Director Darren Lynn Bousman revealed a gruesome deathtrap scene that was completely cut from Spiral: From the Book of Saw one week before the film’s edit was locked. Speaking with Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew Podcast, Bousman explained the hard decision of cutting the scene in order to maintain an R-rating.
Bousman points out there are several death traps that were discussed and scrapped from the movie in the early stages of production, but only one scene was actually shot and edited. As Bousman explains, in the scene “a guy’s face is completely… his entire face has come off. There was definitely some gore that was cut out.”
That indeed sounds horrifying, but it’s not like the rest of the Saw franchise wasn’t already vicious. Bousman, who has also directed Saw II through IV, doesn’t think Spiral is especially gruesome compared to previous entries on the franchise. However, the MPA was probably more demanding because a cast that includes names such as Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson is bound to get more attention from the mainstream public. As Bousman explains it:
“We cut an entire scene out, an entire trap scene, 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 [ Rock and 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.”
The cut scene was placed in the third act of Spiral. Even if Bousman doesn’t want to spoil the movie, the director reveals one character was supposed to die in the scrapped deathtrap, but ends up surviving the events of the movie. Bousman adds that he’s “happy for that actor because he now survived. Now he can come back if there’s another one.”
In Spiral: From The Book of Saw, Rock, Jackson, and Minghella are police officers who must join forces to catch a Jigsaw killer copycat. Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger return to the franchise as writers, after writing the script for 2017's Jigsaw.
Spiral: From The Book of Saw opens in theaters and IMAX on May 14.