According to LatinoReview, Patrick Melton announced on a UK Radio show (Demon FM) that there is an increasing likelihood that the seventh installment in the SAW franchise will be the last. Melton, who helped write the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh SAW films claims that there is serious debate surrounding the future of the franchise. He goes on to say that he has “a very strong feeling its going to end with Saw VII.”

Why would Lionsgate and the other companies involved seek to end the franchise when it has been so overwhelmingly successful? Well, first of all SAW’s latest run at the box office brought in only half of SAW V’s take. Critics and analysts cite two major causes of the film’s disappointing profit, with the first being franchise fatigue. Every year since 2004 has seen another installment in the franchise and because of this long run in cinemas, audiences might be seeking something new and different. The other cause of SAW’s dwindling box office returns is the competition it faced from the latest newcomer to the horror genre- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. This box office giant brought in more than four times the box office gross than SAW VI, and did so on a fraction of the budget.

This sudden end to the franchise leaves fans of the series hoping for some sort of resolution to all their questions. One of the major hopes for the seventh installment surrounds the fate of Dr. Gordon, the man who originally diagnosed John Kramer’s cancer and an early target for the killer. Melton had an answer for fans, which should ease their worries:

I can’t say anything official yet, but I think the thought around the camp is that let’s solve all questions by the end. Including that question. We wanted to resolve that because it is the 700 pound gorilla in the room…with a vague end in sight as most people have had, its sort of been been pushed off with us being able to often put…we read the scripts we had, we’ve always put in certain clues from each movie what happened to him, but a lot of that has been taken out of the films, but it seems that though right now the thought is to answer that question and wrap everything up in a wonderful nice package.

Without a doubt, Hollywood is feeling the recession just like the rest of the country. They’re looking to find places to cut costs, and if SAW can’t bring in the dough I doubt they’d keep the franchise around. Who knows, we could see a massive resurgence at the box office if the hype surrounding “the last SAW movie” can hold up all the way through October.