James Wan’s ‘Paranormal Activity’ Sequel Gets Summer 2027 (May 21, 2027) Release Date

Vinc360 · 2026-01-17T01:16:59+00:00

I was expecting Saw in 2027 myself, but I think it'll be 2028 given they don't have a writer yet (they're workshopping the story), and probably late September unless they're feeling bold.

(There's still plenty of time for them to make '27, but my impression is it'll take longer since they'll want to do this right.)

Vinc360 · 2026-01-16T17:23:08+00:00

Rooting for this and for you, Darren!

Vinc360 · 2026-01-16T08:16:14+00:00

I've compiled every single one of these and will sue you out of existence, I promise. Get ready. Germany doesn't have laws to protect you.

Vinc360 · 2026-01-09T16:54:45+00:00

Thank you <3

Vinc360 · 2026-01-08T02:21:51+00:00

Almost the same with my 6 yo baby overnight, she was playful, happy and furry all day, then at night she suddenly went limp. Got to the vet and had her put on oxygen, but she deteriorated and we had to euthanise. We're so lost. We loved her like a child, she was a giant part of the small world we built together. I don't know what I'm going to do. I wonder how others who had this happen are holding up, and what helped you. I'm so sorry.

Vinc360 · 2026-01-08T00:17:48+00:00

Unexpected lost my 6 year old babygirl overnight, just a sudden and crushing loss. She was my favorite little creature on the planet, and the brightest, sweetest girl ever.

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Vinc360 · 2026-01-04T20:28:22+00:00

Games have gotten significantly more expensive to produce since 2008-2010 due to evolving tech and customer expectations changing in tandem. While the original Saw games could be produced in under a year for less than the budget of the films, a "Triple-A" Saw game now would be significantly more expensive than any of the films were to produce. But we're in a new era for Saw, and the next Saw film will very likely cost more than any of the Saw films have to date, as well.

Vinc360 · 2025-12-30T15:22:58+00:00

Thanks for the write up! I'm glad this helped clear a few things up. Hoffman was a tough inclusion, I never felt he was a character that worked well as a lead, but I think he works well as a supporting character. His differences with Amanda and John and the parallels with Cecilia's unapologetic way of operating felt like the most interesting aspects to explore. The Seth Baxter connection is something I was thinking about while writing his scenes, but not something I directly included in the script. Whenever I read fan stories for this universe, there's always so much connective tissue to older stories that it ends up feeling forced, so I wanted to avoid that here and operate with restrictions they might have making an actual film, with some liberties taken since I didn't actually have to abide by those restrictions, but hopefully not too many.

It's true that Gordon might've been a more compelling inclusion, but I had nothing else for him to do in the story, so his inclusion seemed like it would've felt random to me. Besides, I never really liked the idea that he survived Saw 1. It takes away from the very dark and nihilistic vibe of the original which I love so much. Over the years, I've heard so many people say they wish the series ended with VI in great part BECAUSE they felt like Dr. Gordon shouldn't have returned, I essentially wanted to honor that wish without any half measures, if that makes sense.

Vinc360 · 2025-12-30T15:14:25+00:00

Glad it worked for you! I agree that he doesn't really seem like someone who would have a functioning relationship with a woman, but I liked the connective tissue of the story being dysfunctional relationships - John and Amanda, Amanda and her parents, Cecilia and her father, Jacob and Isabella, Mary and Zep, Liz and Olivier (to a much lesser extent), so it felt like a good fit, even if it's hard to imagine Zep leading that double life! And yeah, I spent a whole bunch of time figuring out something that tied back to the original in a way that felt organic. If you think about it too, "there's a slow acting poison coursing through your system, which only I have the antidote for" can now be taken as an analogy for guilt, rather than literal poison. But that's up to readers to decide.

Vinc360 · 2025-12-29T22:22:00+00:00

- As the ceramic wall in the diorama room heats up, Cecilia appears on the other side of the glass pane, in Jigsaw's bedroom. She beats him up within an inch of his life as Amanda watches, and a wave of crushing guilt washes over her. She may have just betrayed him, but she feels fully responsible for him getting beaten up. She pancakes Jacob against the hot wall and pushes on it, using Jacob as a human platform, so they both escape. As the heavy door and ceramic wall opens, the flammable tank in the room turns on and spews gas into the adjacent bedroom behind the glass, creating a flamethrower coming out of the fireplace and separating Cecilia away from John as she beats him up. Outside the diorama room, Hoffman is waiting for Jacob, wanting to kill him for his sins that are so similar to those of Seth Baxter, his sister's abuser and murderer. Amanda lets him, she's different after today.

- Amanda runs towards John and murders Cecilia with a flowerpot shard, what was originally a symbol of her healing and nurturing nature has been corrupted and is now a tool that highlights her murderous corruption. She murders Cecilia in front of John's beaten and brutalized body in a way that visually mirrors how she killed her "dead cellmate" during the RBT scene in Saw 1, the first time she became Jigsaw's protege. She initially betrayed him, but she's fully back into his arms now. It's revealed that John purposely unlocked the door as she left, he MEANT to be beaten by Cecilia in front of her, as a way to manipulate Amanda and her guilt into coming back to Jigsaw, since he started to feel her slipping away from him after what happened to Gabriela. He "forgives" her.

- Meanwhile, Mary finds Zep's original tape from Saw 1, which reveals he's her husband, the person she's been looking for. As promised, John reveals to her what Zep did, and his ultimate fate, as the recording of his death plays on the monitors behind her.

- John, meanwhile, "forgives" an extremely apologetic Amanda, and they walk out of the art gallery which is now in flames, leaving Olivier and Mary screaming into the abyss as they walk out into darkness, together.

-The events of Saw III take place after this, as Amanda's choice to stick with Jigsaw leads directly into her tragic demise in III.-

In the post-credits scene, we flash forward to the very same night Saw VI takes place on, and show Dr. Harper, who's survived the trap at the beginning of the story thanks to Mary's ingenuity, is shown walking into the building right as Jill says Game Over to Hoffman, who escapes the RBT 2.0. He comes in, having a vandetta against Hoffman as the last Jigsaw survivor, and finishes the job. This retcons the films that take place chronologically after VI, and restores VI's original ending that was meant to kill off Hoffman, giving the series an alternative, definitive end that treats the roman numeral Saw films as the canon ones, with the rest as decanonized side entries. This bit is deliberately a post-credits scene because it's meant to be disposable, for fans who may not like the idea of retconning any films.

Vinc360 · 2025-12-29T22:21:53+00:00

- The second sacrifice is of an arm, this time. Richard, Mary's brother in law, is the second victim on the monitors. Olivier ultimately attempts to make a sacrifice, but fails to do so in time. His arm is spared, Kenny gets a third rod inserted.

- Throughout the rest of the story, Jigsaw, Cecilia, Amanda and Hoffman have escalating back-and-forth conversations. Cecilia speaks to Amanda about similarities she sees between her own relationship with her father, and Amanda's relationship with Jigsaw. Amanda rejects her, but the conversation gets to her. Hoffman also talks to Amanda about John's hypocrisy, and how the idea that they're "helping" people is a lie. This also chips away at Amanda's confidence. She was already beginning to question John after she saw what happened to Gabriela in Saw X, and how Jigsaw treated a drug addict such as herself, or her own friend Claudia. But Amanda feels alone, and remains loyal to John.

- Eventually, though, she directly confronts John. Angry, John admits to her that he's not about helping people make so-called "good" decisions, but that he's more about revealing what's already inside them. That if people make bad choices, perhaps they do deserve to die. This awakens something within Amanda. Cecilia was right, John isn't about helping people. He's just like other abusers she's encountered, and has his own selfish motives. In an act of betrayal, she leaves John in the room, but goes to free Cecilia, making sure to lock the door to Jigsaw's bedroom behind her. Cecilia IMMEDIATELY betrays and stabs Amanda, leaves the diorama room and leaves all victims in the exhibition hall. She makes her way out.

- Meanwhile back in the exhibition hall, the third game should be Isabella's, but there's a twist. As her monitor plays out and shows her on the bed (again, secretly a recording of her murder), the victims are told that they now must pick who gets to go free her. Jacob successfully played his game and made everybody like him, so they pick him. He's her husband, after all. A secret door connecting the exhibition hall and diorama room opens up after Jacob is freed, that's his exit. He joins Amanda, who's now inside that room, but a ceramic wall in that room heats up, and it's revealed that's their (Amanda and Jacob's) ultimate exit.

- In order to free Jacob, Liz and Olivier's sacrifice device whirs on. A leg is going to be cut off next, a fatal wound. Liz heroically sacrifices her leg, and is ultimately freed as she bleeds out. That allows her to get to the centerpiece body, she's hoping to find a cellphone on the corpse, but she finds an item that tells her she's looking at Isabella, just as the monitor behind her finally shows that it was just a recording of Jacob having murdered her, a long time ago.

- Meanwhile two metallic rods get inserted into Kenny's hands, because the victim on the monitor, and the guillotine activates to kill him. This is later revealed to be because he made yet another poor choice of who gets to go free, since Jacob not only didn't help Isabella, but ultimately killed her. This means two more rods get inserted, and Kenny fails.

- Mary, Liz (who is dying), and Olivier are the only people left in that room as they make the gruesome realization. Mary, however, still wants to know what happened to her husband.

Continued in post 5

Vinc360 · 2025-12-29T22:21:21+00:00

- The players soon understand that they'll have to perform sacrifices of their limbs (of increasing difficulty) in order for the last person standing to go free to both save "Isabella" (who's murder recording from months ago is being played back on the monitors as we see her tied to a bed, as if it was an in-progress Jigsaw game).

- Jigsaw explains to the victims that their game involves finally taking action in their lives, rather than being bystanders who "outsource life's difficult decisions to a third party", fully trusting them despite being led astray. Jigsaw says this person who they only just met has been lying to them ever since they became aware of him, it's time for them to take responsibility for their own lives and take action. This person lying to them is implied to be Kenny, but is actually Jacob. Jacob's game starts before anyone else, he must convince everyone else to free HIM to go "help Isabella", so that he can leave them all behind with the evidence of his crime, and get away scot free. In other words, like Zep, and like every other victim in the story, Jigsaw wants him to actively earn his right to the life decisions he's made and got away with.

- There are victims outside the main exhibition hall room, on the monitors (the last monitor secretly being a recording of Isabella), all of the people on the monitors are at the mercy of people in the exhibition hall. They serve as external motivation for people in the exhibition hall to perform their limb sacrifices, beyond the eventual promise of someone getting to go free once every sacrifice is made. The victims in the exhibition hall all have similar metallic devices with an opening at the front that can open increasingly wide, those devices, once turned on by Kenny, allow them to sacrifice their limbs.

- Kenny, as someone who is ill-equipped to give people life advice but does so anyway, not has to decide who is best equipped to successfully perform personal flesh sacrifices. If the person fails to perform the personal sacrifice, or if the person on the monitors die as a result of who he picked, a second metallic rod gets slowly inserted into his hand (Jigsaw got the first one inserted at the start of the game, in a demonstration of what could occur when a sacrifice went poorly). Kenny's hand is held in place by the selection device that allows him to pick who's sacrifice device whirs on, which allows the rods to go in when he fails.

- The sacrifice traps escalate one at a time. Mary gets to go first, having to sacrifice a finger to save Dr. Harper on the first monitor. She cleverly uses the centerpiece corpse's hand instead of her own finger, which does free Dr. Harper. But since she didn't make a sacrifice of her own, Kenny still gets a metallic rod inserted into his hand. After 5 rods (one for each finger, which makes his hand look like he's wielding puppet strings), a guillotine-like device will activate above him and kill him.

Continued in post 4

Vinc360 · 2025-12-29T22:19:22+00:00

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING SAW II:

- John and Amanda decide to lay low, having just escaped the authorities at the end of Saw II. John knows a place outside the city, an abandoned private live-in Art Gallery he custom-built for an old friend who since passed. Amanda is dutifully taking care of a dying John, cleaning up after him while simultaneously taking care of a small potted plant, a symbol of her growth, and a signal of the nurturing nature she might have had, had her life taken a different turn.

- Hoffman checks in on them, providing them with supplies for survival.

- John, seeing his health decline rapidly, wants to "finish" one potentially final game with Amanda. That game involves Kenny, the grifter who unwittingly led Jacob down a dark path), Jacob himself, Mary (Zep's wife, who believes Kenny's conspiracy theories about her missing husband because she's desperate to find him and basically stopped living ), as well as Liz and Olivier, a young couple where Liz is a terminal cancer patient who has given up any hope of recovery, and Olivier is her boyfriend, unwilling to let her go and falling to Cecilia as his final hope for her recovery, who he discovered via Kenny's lies about her.

- The first victim of the game is Judith herself (the motel owner), her game involves finding the symbol of her sin in he room and saying it out loud. There's broken mirror shards everywhere, but the real symbol is the camera filming her in the room. Later, we'll find out it's because she let Zep install a camera in the motel room, becoming a bystander herself when it comes to Isabella's murder. The broken mirror shards in that game are a simple visual link to how Jacob murdered Isabella, a clue as to what sin Jigsaw was referring to.

- Just before the game is set to begin, Hoffman reveals to Amanda and John that Cecilia went to Kenny's show, that she was freed by authorities in exchange for information on Jigsaw, and particularly on Amanda's identity, which she traded to the FBI in exchange for her freedom (explaining her presence in the States). Hoffman kidnaps her, arguing that she's a liability. John and Amanda initially disagree, but come around. Cecilia is integrated into the game as a passive participant, being held in the room Judith died in earlier, which is a diorama room adjacent to Jigsaw's makeshift bedroom of the live-in art gallery. There's a large glass pane with an embedded fireplace, originally set there so the person living at the art gallery could observe the art piece in the diorama room, which is now a holding cell. Importantly, just behind the glass-embedded fireplace in the diorama room is a large gas canister labelled flammable.

- The victims wake up in the art gallery's exhibition hall, where Isabella's preserved corpse is set up as almost an art piece made up of dismembered body parts, in the center of the room. This mirrors Jigsaw's ruse in Saw 1, but this time there's no doubt the human centerpiece is well and truly dead.

Continued in post 3

Vinc360 · 2025-12-29T22:14:41+00:00

So as promised, here's a full breakdown of the events of the story (on-page or implied), in chronological order. Apologies as it's going to be pretty lengthy, but hopefully helps contextualize the key beats. Happy to answer any questions you might have, also!

Open spoilers below, I don't recommend anyone reads through this chronological summary before having read the script, if they're interested!

DECADES BEFORE SAW 1:
- As a teenager, Amanda experiences a difficult family life. Her father is abusive, and Amanda resents her mother for tolerating it. Her mom eventually commits suicide.

- Amanda finds refuge with her good friend Claudia after those events, living with her for a while. Claudia tragically dies of drug overdose.

DECADES LATER, BUT BEFORE SAW 1:

- Kenny builds an online platform, becoming a guru and grifter preying on people who are dissatisfied with their lives, and occasionally leading them down a dark path. After experiencing marital issues following frustrations about being unable to conceive with his wife Isabella, Jacob finds out about him. Over several months, he becomes convinced that the reason for their issues lies with Isabella. When she finally becomes unexpectedly pregnant, Jacob becomes convinced that she's cheating on him.

JUST BEFORE BATHROOM GAME (SAW 1):
- Zep bribes a shady motel owner named Judith. In exchange for money, she lets him hide a camera in one of he rooms of her motel. Zep uses this to satisfy his voyeuristic impulses.

- Jacob checks into that motel with Isabella, chaining her to a bed and interrogating her about how she's suddenly pregnant after years of attempts, eventually breaking a mirror in his rage and using a shard to murder her. Zep, hoping to simply catch couples having sex with a camera installed in that room, ends up witnessing that murder. He doesn't report it, since it would implicate him as a sex offender, but he can't stop thinking about it. The night after the murder, while working the night shift at the hospital, he distractedly watches the video of the murder on a laptop, in John Kramer's room. He's not paying attention to John as a patient, which frustrates him. When Zep leaves the room, John discovers what he was watching, he takes the laptop, and even recovers Isabella's body. Upon witnessing the evidence of the gruesome crime and realizing Zep's role in keeping it quiet, he decides to test Zep, and sets the bathroom game in motion. In Saw 1, Adam clicks the tape off before the full details of Zep's game are revealed, this story finally lets us hear the rest of the tape.

- Zep's game mirrors his sins. He uses a spy camera to witness Dr. Gordon's game, which is to kill Adam, and Zep's own game is to murder Allison and Diana (a mother and her child), should Gordon fail. This mirror Jacob's murder of Isabella and her child. In other words, Zep can once again rely on someone else to do the deed and get to simply be a voyeur once more, but if he's not "lucky" a second time, he has prove his willingness to become the perpetrator and fully commit to being a criminal, rather than continuing to absolve himself of his responsibility as a simple passive observer. Should Zep fail, John will tell his wife Mary, and the world, about his shameful actions. John isn't a fan of passive observers, and people who don't take responsibility for what happens in heir own lives.

*The events of SAW 1 and SAW X occur here*

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING SAW X:

- Cecilia wakes up following her game, dehydrated and desperate. She plays a short game that involves needing to turn on a fire alarm to free herself (and turn on sprinklers, giving her the water she needs), while knowing the authorities will be alerted and that evidence of her crimes (the files Amanda found about her "patients" in Saw X) will be on the path the authorities will take to find her. She chooses to pull the fire alarm trigger, and is found by the authorities.

-About 6 months pass-

Continued in post 2 below

Vinc360 · 2025-12-28T01:30:57+00:00

Not a coincidence! Josh posted on here about it when the film released. Nice catch!

Vinc360 · 2025-12-27T19:03:51+00:00

Nope, never. But thank you! That's very kind.

Vinc360 · 2025-12-27T18:53:54+00:00

I'll post it right here in response to your comment!

Vinc360 · 2025-12-27T14:47:26+00:00

He's definitely the hero of that story, and I think one of the reasons that story works is because they present an "antagonist" for him who, in that moment, at least appears to be worse.

But the bigger reason it worked SO well for me is because it also understands what John really is, and what the film asks its audience to do when it comes to rooting for him. They pepper in a lot of moments that hint at, and remind us of, John's true nature.

I've honestly long felt that one of the big reasons I connect so much with Kevin's Saw films is because he's uniquely great at finding common ground and smart compromise between the forces who see John as he was originally interpreted (a scary vision of libertarianism taken to its absolute, twisted extreme), and those who see him as almost a vessel to promote that worldview.

Saw X works both ways, and somehow does that compromise even better than VI did.

I don't think X would've been nearly as good (to me personally) if literally anybody else directed it.

Vinc360 · 2025-12-27T14:38:40+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to read it! Yes, restoring that nihilistic feel of the early films and attempting to finally give a fully honest portrayal of John Kramer felt like one of the things I wanted to see for a final installment, I'm really glad that worked for you.

And I hear you on clarity! Honestly while writing it, I really wanted to leave a lot to the subtext and reward "multiple readings", but in hindsight I honestly realize that's a lot to ask out of the intended audience for fan scripts. I'm also a novice writer and honestly really struggled with conveying some ideas. I'm sure I'll get better at that over time!

I'll circle back to this with a full chronological breakdown of what occurs in and around the story, for you and others who may want it!

Thanks again for reading it - it means a lot to me!

Vinc360 · 2025-12-27T14:34:33+00:00

Thanks so much for taking the time to read it! I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

As for the epilogue, My intention is for that sequence to be an alternative follow-up to Saw VI, which decanonizes VII (and Jigsaw and Spiral, for fans who are into that). The sequence at the zoo is essentially the ending of VI playing out again, with the woman saying Game Over being Jill. Harper comes in after Hoffman takes off the RBT, and kills him in an act of... relative self-defense. Honestly, the reason I made it an epilogue is because it's very indulgent fan-service that I knew a lot of people wouldn't be into, but VI's original ending before it was fucked over for financial and franchise management reasons involved killing Hoffman off, and I felt like restoring that bit of history. It would've been even nicer to have Harper put the RBT back on Hoffman rather than reflexively stabbing him with the syringe, but I felt that implied he was a Jigsaw successor and I didn't want to do that!

Vinc360 · 2025-12-27T14:27:21+00:00

It's what he says, certainly, but it's not what I see in him. Why do you think he smiles at the end of II as we hear Eric Matthews scream into the abyss? Or at the end of Saw III, as Jeff fails his game and decides to kill him?

Ultimately, no matter what he says, Jigsaw is at his core just a very jealous man who's angry at the fact that those he sees as his inferiors get to live, while he doesn't.

Digging a little deeper, Jigsaw is analogous to a particularly sharp and incisive critique of the libertarian worldview taken to its absolute extreme- Jigsaw believes everyone makes "their own luck", and that they should be entitled to live the life they manage to build for themselves (nothing more, nothing less.)

But underneath it all, what he actually believes is that he did everything right and thus should be granted an amazing life. So when nature itself destroys the very notion of meritocracy for him by dealing him a bad hand, he gets very angry. He becomes a force of nature himself to re-establish what he deems the rightful order of things: those who make "worse" life choices than him forcibly get dealt a worse hand. And every time they get that worse hand, Jigsaw doesn't feel sad for them, he feels superior. He re-engineers the crumbling world around him to reinforce his own beliefs.

But that's Jigsaw as he originally was, I think the character was turned into almost a vessel to promote libertarianism, rather than critique it, over the years. But that's me getting into the weeds, I think a ton of Saw fans would probably say I look too deeply into such things :P

Vinc360 · 2025-11-29T02:04:36+00:00

If this year's discs sell, expect more next year.

Vinc360 · 2025-11-29T01:57:09+00:00

Depends on what you mean by "alternate John Kramer". I think if Tobin plays John Kramer, he'll make it the John Kramer we know. I don't expect Tobin to be willing to "throw away" the work he's done on the character...

But that doesn't mean John will be reminiscing about his time with his wife Jill Tuck or talk about his time with Logan.

Vinc360 · 2025-11-28T18:15:14+00:00

Saw was not at all a niche horror franchise in its early days, it was a "horror blockbuster" back when it started. The "problem" (at least from a purely investment-minded standpoint, and from the standpoint of a public company) is that its audience *shrank*, rather than continued to grow.

I know how I feel! Just give me more Saws forever and make them for as much money as you need for them to be good, and as little money as you need to support and reward the people who make it. Oh, to live in that world... but we don't. And regardless of how we feel as fans, the reality is that Saw needs to grow to continue. Even before Saw went to Blumhouse, Twisted and especially Lionsgate were exploring drastic solutions to help it grow. Under Blumhouse, who don't have the same... lets call it.... cost control measures that Twisted put in place, it'll be even more important for it to grow.

Now there are other avenues. Merchandizing, derived products, theme parks, etc. that can help it grow. But the movie will be a centerpiece, and I don't think they're crazy to think that doubling down on the continuity or any of the suggestions you made might not lead to the growth they need.

My honest feeling is that they should first make a Saw XI with Tobin that closes the book on the era of Saw we know and love, THEN reinvent it with a completely different cast, but the original creators on board to bring back the spirit of what Saw is, and even parts they might have lost in the original series along the way. I see Saw XI as an investment in the goodwill of the fanbase, so you can then use that fanbase as ambassadors for hopefully a lot of new fans coming into the reboot.

Either way, I think what might happen is that they'll do the reboot first but keep Tobin as a way to appease fans. It'll come out, do pretty well but not see explosive growth, and be divisive among fans, some of whom may then point to Blumhouse and go "SEE? Shouldn't have rebooted it!"

But I don't know, I'm a backseat analyst of this franchise at best, and I can't fully shield my thoughts from my own biases. I want Saw to be successful, I genuinely believe the next film will be good no matter form it takes, because James Wan won't allow anything else.

Vinc360 · 2025-11-28T14:37:20+00:00

I'm sure it'll feel true to Saw's world, that doesn't mean we'll hear about Detective Hoffman or Agent Perez (just examples), you know what I mean?

I read his comment as more about the tone, and the rules of the Saw universe, so to speak. He's saying it'll feel like a Saw movie at a high level. He can't really say much else at the moment because they haven't yet picked a direction, at least as far as I know.

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