Spiral review

SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW: 

CHRIS ROCK AND SAMUEL L. JACKSON GIVE THE LONG-RUNNING SAW FRANCHISE SOME FRESH “BLOOD”, UNFORTUNATELY IT FALLS APART DURING ITS FINAL ACT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

LIONSGATE

Chris Rock in Spiral: From the Book of Saw

 

            The long-running Saw franchise that made torture-porn into a profitable business has been reborn in Spiral: From the Book of Saw or simply Spiral, the ninth installment of the series and a spin-off of the original films which follows a cop trying to solve a series of murders related to the Jigsaw Killer. Before I dive into this film, let me make one thing perfectly clear, I am NOT a Saw fan. 

            Let me rephrase that, I am not a fan of the Saw franchise, I do consider the first film released in 2004 to be a very effective scary movie and all the gory death traps were balanced out with suspense and interesting characters. However, with sequel after sequel, the Saw franchise shifted focus on exploiting the torture-porn aspect where the death traps and gore became the stars of the movie rather than its cast and each sequel was just more of the same with little variety, not to mention very few characters to grow attached to. 

            I think that’s my biggest problem with this series, too much focus on gore and shock value and not enough characters to be emotionally invested in. With that said, the traps and deaths can be very imaginative, and I completely understand why fans of the series enjoy it, I just like a little more substance in my scary movies. 

            Sometime later, I started to express interest in some of the later Saw films after the release of 2017’s Jigsaw and especially when Spiral was announced. Both Jigsaw and Spiral seemed like movies that could give some fresh blood to this very repetitive franchise and Spiral in particular, sounded interesting just by the concept alone.

            A murder-mystery crime-drama that’s closer in spirit to Se7en but is set in the Saw universe and stars Chris Rock (Lethal Weapon 4, The Longest Yard (2005), Top Five), who also produces it and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Snakes on a Plane, Marvel Cinematic Universe). Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, and Saw…okay, you got my attention! 

            I had to know what Rock and Jackson were going to do with the Saw franchise and hopefully like Jigsaw it would breathe new life into the series. For the most part, it does…but it kind of falls apart during its final act as well. 

            The film has enough spine-tingling suspense and plenty of the hyper-grisly death traps the franchise is known for as well as strong performances by Rock and Jackson. However, quite often the editing and pacing feel extremely rushed and needed more time to breathe and focus more on Rock and Jackson’s characters’ relationship, also I found the climax to be very underwhelming. 

            The film follows Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks (Rock), a cop tasked with solving a series of murders caused by a Jigsaw copycat. However, it seems that this Jigsaw Killer’s murders are following a strange pattern, he/she’s been killing a bunch of corrupt policemen which forces Zeke to partner up with his estranged father Marcus Banks (Jackson) to solve this horrific case and bring the new Jigsaw Killer down. 

            The film also stars Max Minghella (Art School Confidential, The Social Network, The Handmaid’s Tale) as Det. William Schenk, Marisol Nichols (Scream 2, 24, Riverdale) as Capt. Angie Garza, Zoie Palmer (The Guard, Lost Girl, Dark Matter) as Kara Boswick, Genelle Williams (Radio Free Roscoe, The Latest Buzz, Warehouse 13) as Lisa Banks, and Dan Petronijevic (Murdoch Mysteries, Falling Skies, Cardinal) as Det. Marv Boswick. 

            Overall, Spiral is very interesting installment of the Saw franchise and does have more substance and stronger character development than most of its predecessors with plenty of that Saw-style slaughtering the series is known for as well as Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson giving 1 million percent whenever they’re onscreen. However, it often feels very rushed in the editing and pacing as if they shot a bunch of important scenes but were left on the cutting room floor just to make the 90-minute mark and it doesn’t really give us much time to breathe or establish Rock and Jackson’s characters fully, had this film been longer I think it would have improved things a lot. 

            The traps and death scenes are nice and inventive…also bloody as is the case with every Saw movie, but unlike most of the previous films they aren’t the focus, nor do they overshadow the main characters. This is exactly why the first film and Jigsaw work for me, the traps are there but they do a much better job at developing the characters who are stuck in the traps and make you care about them thus making it more satisfying when one of them successfully completes one and more shocking when one of them dies, it isn’t just stock characters getting tortured and killed and the same logic applies to this film. 

            For the most part, I was invested in Spiral and enjoyed getting wrapped in the mystery but by the end I was quite disappointed. The final act is so overwhelmingly anticlimactic that it almost broke the movie for me. 

            Okay, the Saw movies are known for having a twist ending where the famous theme music plays before the credits roll usually involving the main character getting trapped forever or a shocking reveal of who the actual Jigsaw Killer is. Here, the movie sets you up for a big climax as the Saw music plays but then it just stops and the credits roll, this was such a slap in the face and a giant F.U. that it makes the endings of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom or Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker look like Avengers: Endgame, I’m dead serious. 

            Spiral: From the Book of Saw is exactly what the word “Fine” is meant for and is easily the third best Sawmovie after the first one and Jigsaw. It’s nice to see something even remotely refreshing and new in a long-running franchise that has run out of steam, but the sloppy editing and anticlimactic ending kind of ruin what could have been an ingenious entry in the Saw franchise. 

            Longtime Saw fans will likely enjoy it and nothing about this review screams “Don’t go see it!”. If you’re a fan of the series or even the least bit curious to watch it then by all means, give Spiral a watch, but for me I’ll just stick with doing a double feature of Saw and Se7en because those movies at least knew how to take their time while trying to scare you.