After the success of “Saw That’s what the director says

To call Kevin Greutert one of THE “Saw” veterans is by no means an exaggeration. From the legendary start of the series in 2004, an essential part of the team was behind the scenes. He edited “Saw 1-5” and thus contributed significantly to the atmosphere of the horror film. With ‘Saw 6’ he even dared to jump into the director’s chair and made his feature directorial debut.

And then he immediately directed ‘Saw 7’ before returning to editing the loose sequel ‘Jigsaw’ and was only involved as a producer on the spin-off ‘Saw: Spiral’. But with “Saw In the latest installment, he really focuses on the Jigsaw Killer himself for the first time, taking just the right route to provide fresh inspiration without losing sight of the franchise’s usual gory ingredients.

In an interview with FILMSTARTS, Greutert explains what motivated him to return, reports on the quite frightening presence of Jigsaw actor Tobin Bell and talks about the challenges of a possible “Saw 11” now that part 10 is so good received…

The ‘Saw

Kevin Greutert: (laughs) Yeah, I know. When I made ‘Saw 7’, it wasn’t the last chapter for me. But then they said, “Wouldn’t that be a great title?” And I said, “Oookay…” I might have approached it a little differently, but it was definitely a good ending to the series. Just like “Saw X” now. But it probably won’t be the end of the series, we’ll see…

Kevin Greutert: The script for ‘Saw Since John Kramer and the clown doll Billy weren’t in “Spiral,” fans were probably a little disappointed, even though the movie had many other great features. That made us look at that script again and go back to the idea of ​​going for John Kramer all the time and making sure we did a lot of special things with Billy as well.

Kevin Greutert: Yes, that was very important. I was prepared not to make the film if I didn’t like the script. But I immediately loved it. For me it was the perfect direction for the series.

Much of Jigsaw’s dialogue comes from Tobin Bell

Kevin Greutert: Everyone was very excited about the project, especially Tobin Bell. It is undoubtedly the most important film of his life. It’s the movie where he’s really the main character. It was an opportunity for him to perfect John Kramer as a character. He’s kind of the artistic godfather of the ‘Saw’ films. He put a lot of work into making sure the dialogue was good and came up with a lot of the dialogue himself. He also wanted to make sure that the traps each had a theme related to each character, their sins and mistakes.

He is also a source of inspiration for the other actors. Anyone who comes onto the set of a Saw movie and has a scene with Tobin Bell makes sure they know his lines. (laughs) Otherwise it would be really scary. And that also ensures that I work extra hard and prepare as best as possible. He’s a great guy, but also an extremely serious artist. You want to do him justice.

Saw X

Starting date

November 30, 2023

|
1 hour 58 minutes

By
Kevin Greutert

Of
Tobin Bell,
Shawnee Smith,
Synnove Macody Lund

User rating

3.6

Movie releases

3.5

Performances (389)

Kevin Greutert: Yes and yes. One of the challenges with the film was that it had to work on its own, so that people unfamiliar with the “Saw” series could understand it and have fun with it. But there should also be a lot of things that “Saw” fans like and appreciate. To achieve this we also did some unexpected things, like showing John Kramer to be flawed and make some big mistakes. That was a bit risky, because we usually let him anticipate everything well in advance.

And personally, I also really wanted to include the shot you mentioned at the end of the film, which for me mainly represents a farewell to John Kramer. Knowing what happens to him in Saw 3 was a way for me to really say goodbye to him… even if it ends up being a Saw 11. And it wasn’t an easy decision for some of the people involved in the story. Even on set, some people were like, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing here, because that’s not how we normally do it?” And I said, ‘I agree, but I think this is the right move.’ And almost everyone I’ve talked to about it is excited about this moment. I hope it works for everyone.

Is ‘Saw XI’ coming?

Kevin Greutert: We’re certainly all thinking about it. I’m a little worried because I like Saw X so much and I’m really proud of it. And I don’t like the idea of ​​making another Saw movie that isn’t at least as good as this one. This challenge is quite scary. But there are enough creative people involved in ‘Saw’ to actually make an even better film. But it won’t be easy and it certainly isn’t a decision that will be made hastily.