By now we should all be familiar with, as well as equal parts dubious and excited by, the prospect that SAW VII will be the last in the franchise. The idea has been bandied about for months now, and it’s actually somewhat believable, considering the last SAW’s unremarkable box office performance and the dwindling interest in the stumbling series. Of course, if it is to be the last entry, the makers will presumably want it to go out with a bang, and that’s exactly what co-writer Patrick Melton is promising.
Dunston spoke with Dread Central about what’s in store for the flick, as well his take on the behind-the-scenes drama with director Kevin Greutert.
“In this one we have bigger traps and more traps and more characters – especially characters from the past (films) – than we’ve had in probably any other Saw movie. It’s definitely the most expensive and ambitious Saw movie that we’ve done. Some of it is in response to last year’s Saw VI, which, while being the most critically acclaimed Saw film in a while, didn’t do particularly as well (at the box office) as everyone would have hoped, so we are going pretty far with this one in terms of the scale and intensity of the traps and the amount of twists, especially into the third act, which is just a plethora of twists and reveals.”
As far as the situation with Greutert goes, Melton has this to say: “It was a very hard situation to replace your director two weeks before the beginning of production. Kevin’s mind was in a completely other space, prepping his own movie in Paranormal (Activity) 2, and so he was getting up-to-speed as Saw VII was going into production. It’s pretty hard to wrap your brain around, ‘How am I going to shoot this next scene?’ if you’ve never even thought about it before.”
To read more from Melton, including his thoughts on coming up with bigger and better traps, as well as writing for 3D, head on over to Dread Central.