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Trivia: The film was originally intended to be released direct-to-video, but it got such a positive response during its first screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Lionsgate decided to release it in theaters. It paid off, as "Saw" ended up spawning a franchise and becoming one of the most financially successful horror series of all time.

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Trivia: Throughout the film, there are several montages of still photos. This wasn't a style choice - the budget was so tight and the shoot was so fast, they didn't always have time to get all the shots they needed. So they used photographs taken by an on-set photographer to help pad out several scenes.

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Trivia: One day, co-star Cary Elwes looked over to talk with director James Wan, and noticed Wan was sitting on a small, wooden apple-box just a few inches off the ground. Elwes questioned Wan about where his director's chair was, and was shocked to learn that the budget was so tight, they evidently couldn't even afford chairs for the major crew members. Elwes evidently went to the producers and demanded that Wan, a first-time feature director, get a proper director's chair, and eventually one was purchased.

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Trivia: The man who is burned to death in a Jigsaw trap was actually the ex-husband of the casting agent for the film. She apparently leapt at the chance to cast him in the role when she found out his character would be horribly burned to death. (Kinda makes you wonder what their relationship was like..).

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Trivia: The inspiration for the villain Jigsaw being a cancer victim came from an event in co-writer Leigh Whannell's personal life. Whannell began to suffer near-constant migraines during the writing process, and ended up having to go to the hospital to have an MRI. He was petrified about getting the results back and began to ponder what would happen if he found out he had a brain tumor. He began to ask himself what he would do with the rest of his life if he found out he was dying. Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing, and the headaches eventually went away, but his fear and paranoia stuck with him and inspired the character Jigsaw. Whannell was also inspired by an article about a man who was mis-diagnosed with cancer and how it (briefly) changed his life.

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