9 Movies That Were Improved By Having No Money

7. Saw

Although the core concept of Saw eventually bloated into an uneasy saga about excessive bloodlust (with expansive human puzzles that look like the Rube Goldberg machines of a demented billionaire), the original film had a creepy charm to it. Much of that stemmed from director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell purposely creating a story that could be filmed as cheaply as possible, because they had no ambitions to get enough investments for a million dollar movie.

They needed something that could be crafted out of about ten thousand dollars. So they decided it should take place in one room with just a couple of actors. After some back and forth, they came upon the idea for two men chained up in a dirty, basement-like bathroom with a dead body between them. And while Wan and Whannell eventually ended up with a budget slightly over $1 million (thanks to some prodding by their agents), the core concept would never have occurred to them if they'd been gifted that money at the start.

A million dollars is still chump change compared to most movie budgets, though, which was still a quiet benefit because it meant the directors couldn't afford to fill the movie with top-to-bottom gore, as they did in the majority of the sequels.