The movie app Letterboxd means that we now have an insight into film fan’s viewing habits like never before. We know each other’s favorite movies, rankings, and which movies we re-watch obsessively. Ahead of the release of Saw X, one Saw fan came to the attention of the LB team because they’ve logged the original movie an astonishing 200 times.
This unbelievable feat prompted LB to interview them, and it makes for a fascinating read. And it’s far more wholesome than you might expect for a fan of the horror movie franchise which sparked moral panic and was labelled ‘torture porn’ when it was first launched in 2004.
Larry is a trans man who loves Saw so much, they chose to be named after Cary Elwes’ character Lawrence Gordon. He only watched the original Saw for the first time when Spiral was released in May 2021. He has now watched each of the movies in the franchise an average of 18 times each, but he clearly loves the original more than all the rest.
Larry is obviously an expert on which traps across all of the Saw movies are the best, but he always goes back to the beginning; “The bathroom is without a question the most compelling trap in the entire franchise and it’s a hill I will happily die on. Unlike most traps, it has such a strong emotional center, it’s more than just physical torture. The most brutal traps aren’t necessarily the most compelling or exciting. The bathroom trap works so well even though it’s simple amputation because the emotional consequences are so strong.”
Larry has spent a lot of time thinking about Lawrence’s relationship with Adam (Leigh Whannell, who also co-wrote the script with James Wan); “The entire story hinges on their relationship in one way or another. It’s set up in a way where they end up completing each other. One of the things that sets Lawrence’s relationship with Adam apart from everyone else is that Adam is the one person who immediately sees through Lawrence’s ‘person suit’, and Lawrence is the only one to see the person behind the voyeur.”
“At the end, Lawrence even says ‘I wouldn’t lie to you,’ something he would do to just about anyone else without even blinking – not with Adam, though. John put them together because he believed they were total opposites who would never get along. He never anticipated them to connect so early on.”
The tenth Saw movie, Saw X is released on September 29 and you can find out when Saw X takes place in the Saw timeline. For more TV and films to get you in the mood for spooky season, check out our guides to the best horror series, the best horror anime, and the best Halloween movies. We’re also looking forward to the release of Wednesday season 2.