Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (2021)

When is a Saw movie not a Saw movie? When it's Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, an attempt to get more golden eggs from a goose that should have been killed off about five years ago. And I say this as someone who has tended to enjoy most entries in the series, including Jigsaw (2017).

Chris Rock plays Detective Zeke Banks, a cop who cannot really trust other cops at his precinct. He's been left to fly solo ever since turning in a dirty cop some years ago, but his latest escapade sees the Captain (Marisol Nichols) pairing him up with young Detective William Schenk (Max Minghella). The two soon have their nerve tested when they investigate a crime scene that feels very much like the kind of thing that would have been planned by Jigsaw. But Jigsaw's dead. So who is doing the killing now, and why are they just targeting bad cops? Detective Banks might be more able than most to follow the trail, even if he ends up asking his father (Samuel L. Jackson) some uncomfortable questions about his tenure as Captain.

With Darren Lynn Bousman back in the director's chair (he helmed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Saw movies) and the competent writing team of Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger (who gave us the decent Sorority Row, one of the better remakes, Piranha 3D, and Jigsaw), you'd be forgiven for expecting more from this film than it delivers. These films never hold up to close scrutiny, of course (otherwise every killer has to have perfect timing, in-depth medical knowledge, and access to more real estate than your average billionaire), but if everything moves along well enough, and packs a punch in the final act, then that's okay. Spiral doesn't manage that, which is a shame.

The first problem is how heavily signposted everything is here. As rubbish as I am at spotting twists, I formulated my theory for how this whole thing would play out within about 15-20 minutes. And I was absolutely spot on. Not that the Saw movies have often been impossible to predict, but this feels as if it's a lacklustre ending in search of a trap-filled movie to go before it. It's almost Saw-lite, especially when the victims are people with more reason to be judged than a lot of the previous victims in the series.

The second problem is the cast. I quite like Chris Rock. Not for the lead in a Saw movie though. He's not ever convincing as the tough cop who can do right while so many others are doing wrong, and he's not helped by the fact that the script has him actively putting people in danger just because the bodycount needs to rise. Max Minghella, sorry to say, is someone I have never really warmed to, perhaps due to the characters he tends to play. He's okay here, I guess, but that's only because most people would seem better opposite Rock. And you have Samuel L. Jackson in a main supporting role, doing well enough, but also being underused. Nichols has to work her way through "Movie Police Captain Dialogue 101", but I guess she does what is asked of her well enough. And everyone else is there to either be a red herring, a victim, or both.

There are some decent deaths here, which is what you want from any entry in the series, and a couple of moments should make you wince, but it's also fairly muted, in terms of the really nasty intricacies of each trap. None of the attempts to misdirect viewers work (well, they didn't work for me anyway), some characters are built up only to be discarded by the time it gets to the point where Chris Rock must do everything on his own, and there's even a use of the hyper-editing that feels as if it's bordering on parody.

It's nowhere near as bad as the nadir of the series (which will always be Saw IV to me, but I AM overdue a rewatch of the series), but Spiral just feels like an instalment being steered in a number of wrong directions by people who are well-intentioned, but refusing to double-check their instrumentation and maps.

5/10

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Shudder Saturday: Spiral (2019)

Okay, let me start this review, as I sometimes do, by informing you that a lot of people love Spiral. And good for them. It certainly has a lot of good qualities, and I am happy to see it getting a lot of praise recently ahead of some blander fare. Although I didn't love it, I did like it. It's just a shame that it felt a bit too familiar and derivative in the third act.

Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) and Aaron (Ari Cohen) are a same-sex couple who move to a small town so they can start the next chapter of their lives together, and raise their teenage daughter (Kayla, played by Jennifer Laporte) in a good environment while they try to instil the best values in her. They have some pleasant neighbours (Tiffany, Marshal, and their son, Tyler), but it's not long until unpleasantness appears, in the form of some homophobic graffiti that seems to make it clear that the couple are not welcome. This seems at odds with the attitudes of the people around them, but Malik becomes more and more anxious about the potential for things to get dangerous.

Written by Colin Minihan and John Poliquin, Spiral is strongest when it starts to build an atmosphere of threat and suspicion. Despite us seeing that Malik has good reason to be worried, most people (including his partner) try to dismiss his concerns. Which I can only imagine is akin to the experience many people in the gay community find when they sense intolerance but struggle to find empathy in those who don't notice it, either deliberately or simply because their life experiences have allowed them to remain blissfully ignorant of that kind of attitude. Often, and it is something we have seen become more prevalent as a lesson to be learned in the past few years, it's easier to accept the hateful morons who are loud and proud with their prehistoric attitudes than it is to deal with people who wrap their hatred and intolerance up in small gestures, "innocent" faux pas, and a rigid adherence to rules, regulations, and formats all created before society was more progressive than it is today.*

Spiral starts to stumble when it puts things in place to become a more standard horror movie, and that's a shame. It's not as if the script takes a dive, or director Kurtis David Harder does anything majorly wrong. There are horror elements in the first half that impress, even while they feel incongruous alongside the more grounded atmosphere of fear being created. There are also some great moments involving Lochlyn Munro and Chandra West (who play their characters, Marshal and Tiffany, with a great blend of charm and something just being a bit off, but it all becomes weaker as you realise it's wading further and further into proper horror territory.

Bowyer-Chapman carries a lot of the movie on his shoulders, and he does a great job. Cohen works well alongside him, while Laporte and Ty Wood impress as the younger characters who try to connect with one another while some strange events are unfolding around them. There aren't too many other main characters, but everyone does good work.

Other plus points include the overall look and feel of the movie, considering the lower budget that I imagine was available, the plotting of the film, and the way things build to a bittersweet final sequence. 

Spiral is very much worth your time. I'm just surprised by how much it started to lose my interest whenever it took a turn from the drama to the outright horror. Give it a watch though, and let me know what you thought of it, and whether or not you agree with me.

*No, not everyone, and not everywhere, is as progressive as we would like. Like an IKEA display room, everything is there but there's still a lot more work to build a comfortable house for all.

7/10

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