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In some ways, “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” is more frustrating than the average mediocre horror sequel because you can easily discern the missed opportunity up there in front of you on the screen. According to legend, Chris Rock came up with an original idea for a reboot of the “Saw” series, which was launched in 2004 by James Wan’s twisting thriller that had an impact on the entire industry, and Rock basically talked his way into the production’s creation. Putting Rock’s comic sensibility, which is often brilliant, together with a universe of inspired traps and conflicting morality sounded incredible on paper. But in practice it was a disaster. Then came the addition of Samuel L. Jackson, as well as one of the original franchise’s directors, Darren Lynn Bousman, who was in charge of parts two through four of the film series. While it’s not difficult to envision what “Spiral” could have been, it’s even easier to identify the areas in which it fell short of its full potential. Even the traps are uninspired this time around, despite the fact that some interesting ideas are raised but not pursued. The Jigsaw Killer himself would most likely like to have a word or two with these filmmakers, who may have taken some of the franchise’s pages from the book but never really understood it.
Naturally, the film “Spiral” begins with a trap. One of the officers notices that someone has stolen the purse of another officer and chases after him into a tunnel, where the officer is quickly chloroformed. When he awakens, he is in a device that appears to have been inspired by the now-deceased Jigsaw Killer, a man who was fond of claiming that he never actually murdered anyone, instead always providing them with a way out of their predicament. Here, the man is essentially hanging by his tongue from a subway track, which is not a good situation. He is informed by a figure dressed in a pig costume (“Pigsaw”) that the train will arrive in two minutes and that he will be turned into mush as a result. He has the ability to physically pull himself free from the device, severing his tongue in the process but saving his life. It doesn’t end well, and it certainly traumatizes the poor subway train driver who was involved.
Detective Zeke Banks (Rock) and his new partner (Max Minghella) are assigned to the case, and they quickly discover that they are dealing with a Jigsaw clone on their hands. The killer decides to work his way through some of Zeke’s corrupt fellow officers, knocking them off in a surprisingly uninspired manner. It turns out that Banks isn’t particularly well-liked in his own department as a result of some internal affairs issues from the past. A clever device to reboot the franchise would have been expected from Rock and his collaborators, but a machine that rips a man’s fingers, for example, feels like something a drunk came up with in a bar after binge-watching the franchise’s previous installments on HBO Max. The traps, like the majority of the film, are more like contractual requirements, with little room for imagination in terms of design or theme.
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“Spiral” also has some serious tonal issues, which are quite noticeable. For a brief period of time, Rock’s dialogue sounds almost like a parody of cop-on-the-edge movies, and he has a few comedic exchanges with his new partner that hint at a very different film than what this becomes when all of that is dropped in favor of Bousman’s bland, intense style is introduced. The worst part is that Bousman is completely clueless when it comes to creating tension. There is absolutely no rising action in this scene. When the film opens with a man being turned into a bloody water balloon, it maintains a similar level of intensity throughout, even as it nears its incredibly predictable and dull conclusion. Listen, no one expects a “Saw” movie to be completely logically sound, but at the very least, don’t treat your audience like idiots, which is exactly what this film does, and it fails the test. In fact, it might have been better if the plot twists here were even more ad hoc than they already were! Right now it’s a mix of “huh” and “meh,” and that’s about it. The final scenes of the first film made a splash, and the sequel followed suit. This one, on the other hand, will not.
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What’s particularly aggravating is the extent to which this could have been successful. It wouldn’t surprise me if Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock starred in a ’80s buddy cop movie as father and son. Who wouldn’t want to? It also feels timely in a way that this franchise’s morality was rarely in the 2000s and early 2010s: the idea that the universe’s morality is now going to dig into corrupt cops is a novel one. However, nothing has been done with this theme. Nothing particularly interesting or tense occurs. “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” never manages to raise the stakes, and the film’s constant flashbacks with hysterical facial hair don’t help matters. As a result, it finds itself stuck repeating the same mistakes made by the previous installments in the series until the title becomes unintelligible.
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The film is currently showing in theaters.
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