10 Genius Suspense Tricks That Made Horror Movies Great

It's no secret that the original Saw was a seat-of-the-pants production, having been made for just $1 million over a mere 18 days.

Due to the shoot's agonising time constraints, director James Wan simply wasn't able to organise rehearsals with the central cast members, resulting in a nervous, anxious tension on set as the actors largely went in without any warmup whatsoever.

According to Cary Elwes, he and co-star-writer Leigh Whannell ended up shooting between 12 and 16 pages per day - a huge amount for a Hollywood production - and because the budget was so low, Wan could only afford to film a few takes per camera setup.

This of course placed a great deal of pressure upon Elwes and Whannell in particular, with Elwes recently confirming to The Hollywood Reporter just how frantic the schedule truly was:

"We never sat down, there were no chairs on the set. We never put the camera on a dolly or a tripod, it was on our wonderful cinematographer's [David A. Armstrong] shoulder for the entire movie. So when we set up shots it was like, 'OK, move the camera here and roll.'"

And yet, the scuzzy, sweaty, uncomfortable vibe absolutely transpires through to the final film, which if nothing else absolutely makes you want to take a shower afterwards.

Admittedly this is less a trick than a skilled cast and crew making the best of scant resources, but all the same, it unquestionably informed the phenomenally successful end product.