Movie Breakdown: Spiral: From The Book Of Saw

Pre-Screening Stance:

I’ve never actually seen any of the Saw films, and I would likely skip right over Spiral if it wasn’t largely driven by Chris Rock. I don’t know why he suddenly decided he wanted to get into horror or why it needed to be via a Saw film, but the whole thing is intriguing to say the least.

Post-Screening Ramble:

My guess is that if you’ve enjoyed the other Saw movies, then you’re likely going to be into Spiral. Personally as someone who isn’t a Saw veteran, I thought it was OK. The film is centered around Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock), a good cop who is hated by his colleagues because they’re all corrupt and he’s shown a penchant for snitching on them. However, one dirty policeman officer is still his buddy, and when he’s the first to fall victim to what appears to be a Jigsaw copycat, things start to get wild. And really, by wild I just mean that someone keeps killing corrupt cops and Zeke has to babysit a new detective (Max Minghella) while scrambling around in pursuit of the killer. Weirdly, Zeke never solves anything or gets a leg up on whoever is doing the murdering (via gnarly, mostly fun traps), because the murderer always delivers all of the info and evidence right to him. This was a weird narrative choice to me, but because the film’s pace is so super quick, it never has the chance to get old or be overly noticeable. Also, even if it’s not exactly the point of of the movie, it’s pretty impossible to not note the hyper-relevancy of a dirty police department getting its comeuppance. So, here’s the deal, Spiral is occasionally clever, largely dumb, modestly entertaining and accidentally timely. Your mileage may vary.

The film opens in theaters this Friday, May 14.

One Last Thought:

Every single person caught in a trap in Spiral is given a choice – die horribly or lose a body part or two and remain alive – but none of them ever get close to surviving, even when they quickly decide to sacrifice something. Is the choice just meant to be an illusion? Are the other Saw entries like that? It kind of dampens the tension when death is the only result.