Saw VI Exclusive: Writers Leak Details of the Film’s Climactic Murder, and On-Set Danger to the Actors (Part 3)

Share on Facebook posted 10-20-09 by Angelo D'Argenio

The coolest thing about interviewing Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton is how sincere they are about the horror experience. People have criticized the Saw franchise for being little more than torture porn, but Marcus and Patrick both told me how much more complicated Saw production really is. They have to work fast to stay on their one-year schedule, something most other horror movies can’t brag about, while still keeping things safe on the set, considering that most of these death traps have the capacity to become real working deathtraps if something goes wrong. However, most of all they were sincere about how much fun it is to make the horror movies. Read on to hear all about why they got into the Saw franchise in the first place, and their family-like relationship with producers Jason Constantine and Peter Block. (Blood relations, I guess you could call them.)

The Appeal of Convoluted Murder Machines?

30 NINJAS: You guys have written every Saw movie since IV. What originally inspired you to become involved with this franchise?

MARCUS DUNSTAN: I think the whole emphasis is on the fact that everyone in society has a vice, and what the Saw villain is going to do is he’s going to trap you in a room with your worst vice, put it on a timer, and say, “Can you survive the worst in yourself?” That, I think, is what gives this series a legacy of ideas which have inspired and terrified people into this world.

30 NINJAS: Has it been difficult to write for a franchise where the main antagonist is already dead? You came into the franchise after Saw III, and Jigsaw died in Saw III, so I was wondering what challenges you faced?

MD: At the end of Saw III Jigsaw did expire, as did his assistant. However, the gist was that there was a fractured time line, and the fractured time line allows you to grab from the history of these characters when they were violently ill or dying, and propel a new set of characters into interesting situations and new territories. So this is a villain with a philosophy that has inspired. In some cases it has inspired sadists; in some cases people full of vengeance. It has inspired victims to change their ways, and that is a fertile soil in which to grow stories and to let our imaginations run wild.

30 NINJAS: Interesting. So what inspired you specifically to create the third Jigsaw killer, Detective Hoffman? What made you think that he would be a good character to act as Jigsaw’s successor?

MD: Well, Saw VI was engineered with the concept of IV in that we wanted to offer some closure, so VI was always a part of a game plan, and it was just a matter of how much of that plan we could reveal from step to step. I’m so excited because I believe that VI truly announces a terrific filmmaker in Kevin Greutert, and he has delivered a wonderful film with some pretty intense, terrific characters. Kevin wanted to offer a plot that was both definitive and offered some closure while also offering some story lines that could go on, and he had been working on this since the first installment. Kevin Greutert was the editor of Saw I, II, III, IV, and VI, and it has been a joy to work with him because he has been collecting and holding on to this wonderful story this whole time, and this October it unleashes.

Torture Is Fun!

30 NINJAS: How do you think up these torturous puzzles, especially the more complicated ones? There have been so many Saw movies to come out and so many planned, does the well ever run dry?

MD: I think that imagining a trap or the various demises for a character is only difficult because there is the most sincere intention for it to be terrific. So if it was just about imagining death, yeah, any one of us could sit down and scribble down a list of creative kills, so to speak, but within this series there has always been the challenge to refine, not just exploit, death. We refine it so that it becomes something a bit more effective, maybe even visceral, each time out because it has to hurt to look at it. We can’t touch you, much as we’d love to. We can’t touch you in the audience, so we’ve got to get you through the eyeballs and that is where these filmmakers have really delivered. It’s a very intricate system of “what can actually be built, what can actually be realized within the budget within the realm of reality,” and also to create that response from the moviegoers, so we are hurting them just a bit.

30 NINJAS: What is the thought process around developing these traps? Do you guys think of character first and develop the trap around the character, or vice versa?

MD: Well, often it involves some sense of irony. For example, in the beginning of III the first trap for the character of Troy was a literal interpretation of his fouled-up life. It was like, here’s a person who keeps going back to jail, keeps putting himself in shackles, and therefore literal shackles are piercing his flesh and he must rip his way free before death takes everything away. Now, magnifying that out and throwing a junkie into a pit of needles is just marvelous, you know, there is always a variation on that.

30 NINJAS: Marvelous? OK, level with me here. Do you guys ever give yourselves nightmares when you are writing these intricate death traps?

MD: Well, I think the gist of this is … if you go to a horror film set they are usually the most chipper sets around ’cause there is somebody letting it all out, day after day, screaming bloody murder, running like hell, and getting covered in Karo red base syrup. So at the end of those days you’re tired, you’re relaxed, and you’re grateful. It could not be more fun to cause more harm!

30 NINJAS: So you take some catharsis in these movies?

MD: Oh, absolutely! I think anyone who loves a horror movie is subtly enjoying watching someone have a worse day than they ever could.

30 NINJAS: You talked about being on the set. Are you guys actually involved in the production process at all? Are you on set when the movie is shooting?

MD: We have had the good fortune to visit the set from time to time and just be there if need be, to come up with solutions or whatnot, and help out in any way possible. The great thing about the Saw production process is that it’s almost family-based. It’s really just the producers, the two gentlemen from the studio [Jason] Constantine and [Peter] Block, and we have benefited from that tight family sort of atmosphere and being exposed to every line of the production process. I got to tell you, it is just a joy and we are lucky beyond belief to be a part of this.

Executing Scenes Without Executing the Actors

30 NINJAS: Do you ever have to make script revisions on the fly? Do you ever have to fix things while the movie is shooting?

MD: Absolutely. That happens from time to time, but that will probably be more special-effects-based or action-based. If something is proving to be difficult or just too dangerous to execute, then yes, we will figure out another element or way to still deliver the moment by using a special effect or another method to get to the same end result.

30 NINJAS: Can you give me an example? What was a tough scene to crack?

MD: OK, well in Saw V we had to figure out a room that could crush one person and let the other one get away scot-free. That was probably the most elaborate build and was subject to careful orchestration of stunts, prosthetics, craftsmanship — all of the above — in order to deliver that moment. That is every single department of the production running at full steam, and it was the conclusion of the film. So in some ways, that had to be developed first, it had to be honed, and it had to be the driving scene that we were getting to, and it all came together beautifully, but not without a number of tests, any number of revisions, and careful planning. As fictional as everything might be, there are very real mechanisms that do threaten the actors on these sets. Everything is built in some way to work, so we have to be doubly careful at every step in the process, from concept to execution, so that it goes without a hitch.

Saw VI: Landing Like a Bloody Red Lightning Bolt

30 NINJAS: Saw is infamous for having a sequel every Halloween. Is it difficult to write and develop on such a quick one-year schedule?

MD: It is difficult, but there is also this adrenalized thrill to the process involving every element of the production. It’s about holding the line and keeping it logistical, keeping it fresh, and keeping it realistic. Patrick and I were very fortunate to join that process with IV, and the filmmakers attached as well have been nothing short of inspired in what they wish to contribute to the story.

30 NINJAS: Do you think that fans are any harder to shock considering that they see your last production only a year before your next production comes out?

MD: Well, you know, that is always the challenge with the horror experience, which is to escalate shock without becoming ridiculous. What I think is really a testament to VI‘s engineering is that every trap was built [with the idea that it could] be one-upped by the subsequent one in the same narrative. So it was almost as if we were guiding this grisly roller-coaster every turn of the way, so we never started out with a flash that was never followed by the bang. It is a mounting assault on the viewer that has been carefully calibrated by taking into account what has been effective in the previous five installments and saying “OK, here comes VI, it’s going to land like a bloody red lightning bolt and knock you back.”

30 NINJAS: Out of curiosity, that tag line, “It’s Halloween … it must be Saw,” was that you guys or was that marketing? ’Cause the movie doesn’t have a whole lot to do with Halloween other than the fact that it’s a horror movie.

MD: I think it says something when the movie called Halloween opens in August. Saw has left an imprint on the month of October that we have been absolutely grateful for. I think marketing did pick up on that and wanted to almost brand the experience of being scared around the release of a Saw installment. They were so lucky to entice the viewers back.

PATRICK MELTON: Didn’t some critic say it at one point? Someone said it in a review or something like that. I think it was after Saw III, or IV, and then we just picked it up and ran with it.

MD: Yeah, I think it was after Saw IV, and it was like, “If it’s Halloween it must be Saw Aaaaaaaaaaaaah wow!” You know, there you go.

30 NINJAS: So do you guys plan to continue to develop Saw on this one -ear cycle then?

MD: As long as we are fortunate enough to be a part of this machine we will keep it humming!