For a good chunk of the first decade of the 21st century, Saw had a firm grip on the realm of horror in pop culture. It's immense success spawned a number of imitators in the "torture horror" niche, namely the Hostel and Collector franchises. Such a subgenre faded almost as soon as it arrived, with the far cheaper to execute (no pun intended) found footage and supernatural horror fare managing to be the scary king of the multiplex in the years since the franchise concluded. And despite how prominent the franchise was for six years, there's been surprisingly little clamor for it to be rebooted or return to theaters, with the only attempt to wring more cash out of the franchise in recent years, a 10th Anniversary theatrical re-release of this first Saw film, bombing spectacularly last year.
