So, a lot of people don’t really appreciate the Saw movies. They’re often dismissed as gory torture porn, but according to the list below, maybe we haven’t been giving the filmmakers enough credit for their clever insertions of film references (at least in the first movie).
Go ahead and insert (heh) your own TWSS there, folks. I haven’t got the time.
Movie Reference: Trainspotting
In the following clip from the Saw: Directors’ Commentary, they explain how the gross toilet Adam (Leigh Whannell) fishes around in is a reference to Trainspotting’s ‘the worst toilet in Glasgow.’
Movie Reference: Profondo Rosso
Photo Credit: Rizzoli Films
Dario Argento’s 1975 thriller Profondo Rosso (‘Deep Red‘) features a nightmare inducing puppet, which inspired the filmmakers to create one of their own: Billy the Puppet. In addition, the killer’s black-gloved hands in Saw are an homage to Argento and other directors in the Giallo horror movement of the ’70s and ’80s, which often featured unseen killers wearing leather gloves.
Movie Reference: Black Christmas
Photo Credit: MGM
The scene in which Zep, after kidnapping Dr. Lawrence Gordon’s daughter Diana, hides in the closet and we see his little eye peering out, is a direct reference to the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas.
Movie Reference: Mad Max
Photo Credit: Lionsgate
The famous scene at the climax of Saw, in which Dr. Gordon begins sawing his own foot off, is directly inspired by the ending of the original 1979 Mad Max movie. Compare below:
Dr. Gordon (Saw): “He doesn’t want us to cut through our chains. He wants us to cut through our feet!”
Max (Mad Max): “If you’re lucky, you can hack through your ankle in five minutes.”
You can read about some other interesting facts about the first Saw movie here.
h/t: Movie Pilot
