Posted in: Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Anthony Stabley, interview, Kevin Greutert, lionsgate, saw x

Saw X: The Traps Are "The Theater of Life and Death"

Saw X production designer Anthony Stabley and director Kevin Greutert spoke to us about creating "the theater of life and death" and how framing these traps is often like Broadway.

Many people believe that horror movies peaked in the '80s or earlier, and everything after that has just been spinning the wheel. When we brought in VFX and moved more to computer-generated graphics rather than practical effects, horror suffered most of all. One of the reasons old horror movies hold up is that directors had to be great to make them work. Those old puppets and animatronics could only be shot from very specific angles; otherwise, you'd see that they are being held together with duct tape, a shoelace, and the hopes and dreams of the production crew. Early science fiction was the same way; things only looked good from particular angles, and to hide where they looked bad, they had to be well-directed. The Saw franchise has always leaned into practicality when it comes to the traps, so when we got the chance to speak to production designer Anthony Stabley and director Kevin Greutert for Saw X about how you shoot these traps to hide where they aren't real, how to hide the failsafe to keep actors safe, we jumped at the chance.

"There's a combination of things going on here," Stabley explained. "First, there's all the tests that we put together, right? Because we want to make sure that on the day that we're shooting, everything works. And it's a combination of the trap team art department putting together traps and then mechanical effects, making those wheels turn. And then we're working with prosthetics; we're working with stunts. We're working with basically eight different departments."

"So we have to do all of our homework," he continued. "The other part that's even before that work, or concurrently, is that Kevin put together some great storyboards. I love the storyboards, and we had this rolling board where we could see all the drawings, and it was kind of like when you're shooting a commercial, and you know what we're trying to achieve. So I felt like, basically, it was a lot of homework, you know? And the storyboards gave us this opportunity to say, 'Oh, we're going to see this gear move, we're going to then see a reaction,' etc., etc. So, I think that's the way it worked out."

Making The Saw X Traps Work Is A Lot Like Broadway

Greutert and Stabley went on to make an almost comical comparison about what these traps are doing and what they are trying to accomplish on screen; in many ways, the way they are shot and framed is a lot like a Broadway production in that someone is probably hiding just off-screen, knelt down, holding a rope and waiting for their cue to pull it.

"We want the machines to really work," Greutert said. "But the fact is any portion of one of these traps that's actually moving, there's probably some guy underneath it with strings. In the case of one of the scenes towards the end of the film, there are so many different people pulling ropes and cranking things. We've got lighting cues where lights are turning on and off on cue. The stunt coordinators are doing their thing. We shot in Mexico, so most of them only spoke Spanish. Fortunately, Anthony's fluent in Spanish, but we've got translators.  It's a big operation. It would probably be really funny to see."

"In some ways, we talk about John Kramer, that this space is kind of like the theater of life and death," Stabley explained. "We've said that, but there are realistic components to the movie, and there's also this theatrical kind of thing. And really, for all of us shooting, it was like doing this Broadway play or something. There were so many components of people hiding and pulling, and this goes up, and this goes that way. So it was a lot of fun."

Greutert wasn't about to let this talk about the traps in Saw X go by without throwing some love to the digital effects artist. While they both acknowledge that practical is an integral part of the process with these traps, Greutert wanted to make sure that everyone knew that they were absolutely essential.

"We have an incredible digital effects team in Toronto called Switch Effects. And so I don't want to make it seem like their contribution wasn't absolutely essential because it was. It always is. There wasn't really that much CGI blood in this; fortunately, we really made all that work. But a lot of it is digital trickery."

We'll have more from our Saw X interview with Anthony Stabley and Kevin Greutert soon!

Saw X: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most chilling installment of the SAW franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's personal game. Set between the events of SAW I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer – only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, John returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through a series of ingenious and terrifying traps.

Saw X, directed by Kevin Greutert, stars Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, Michael Beach, Octavio Hinojosa, Paulette Hernández, and Joshua Okamoto. It will be released on September 29th.

Saw X production designer Anthony Stabley and director Kevin Greutert spoke to us about creating "the theater of life and death" and how framing these traps is often like Broadway.

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