20 Things You Didn't Know About Saw
18. It Started As A Short Film
In the first film, Amanda wakes up to learn she has a padlocked contraption attached to her head. Her abductor, Jigsaw, speaks to her through a television screen and explains how the device is attached to her upper and lower jaw. if she doesn't remove the contraption within a time-limit, it will rip her mouth open.
The Reverse Bear-Trap is the most famous device in the series. The reason why this trap is so important is because it is what made Lions Gate Studios agree to make the film.
When the screenwriter, Leigh Whannell, was pitching his idea for a movie to different studios, he created a short film of Saw for $2,000 (just over £1,600). The short is, in essence, the same Reverse Bear Trap scene in Saw except Leigh Whannell himself plays the victim.
He didn’t have money for special-effects so he had to place his teeth in the rusty bear-trap to make it look authentic. Although the mechanism in the movie was safe, the one used for the short film could snap forward if it malfunctioned, which could cause serious damage to Whannell's face.