Like all the films in the Saw franchise, Darren Lynn Bousman‘s new movie Spiral: From the Book of Saw is a rated “R” affair that’s loaded with gory and gruesome traps, but there was one torture sequence that was too much even for the series known for brutal dismemberment.
Speaking with Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew Podcast last May, Bousman (who also directed three previous Saw movies) reflected on the scene that was filmed but ultimately unused.
“We cut an entire scene out, an entire trap scene,” Bousman reveals. “Which was a huge kind of bummer for me. We were having huge problems with the MPA this time. And I’m not even sure why, because I don’t think in any respect this is the most violent Saw film. But I think it may be the most widely accessible Saw film in the way you have two huge superstars [Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson] plus Max Minghella bringing a whole different side of audiences. I think the MPA was really on the offensive when they heard we were coming in.”
“There was a scene that took place in the third act, I won’t say who it was but another character dies,” Bousman continues. “And it was by far the most gruesome, 100%. It was also the most mean-spirited. We’re like, ‘The movie can completely exist without this scene.’ And we ended up losing it, in the very end, I would say the last week before we locked the edit. I’m happy for that actor because he now survived. Now he can come back if there’s another one.”
Bousman further details, “There were a lot of traps that didn’t make the cut, that we had ideas on, but there was only one trap that was shot that ended up getting cut. A guy’s face is completely… his entire face has come off. There was definitely some gore that was cut out.”
Well, fans are in luck. This afternoon, Bousman shared a never-before-seen photo from this now infamous sequence that likely will never see the light of day.
“There was an entire sequence shot where the killer took a knife in peeled all of the skin off of a body,” Bousman explains on IG.
“It was so goddamn intense. Cutting through the skin and muscles and fat to expose the skeleton. It was a thing of art. In the end only, a few seconds remained in the final cut.”
He jokes: “Maybe at some point, they will allow me to release the ultra hard-core cut…”