Spiral - From The Book Of Saw Review: This Franchise Revamp Feels Familiar
- naterichard98
- May 29, 2021
- 3 min read
DIRECTED BY: DARREN LYNN BOUSMAN STARRING: CHRIS ROCK, MAX MINGHELLA, & SAMUEL L. JACKSON
RATED R FOR SEQUENCES OF GRISLY BLOODY VIOLENCE AND TORTURE, PERVASIVE LANGUAGE, SOME SEXUAL REFERENCES AND BRIEF DRUG USE
LENGTH: 93 MINUTES
Back in the 2004 a micro-budgeted horror film directed by a then unknown filmmaker by the name of James Wan, took the world by storm and created one of the most iconic franchises in the genre. That movie was of course Saw. In the years after, Lionsgate released a new entry in the franchise every Halloween, until 2010 with the prematurely named Saw: The Final Chapter. Back in 2017, Lionsgate tried to reignite the franchise with Jigsaw and while the film performed decently financially, critics were less than enthralled. A-list comedian Chris Rock was quite the fan of a franchise and after a chance encounter with the head of Lionsgate at a wedding, he pitched his own take on the gore-filled franchise. Except this one would have a bit more of a bite to it.
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw takes place years after the death of John Kramer and centers around a new copycat killer with strikingly similar methods to the aforementioned Jigsaw Killer. There's a catch of course: this new killer is targeting crooked cops. Enter police detective Zeke Banks (Rock), skilled in his career but looked down upon by his co-workers, he's constantly living in his former police captain father's (Samuel L. Jackson) shadow. As his co-workers started being picked off one by one, Zeke is paired with rookie William Schenk (Max Minghella) to investigate the rising serial killer.
Spiral was being touted as a 'total reinvention of the franchise' and one that would have a thing or two to say. The truth is; it really is neither of those things. While the film follows a semi different structure as previous films of the franchise had, the film itself feels like a lesser version of David Fincher's Seven. That's not to be taken as a degradation towards the film, as it is an entertaining ride. As predictable as the central mystery is, it's still engaging enough to keep you invested. There's a noticeable shift away from the overabundance of gore that many of the later films relied on and veers more towards a traditional cop movie. The film even follows many of the classic tropes and trademarks of the genre to a tee.
After directing the second, third, and fourth entries Darren Lynn Bousman returns to franchise and brings with him the rapid-fire editing style that the series is known for. After a brief departure of style in the series' last revamp, Bousman brings back all those Saw-isms in full force. That being said, this is nowhere as sloppy as some of the other entries and the film is tightly paced. While the film doesn't feel as much of a 'trapfest' as some of the other movies have, Spiral still drives at a significant speed, leaving not much breathing room.
Rock's lead performance is shaky to say the least, there's moments here where he truly shines; but there's also far too many moments where it's hard to tell whether or not we as an audience are supposed to be taking him seriously. As for the rest of the cast, Jackson's performance is nothing we haven't seen before and he's not in the film all too much. While Minghella's turn is decent enough and he works well opposite Rock.
What's not doing the film any favors is it's screenplay. While shaky and wooden dialogue is nothing new for this franchise, here it becomes even more noticeable, largely because the film is featuring more prominent performers rather than just character actors.
With all that being said, Spiral somehow still manages to work well enough, despite it's glaring issues. There's excitement to be had here and fans of Saw will surely get a kick out of many of the film's callbacks.
3/5 Stars
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw is now playing in theaters everywhere and will be available to rent on PVOD starting on June 1.
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