411 Movies Interview: Saw 3 Director Darren Lynn Bousman
Posted by Tony Farinella on 01.23.2007
411's Tony Farinella sits down with the director of Saw 3 to discuss a boat load of topics!
Darren Lynn Bousman has had an eventful two years since he signed on to direct Saw 2. He started out as an unknown with only a handful of short films under his belt. He is now the director of the insanely popular horror franchise Saw. I caught up with Darren on Monday to discuss the DVD release of Saw 3. We discussed why horror films are hated by film critics, how the Saw 3 script got stolen, and how he feels about the film as a finished product. Special thanks to Darren for chatting with me right before heading to Germany to promote Saw 3.
TONY: You've had an eventful two years with two number one films under your belt with Saw 2 and Saw 3. Have you had a chance to step back and fully grasp what you have done?
DARREN: No, it's insane! In fact, to get even more insanity, in a couple of weeks I leave to do two more films back-to-back. People ask me a lot if my lifestyle has changed since the films have been released. Granted, I have more money, but I live the same exact lifestyle I lived five years ago. I have not had the time to step back and really look at it. It's been insane.
TONY: You have time now to step back and see SAW 3 on DVD. How do you feel about the film now as a finished product?
DARREN: In my opinion (James Wan don't kill me), it's the best of the three. I'm not just saying that because the DVD is coming out. I'm saying that from looking at it as a horror fan. It's got things in it that most horror films don't have. Most sequels do less business than the original. It's just a thing that happens. Saw 2 did better than the original. On top of that, we gained a lot more fans. People might think, "Maybe Saw 2 is just doing okay because of the first one and the name value." Now, Saw 3 comes along and people are really looking for failure. They think, "Okay, they have done it twice in a row now, can they do it again?" So many times there are traps that sequels fall into. It's just more of the same exact story told over and over again. You don't really learn anything new about the world. I think it's the complete opposite with the Saw films. It's not the same story being told over and over again. We are constantly expounding the world. Saw 3 is very much a companion piece to the other two films. While the film works by itself and works as a stand alone film, there is something so much bigger than it and so much more. It works as a stand alone film and as a trilogy. You can sit down and watch them back-to-back-to-back and it tells one complete story. I'm a huge fan of the Hellraiser, Halloween, and Friday the 13th movies, but you're really not watching a full story if you sit down and watch them. You are seeing more of the same. You are seeing Michael Myers kill more people. You are seeing Jason Voorhies kill more people. With Saw 3, you are expounding on their world and learning more. If you are a fan of Saw 1 and see Saw 3, you have learned more about the characters. Because of this, it makes you appreciate the first one more.
TONY: I read that Saw 3 was initially three hours. How hard was it to cut certain scenes and keep others?
DARREN: Saw 3 was my epic. I kept joking to the editors and telling them that it was my epic and don't screw with it. It was a Braveheart type movie when I was finished with it. It was actually over three hours. I kept every single frame in there. Finally, the editor told me it was time to cut something. I was stubborn and didn't want to cut anything. It slowly became the more we cut, the better the film got. Do I regret cutting anything? No. It needed to all go. That being said, hopefully Lions Gate in a couple of years from now will let me go back in and make a director's cut. You will see a new side to the Saw universe. It was twenty minutes longer and it had a completely different ending. It had different scenes that you are not having a chance to see right now. There are a couple of deleted scenes on the DVD. We cut out a lot just to make it go down to what everyone saw in the theaters.
TONY: I'd have to say that Saw 3 was definitely one of the most violent pictures ever released in America. How were you able to get everything in without the MPAA forcing you to cut stuff out?
DARREN: It was a combination of a bunch of things. First off, it's a huge compliment to me as a director when people say it's one of the most violent films. In reality, it's really not at all. My parents watched it, and they were disgusted. On the surface, it is a very violent movie. You have a guy drowning in pig guts. It is a very horrifically violent movie. Another thing that's great about it is that you really don't see that much in a lot of scenes where people have a big issue. For example, the guy with the chains. You get to see it in the unrated cut, but not in the theatrical cut. In the theatrical cut, people have a huge issue with the amount of violence that was shown there. You never see him do anything. You see him grab a chain, you see his face, you see him grunt, and then it cuts back with his hand over the wound. People talked about how you saw skin ripping and things like that, but you never did in the theatrical cut. But with the music, the sound effects, and the acting abilities, the characters made you think you saw a lot. Same thing with the girl freezing to death. People talked about how horrific this was. You only see her naked two or three times. Everything else is played on her face. People in agony and torture is always a hard thing to watch. It immediately upsets you. My goal in a movie like this is to upset you. I didn't go out to make a light hearted romantic comedy. Its purpose is to upset and offend. That's what I went out to do and hopefully I accomplished that.
TONY: I go on Rotten Tomatoes a lot, and horror films seem to always get horrible reviews. How come you think fans love them and critics hate them?
DARREN: It's funny... I'm an avid reader of all these Internet websites. I wish I could say I wasn't, but I am. As a filmmaker, I'm on Rotten Tomatoes every day seeing what the film is getting rated. I think it's at twenty-nine percent right now, which is below failing. It's funny because if you look up some of my favorite horror films recently, they are all failing. I thought the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which came out about five months ago, was a great film. It brought back old school horror. It was only given twenty-two percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Let me give you an example ... Bill O'Reilly. He went insane over Saw 3. He said it was street trash and that people who see this movie should have their head examined. He ended his rant by saying, "I've never seen one of these films, and I never will see one of these films. I will never support something like this." He claimed he never had seen one of these films, yet he trashed it. I think a lot of people do that. They hear the name Saw and have preconceived notions of what Saw is and what it's going to be. They say they hate the movie without ever actually seeing it. It's funny... all of the things that the critics hate about the movie are things I was setting out to do as a director. I take it as a compliment. They said it's vile, disgusting, horrific, and terrifying. They would then give it a thumbs down. I think it's great. It's what a horror film is. You don't see comedies being punished because they are too funny. I think it's the same thing with the Saw movies.
TONY:Saw 3 was your second time as a director of a major motion picture. How much more comfortable did you feel this time?
DARREN: I felt a thousand percent more comfortable. It was really like night-and-day. In the first film, I was constantly questioning myself. I had no idea what I was doing, honestly. I had somewhat of an idea. I was a huge fan of horror films. I think that's one thing that got me the job. I knew horror films. I came from film school and had done a few music videos and short films, but nothing on the caliber of Saw. When someone was disagreeing with something I was doing, part of me wanted to be really upset. Kind of like, "Do you understand that I'm the director?" Another part of me was like, "Fuck, maybe I am fucking up. Maybe this is not the right thing to be doing." When I came in to do the next film, I trusted myself a lot more. It was more like, "This is what I wanna do, and that's what I'm going to do." I had a lot more trust in myself this time around.
TONY: How come you think the set on Saw 3 was so relaxed? For a horror film, the set resembled a comedy shoot.
DARREN: I don't know. I really wish I did. Saw 3 was the best time I ever had shooting a film. Saw 3 was a blast. I really miss it. I often joke that I want to come right back and do another one. It's so much fun. It's not like working. We were shooting in Toronto, and the crews there are fantastic. I really love them. We had the same exact crew for Saw 2 and for Saw 3. I'm talking down from the PA to the food guy to the same transportation people. Everyone really knew everyone. Coming back to do Saw 3 was like coming back to your family. It really wasn't a job at that point.
TONY: Since you have taken over for James Wan, how has the Saw franchise changed? Also, how has it stayed the same?
DARREN: I think in spirit it is the same. I was talking to James yesterday, and we were joking around about it. James Wan did not set out to make a horror film. He set out to make a suspenseful thriller. It got branded in the horror genre. I went in with Saw 2 to make a horror film and a gore film. With Saw 3, we brought back more suspense that was in Saw 2. His original intention was for it to be a suspenseful thriller.
TONY: How hands on were the actors with their scenes?
DARREN: One of the good things about Shawnee and Tobin is that they have been with these parts for so long. They know their parts better than I know them. Tobin was very, very hands on. One thing I do that helps is to encourage an open dialogue. I might have a decent idea and they might have a decent idea, but together it's a great idea. A lot of scenes in Saw 2 just came from me and Donnie talking. Me, Donnie, and Tobin would just sit down and bounce ideas off each other. A lot of the stuff was never even in the script. It was just stuff that we decided on while talking. Because of that, I think it really helped the film. I encourage that open dialouge.
TONY: What's the craziest idea a Saw fan has brought up to you?
DARREN: I stopped going on the House of Jigsaw message board because they got too insane. One of the great things about being a horror director is the relationship with the fans. I have a my-space account, and I get at least twenty-five messages a day from fans. It's a really slippery slope to slide. If I read them and then there is something similar, you have to worry about copyright infringements. Now if I see an idea, I close it right away or delete it. There are only so many different ways you can kill a person. Pretty soon, they are going to come up with an idea that we already have.
TONY: What's your most vivid memory form shooting Saw 3?
DARREN: The degree that we went to in order to be secretive. For example, Donnie Wahlberg is in the film. We didn't let anyone know that until the day the film came out. Then you see Donnie in the first scene. Donnie was on set every single day just hanging out. We had press and other people on set as well. We had to try very hard to keep Donnie a secret along with the ending and the twist. We had an incident on Saw 3 where my script was stolen. It was not misplaced or lost, it was stolen. It was then put up for ransom. We tried so hard to protect everything. We go to all this trouble and then one afternoon you come to the set and the script is gone. There was a letter on there and it said, "If you want to find your script again, you gotta do this." It was pretty insane.
TONY: Finally, what do you have planned for the future?
DARREN: One of the projects that I can talk about is the rock opera that I'm working on. It's like a throw back to the 1970's and films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Tommy. It's a horror rock opera. It's called REPO! The Genetic Opera. It's like an in-your-face throwback film to the 70's. I grew up on rock operas and get a nostalgic feeling every time I think about them. I've seen Jesus Christ Superstar at least two hundred times. For the last five years, I've been working on this rock opera with two guys. We finally finished the script and went out and shot a fifteen minute trailer for it. We wanted to show people what it was. We showed the trailer around town and it generated some interest. That looks to be one of my next projects.
