The Saw movies, generally speaking, concern plots about "bad" people who are forced into horrific booby-trapped rooms. Most of them don't escape, of course, because that's the point: the emphasis of the pictures is placed on their gory deaths, by way of some super crazy traps and such. Almost all of the films are pretty awful, save for the first, which is okay. They're not the kind of movies that anybody in their right mind would try to replicate, of course, given that that would be totally insane in every way. And yet, in 2009, two teenagers, aged 14 and 15, found themselves charged with conspiracy when one of their mothers heard them planning to murder a bunch of people in very awful ways (good one for calling them out on their sh*t, Mom). The boys were apparently plotting to kidnap people who had "wronged" them in various ways with the intention of inserting them into Saw-styled games, complete with camera surveillance. Chances are their schemes wouldn't have been anywhere near as complicated as those glimpsed in the films, but it's still terrifying to ponder what might have been if they hadn't been stopped in time.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
