What strikes me about this story is poor Kevin Greutert, caught in the middle of this. But this isn’t necessarily about the movies themselves. I haven’t yet seen Paranormal Activity, though my brother has described it as possibly the best horror movie he’s ever seen. I will defend the original as a well-made (albeit gory) thriller that was a breath of fresh air, but the sequels quickly degenerated into Hostel wannabes. I haven’t watched a Saw movie since Saw IV – I don’t particularly care for the franchise. It’s hard not to get the feeling that Lionsgate weren’t just throwing a hissy fit and were ticked about their talent working for a competitor. This was only five days after the release date for Paranormal Activity 2 was announced. They also dispatched David Hackl to another project very, very quickly. On Monday, Lionsgate called in an option on Greutert’s contract – basically that clause which allows them to keep actors and directors around for sequels if needed – and made it clear that he will direct Saw VII.

Originally it seemed that Lionsgate were being mature and cool about Greutert moving on – they’d assigned Saw V director David Hackl to take over work on the latest film (incidentally the first film in the franchise to be made in 3D – for all your gory needs) – but it seems that they couldn’t resist the cance to get the boot in.

This was a problem to Lionsgate because Greutert had worked on the Saw franchise from the beginning – working as an editor on the original film and stepping up to take the role of director on last year’s Saw VI. Paramount, the company behind Paranormal Activity, had been so bold as to hire director Kevin Greutert to work on the sequel to last year’s breakout cult hit.

That put it in a direct contest with Saw VII, as the franchise has become an annual fixture in late October. The incident which sparked this whole furore was the scheduling of Paranormal Activity 2 for a Halloween release date later this year. Apparently Lionsgate have been taking lessons from Jigsaw.

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