The creator of Saw Leigh Whannell has revealed that his new horror film features a scene so gory that it was cut from the first Insidious film, which he also wrote.
Whannell is a name that to the average film viewer, you may not recognise.
When you look through his work, however, you will find some of the most iconic horror films of the 21st century.
Whannell created the Saw franchise alongside James Wan and wrote the first three films, as well as starring in the first one.
Leigh Whanell acted in the first Saw, as well as co-creating it with James Wan (Lionsgate Films)
Add to that Insidious, The Invisible Man, and the highly underrated Upgrade, and you have a resume that places him amongst the top two or three horror writers and directors of the last 20 years.
Whannell looks set to add to that with Wolf Man, which he wrote and directed.
You can watch the trailer here:
The horror classic remake is coming out 17 January, and we sat down exclusively with writer-director Leigh Whannell to discuss the film.
Whannell actually revealed that the sequence in question was part of the werewolf transformation scene from the film, saying: “I remember there was a sequence in the first Insidious film that I wrote that was quite gory, and it would have pushed that film into an R rating, and that film just didn't quite feel like that.
Whannell also wrote Insidious (Icon Productions)
“It's funny. I did get it into Wolf Man. I haven't told anyone this, but in the first Insidious film, I had written a scene where the little boy breaks his own jaw and reaches up and grabs it.”
The director then pointed to a scene in the film in which the werewolf fully finishes their transformation, with the man reaching down and breaking his own jaw to complete it.
This footage was released by Universal ahead of the film’s release, which can be seen below.
Gore and spoiler warning for the Wolf Man below:
He went on to say: “That was all practical. So I finally got my jaw break in there. I must have some weird subconscious obsession with jaws, because I think about Saw now.
“That whole thing of the device, there must be something.”
The film, starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, was originally supposed to star Ryan Gosling, who had to pull out due to changes in his schedule.
When asked about how different the film is to the one Gosling was set to star in, Whannell said: “Not really very different. It's quite similar. The very first draft was essentially the core idea.
“Is what you see now in the finished movie. We went through many drafts, but that simple idea of the family in isolation and the infection that was all there from the very first idea.”
The film is terrifying and gory (Universal)
He went on to say: “Ryan was involved for a long time. But because of the COVID and the strikes and all these obstacles, his schedule gets really booked up, and suddenly he can't do the movie as an actor, but I'm so happy with what Christopher Abbott did.
“Ryan is too. So I feel like, you know, Ryan's a great actor, and so is Chris.
“I feel like they're actually contemporaries in terms of their talent, because they really put the art first.
“They are egoless, they don't care about what how they're being perceived, or what they look like.
“It's really about their artistic challenges to themselves.”
Wolf Man is in cinemas from Friday, 17 January.
English (US) ·