Spiral
Detective Ezekiel Banks (Chris Rock) is called out to look into the death of a homeless man in the subway. It's a grisly scene - blood, guts, and limbs are scattered everywhere. On closer inspection, it turns out the deceased is not homeless, but a police officer suspected of corruption. Soon, Banks is sent a message that is very, very reminiscent of the infamous Jigsaw killer, warning Banks that this will not be the last.
Darren Lynn Bousman returns to the
Saw series with this spin-off. Although the series was supposed to have ended with
Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, the producers obviously picked up their definition of "final" from the
Friday the 13th series.
Saw 3D was followed by
Jigsaw, a surprise sequel to the other films.
Spiral is complete reboot. New faces, new city, new motives, same modus operandi. It does start very strong. Bousman has clearly dialled down his over-direction from his previous films. He's still fond of his Dutch angles, but he compliments with tasteful lighting (he's definitely been studying the work of Harris Savides), and elegant tracking shots. The trademark overcranking is still present, but Bousman saves it for the more dramatic moments.
The set-up is fantastic. Banks is a rogue police officer, who is only that way because he's the only straight arrow in the force. Despised by his colleagues for turning in a bent cop, Banks spends his days cleaning dead rats off his desk, spitting venom about his failed marriage, nursing an old bullet wound (he was left to die by his partners), listening to the angry police chief rant about heatwaves and powercuts, and breaking in a new rookie detective (Max Minghella). This all changes when the killer starts targeting his corrupt colleagues, and realises that only he can stop it.
It's a good premise, as it can open the door for a lot of subtle tension beyond the murder set-pieces. I say can, because this door remains firmly shut. The heatwave does little beyond giving Banks's shirts sweat stains. The powercuts never happen. The police and citizens seem non-plussed by the killer. Banks's failed marriage is just the setup for a Chris Rock routine about adultery.
The film's most interesting angle of the honest cop saving his corrupt brethren is thrown aside. We never see if Banks feels guilty or vindicated when his colleagues are murdered. We never see his colleagues express paranoia at how the "honest" cop is spared the wrath.
Spiral was developed by Chris Rock before the massive police protests of 2020 kicked off, so it would be unfair to accuse the film of ignoring it. Rock has always struck me as a very intelligent man, one who is sharp but measured with his anger, so it's a shame that the film does nothing with the police corruption angle. Institutional corruption is not new, nor is the concept of police covering up for each other. The film does happily show all that. It's just that it's meaningless. When the lame, pathetic, predictable twist is revealed, the killer isn't an avenging force or a product borne from a cancerous system. It's just simple revenge, the likes of which we have seen many times before.
I strongly suspect the commercial success of the
Saw series was not due to the gore, but its convoluted continuity. The series antagonist died in the third film, but it continued for five more. Fans that stuck with the series were surely delighted with all the plot twists, denouements, and callbacks. It was their own jigsaw (...ahem) puzzle to solve.
So I'm not sure who
Spiral is for.
Saw fans will be disappointed that there is no connection to the previous films barring a headshot of Tobin Bell. Those new to the series, or those that gave on it, will find Spiral's unique ideas wasted on what is just an excuse for gory torture scenes (that lack the Goldberg Machine novelty of the other films). It's not the worst of the series, but it's arguably the most squandered. Rather than breathe life into a dormant franchise, or kickstart a whole new one,
Spiral will just be relegated to
That one with Chris Rock in it.