Spiral adds a lot of potential for the future of the franchise, providing a funny and entertaining film that tells an interesting story, and most importantly, provides a lot of gore for horror fans!
“A criminal mastermind unleashes a twisted form of justice in SPIRAL, the terrifying new chapter from the book of SAW. Working in the shadow of his father, an esteemed police veteran (Samuel L. Jackson), brash Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks (Chris Rock) and his rookie partner (Max Minghella) take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past. Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer’s morbid game.”
The original Saw in 2004 was a revelation to the horror franchise. A smartly written, low budget film taking place primarily in one location, featuring clever yet horrific devices that took brutality and gore to an entirely new level. With each installment, focus was set mainly on coming up with some new kind of trap, and as time went on, story and characters seemed less important. After eight films in the franchise, Saw was in dire need of an injection of fresh and new ideas, and who would have thought it would be Chris Rock to bring that new direction to the franchise?
While reboots are commonplace these days, Spiral doesn’t look to start anything over from the beginning. With the sub-heading From the Book of Saw, it looks to explore all kinds of other stories related to the original franchise, in essence, creating its own Saw universe in which we can learn about other psychopaths that may have taken up the mantle of Jigsaw or his methods. Chris Rock’s idea was simple, to combine Saw with a subtle buddy-cop comedy film like 48 Hours. Through his meetings with the creators a story evolved that hosted one of the best casts to ever appear in a Saw film.
The story of Spiral is fairly straightforward. Someone is killing corrupt police officers using the same twisted methods of Jigsaw, giving the officers a chance to save themselves by offering them an impossible choice while ensnared in devious devices. Ezekiel Banks (Chris Rock), has been singled out by his fellow officers for turning in one of their own for being corrupt over a decade ago, with the killer sending him messages about how his fellow officers meet their untimely demise. With most of his bridges burned and no allies to turn to, Banks must put the pieces together in order to solve the mystery and prevent more lives from being taken. The franchise is well known for exploring the morality of their characters they put into these devices, because unless you make these characters unlikable in some way, you’re basically just watching people be tortured to death. This time it’s not just seemingly random people who may have done wrong in their lives. These are police officers, trusted with authority who have done bad things. The story is written with these modern societal issues in mind, which does give it an interesting perspective.
If you’ve ever listened to or seen any content related to Chris Rock, you probably have a good idea what to expect as far as the comedy might go. He’s blunt, loud, sometimes even obnoxious, but that’s his style, and he brings it to Spiral in the form of several very funny tirades he embarks upon relating to all kinds of topics. Now, as far as him wanting to succeed at creating a film like 48 Hours, I don’t believe he did that, and it isn’t entirely his fault. Blending that style together with the horror genre has to have so many things work to make that successful, number one, having a perfect straight-man to play the comedy off of. As much as I think Max Minghella is a good actor, he’s not that straight-man to go opposite of Chris Rock. There is no good timing between them, not really good chemistry either, sadly, and in my opinion is one of the main negative factors of the film. There was a lot of potential to have a certain kind of comedic style to this film, and although Chris Rock has some great material he wrote, it mostly falls of deaf ears in terms of setting up a certain kind of tone for the film.
If the Saw franchise has taught you one thing, it’s to pay attention to every detail in the film to see if you can spot the identity of the killer or clues to the big reveal at the end how everything connects together. If you’re any type of horror fan, you’ll pick up on stuff pretty easily, but there are a few red herrings thrown in to try and throw you off the scent. The only thing I’ll say about the ending is that I enjoyed it. I think it works, and is a step in the right direction if they keep this Book of Saw idea going.
Video
Spiral is presented in 4k 2160p Ultra High-Definition Widescreen 2.39:1. The 4k transfer of this is simply stunning, and if the cover art is any indication, there are some very vibrant, deep and life-like colors that can only be reproduced by that High Dynamic Range. Not only do the flesh-tones look incredibly life-like, but what’s under the flesh, and you’ll see a lot of that too, is incredibly vibrant. Darker sequences especially look very nice, with the deep darks helping to set the tone of this horror film.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby Atmos, a great mix to have included. There aren’t too many pure-action sequences in this film, but that doesn’t deter the track from sounding quite astonishing and more than makes up for it with atmospheric effects, especially in some of the trap sequences, that you’ll hear ring out all over that immerses you in the experience. Dialogue is clear and concise, but by far my favorite part was everything involving the traps.
Special Features
There are quite a few extras that span both the 4k disc and Blu-ray, including an almost hour long featurette, which is well worth taking a look at if you enjoyed the film.
4k Disc:
- Audio Commentary with Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Co-Screenwriter Josh Stolberg, and Composer Charlie Clouser.
- Audio Commentary with Producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg.
- The Consequences of Your Actions: Creating Spiral
Blu-ray
- Drawing Inspiration: Illustrated Trap Breakdowns
- Decoding the Marketing Spiral
- Theatrical Teaser Trailer
- Theatrical Trailer
Spiral had some issues, but in my eyes, was just the type of infusion the franchise needed to keep going in a new direction. For me, long since tired of seeing the same thing time and again, this Book of Saw idea could easily spawn more interesting films to add to the Saw universe!
