film’s director, James Wan wanted the camerawork to reflect the two main characters’ emotions and personalities. Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) was filmed with steady and controlled shots. Adam (Leigh Whannell) on the other hand was filmed by handheld-style shooting.
• The film only took 18 days to shoot.
• James Wan admitted that a lot of the scare scenes in the film were driven from nightmares he and Leigh Whannell had when they were kids.

• Instead of taking an upfront salary, James Wan chose a percentage of the film’s profits.
• James Wan built Billy The Puppet (Jigsaw Doll) himself. It wasn’t bought at a store or altered from a different puppet.
• Because they didn’t have enough footage to fill in some scenes, James Wan and the film’s editor, Kevin Greutert added in the surveillance shots.
• After finishing film school, James Wan and Leigh Whannell wanted to get right to work and make a film. Unfortunately, they could only afford one room at the time. However, they took it as a challenge to center a film in just one room. Thus, Saw was born and it became one the most profitable and successful horror films ever made.

• Every shot of the “dead body” in the bathroom was Tobin Bell (John Kramer) the entire time. No dummy was used, it was always Bell just laying there.
• The scene where Adam dipped his hand in the filthy toilet was a tribute to the movie Trainspotting, according to Leigh Whannell.
• Originally, the film was going to have Adam and Lawrence trapped in an elevator instead of the bathroom.
• Danny Glover (Detective David Tapp) got all of his scenes shot in just 2 days.

• Cary Elwes was promised to receive 1% of the film’s profits but he didn’t get it. He ended up filing a lawsuit against the producers and production company. The case was settled out of court but Elwes chose not to be involved in any of the sequels, until Saw: The Final Chapter.
• The scene where Lawrence shut off the lights and whispered to Adam in an attempt to trick Jigsaw was planned a little differently. The characters were going to cut opposite ends of a long pipe with their saws and whisper to each other that way. The scene was actually filmed, but James Wan felt it didn’t make sense that they could cut through the pipe but not the chains, so he opted to cut the scene.
• For the role of Mark, casting director Amy Lippens chose her ex-husband, Paul Gutrecht.
• In order to achieve the car chase scene, it was filmed in the garage of the warehouse with all the lights turned off and fog added. The filmmakers even shook the cars from the front to make it seem like they were driving.

• When James Wan was a teenager, he had a huge crush on Shawnee Smith (Amanda Young). When Amy Lippens asked him who he wanted to play Amanda, he suggested Smith on a whim. To Wan’s surprise, Lippens came to him a few days later and told him they secured her for the role.
• The idea to give John Kramer a brain tumor came from Leigh Whannell’s personal experience. He spent time in a neurology ward for his anxiety and headaches. It was very tough on him taking all those tests and expecting bad news. The whole experience made him reflect on his own mortality and he used it to shape John Kramer’s character.
• When Shawnee Smith filmed her scenes, she was battling a terrible flu with a fever of 104 degrees. Luckily, she got all of her scenes done in one day.
• Charlie Clouser was given 3 weeks to compose the score for the film. I say he did a hell of a job!

• Shawnee Smith originally didn’t want to be in the film. When she was asked a second time, she saw the short film that James Wan and Leigh Whannell created and it convinced her to join.
• The last scene filmed was when Detective Steven Sing (Ken Leung) chased after Jigsaw.
• Adam’s last name differed throughout the franchise. On the Saw official website, it’s said that his last name was Faulkner. However, in Saw V, a document showed that his last name was Stanheight.
• In a bit of foreshadowing, when John was in the hospital and Lawrence and Zep (Michael Emerson) were talking about him, you may be able to see a diagram of the reverse bear trap next to him.

• After Amanda gutted her cellmate, the intestines she sifted through were actually pig uteruses.
• When Adam smashed Zep’s head in with the toilet lid, Leigh Whannell was actually hitting a garbage bag filled with fake blood.
• The only body in the film that was a dummy and not a real person was Mark after he was burnt.
• During their fight scene, Leigh Whannell accidentally punched Micheal Emerson in the face for real.

• The glow-in-the-dark X shape on the wall was accomplished using a light projection.
• To keep Leigh Whannell underwater, a crew member stood on his chest.
• James Wan and Leigh Whannell had to return for several re-shoots and Whannell had to step in for the actors who were unable to return at the time. After Detective Sing was shot, it was Whannell who fell down, not Ken Leung. He also wore a wig and stood in for Amanda on some close-up shots.
• Oren Koules, one of the film’s producers, plays Amanda’s cellmate who she killed.