Spiral (2021)

 So Spiral isn't about John Kramer, the Jigsaw killer, but rather a copycat Jigsaw killer.  Spiral is from "the book of Saw", we know that because the extended title tells us this.  There's even a picture of John Kramer just to make sure we get the point driven home.  Chris Rock plays troubled detective Zeke Banks who is going through a divorce and just got word one of his best friends, a fellow detective, was murdered.  Dan Petronijevic (He Never Died and Soldier's Girl) plays Detective Mark Bozwick or "Boz" as he is known to his friends, chases a thief down an alley or a sewer or something like that and is attacked by someone wearing a pig mask.  He awakens suspended in the subway in a Jigsaw like trap and when given the choice to live or die (he has to tear out his own tongue in order to live) he dies when a train hits him.  Zeke and his new partner William Schenk played by Max Minghella (The Social Network and The Internship) are assigned the investigation.  Samuel L. Jackson plays Zeke's father and retired police chief Marcus Banks.

 

 

A detective who ignored Zeke's call for backup when Zeke was just an officer almost causing Zeke's death is abducted and placed in a trap next.  Detective Fitch,  Richard Zeppieri (Rub and Tug and Code Breakers), must allow a device to rip off all of his fingers or be electrocuted.  He also fails and dies.  Soon, some of the officers in the precinct begin to suspect Zeke is responsible for the murders.  At each scene they find a tape recorder with the familiar instructions "Play Me" written on them.  Not quite as gruesome and gory as the other Saw film but still pretty graphic at times.  It does make me miss Tobin Bell who is not in the movie but the ghost of Jigsaw hangs heavy.  And the voice on the tape had me searching through the list of cast names looking for Allison Janney because the voice on the cassettes sound just like her!  Spiral is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman who also directed the second, third and fourth films of the series.  Yeah, back when the original series run was still good.  Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger who also wrote Jigsaw and Saw X do the writing for this as well.

 

Take out the "Saw" elements of the story and it's just an average serial killer police investigation story.  Rock performs well here while being forced into doing most of the heavy lifting.  As a big fan of the Saw franchise, as Chris Rock is, you can tell he "gets it" and knows what makes a good Jigsaw story.  Jackson is good in a supporting role and gets as many "F" words in as he can.  The story is very generic though and when I figured it out about twenty or thirty minutes in I kept hoping I was wrong but alas I wasn't wrong.  The box office numbers (which I'm not sure how to read anymore really) tells me it made twice as much as they spent making it but does that warrant more films going forward with this branched off (which they could do if they wanted) story?  I guess time will tell.  A television project based on Spiral has been listed as in early production.  As a hardcore dedicated Saw fan I was entertained even if I did know the ending twist before we were even halfway through.  I'll give it three Mr. Snuggles puppets out of five.  It's closer to two and three quarters but we don't do quarters here.  Now off to see Saw X I go!