James Wan Reveals Surprising ‘Saw’ Connection to ‘Black Christmas’
At this year’s Sundance International Film Festival, ‘Saw’ filmmaker James Wan shared where Billy the Puppet got his name.
This year, James Wan and Leigh Whannell were at the Sundance International Film Festival for an anniversary screening of Saw, their breakout success that has since grown into a franchise 10 films strong (and counting). The series has been hit-or-miss critically (though Saw X is very good), but the early aughts horror scene wouldn’t quite be the same without Jigsaw and his many (many) games.
The series is abounding in horror iconography, chiefly the recognizable puppet, Billy. Billy, per franchise lore, is modeled after a toy John Kramer once intended to gift his son, and subsequently appears on trikes and video screens to menace Jigsaw’s many victims. But where did the name come from?
Well, according to James Wan, Billy was named after another horror classic. Wan recounts Bob Clark’s Black Christmas as an inspiration, opting to name his puppet after that movie’s infamous (and originally) unseen killer, Billy.
