Review: Spiral

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman

Written by: Josh Stolberg & Peter Goldfinger

Starring: Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Samuel L. Jackson

Rating: [2/5]

With the finality of the central character of a long-running franchise, if the gravy train must continue to run, a reinvention must occur. Something to spice up the story and give it new life, which Spiral certainly attempted to do with it a more stripped-down approach to telling a story of a Jigsaw copycat. While an interesting take, it leaves plenty to be desired in its attempt to revitalize something that should be left for dead at this point. 

Detective Banks (Chris Rick) with quite the history in his department gets put on the case of an officer killed in what appears as a trap laid by a killer trying to mirror the now-deceased Jigsaw. With each new trap getting another officer, he must find the person responsible before even more individuals get hurt. 

While admittedly stopping my experience with the Saw films with Saw III as I had quite enough of what these stories had to offer, Spiral tries to present something different. Instead of focusing on individuals who randomly find themselves in this horrendous circumstance, they shift it into an all-out detective thriller as we follow an officer try to crack this just like any other case, except in this instance, Banks’s colleagues are being picked off one-by-one in this deranged game. While police had involvement in the previous Saw films, they served as a complement rather than the main narrative of the feature. 

Having this take place with a larger focus on these detectives allows for a different experience because we can see the frustration build in the inability to solve it. Distrust begins to exist within the department as frustration builds on who seemingly wants to take out these police officers in these depraved ways. This causes internal turmoil damaging the morale of everyone on top of the heinous and horrendous traps set out by the copycat killer. The camaraderie sits on a shaky foundation and it continues to wobble more and more as the feature goes on. 

Everything set up in establishing this film makes for something quite interesting, but unfortunately, the execution just does not cut the mustard as something worthwhile in this narrative. As with any Saw film, the traps, and terrible circumstances these victims get put in make them either have to do something terrible or die. One person had to either sever their own tongue or get run over by a Subway train. In fairness, I’d probably choose the train as well but each of these new traps just did not have the same creativity that would be expected from someone like Jigsaw. While these works exist as a copycat that does not have the same brain, it feels like quite the letdown completely exemplified by the final one. Something completely stupid, with all respect, that certainly leaves the feature on a negative note not just in feeling like a gut punch but also the final descent into mediocrity. 

Additionally, with a film of this franchise we receive a twist in figuring out the real individual at the center of everything occurring and this reveal just underwhelms to a horrendous degree. A reveal I certainly did not see coming because I wished it would not be the obvious choice in who would target these officers, but the feature certainly took this path of least resistance leaving such an unsatisfying way to conclude this story. This franchise has not necessarily always delivered the best twists, but this one really takes the cake as an underwhelming way to close out an absolutely dreadful third act.  

Ultimately forgettable even with the promising premise it establishes and sets out to utilize in revitalizing this franchise. In the end, it fails in what has made these films such a long-running set of films in the traps laid out of the individuals and twists involving who has perpetuated everything. The film thoroughly disappoints because of it even with a decent performance put on by Chris Rock trying his best to shift to this serious role. Perhaps something enthusiasts of this specific gory genre might appreciate but it left much to be desired as a whole that will quickly be forgotten by most who unfortunately get the chance to watch it.