Saw

To sell the feature, James Wan and Leigh Whannell shot a proof of concept in 2003 on sixteen millimetre film over two days for about five thousand dollars, with Whannell playing the victim himself. The pitch worked, and the feature was finished in eighteen days from September 2003 at the Lacy Street facility in Los Angeles. The bathroom was the only set built from scratch; everything else was scavenged from other productions or shot on location. About half the schedule went on that bathroom. Danny Glover completed his role in two days. The puppet called Billy was not a modified toy either, but an object the pair built from nothing. That economy dictates the shape of the storytelling. Because the money went on keeping two actors in one room, the weakest passages are exactly the police flashbacks that leave it; if the outside world looks cheap, you are reading the budget correctly. The trap catalogue people associate with the franchise is absent. This first entry shows one reverse bear trap and merely describes the rest. The twist also lies inside the frame throughout, which makes it hold up better than most reveal-driven thrillers. Right for anyone content to watch two men talk in a single room. Wrong for a viewer expecting the torture density of the sequels.