‘Spiral’ Review: A ‘Saw’ Sequel That’s A Cut Above

Dirty cops and dark justice highlight this promising relaunch of the definitive horror franchise of the post-9/11 era.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the best Saw sequel since Saw VI, and Saw VI is the best Saw film. I'm pretty fond of the franchise, and its hilariously interconnected continuity and bemusingly straight-faced sincerity paved the way for the MCU and The Fast Saga. The first date with my eventual wife was the opening night of Saw II, her choice, and we'd spend the next five years celebrating the occasion by seeing the next Saw on opening night. Ironically, I have never liked James Wan and Leigh Whannell's original Saw, feeling each time it was played like a rough first draft. If you only care for the first film and think the sequels are primarily disposable, you may indeed feel that Spiral is the best Saw since the first Saw.

Directed by franchise mainstay Darren Lynn Bousman (the Justin Lin of the franchise, having defined the franchise by directing the first three sequels), Spiral wasn't a matter of Lionsgate desperately trying to keep the franchise alive. It was due to Chris Rock, who was a fan of the series, offering up a pitch worthy of consideration. In this case, Spiral is a case of subtext made text. John Kramer (Tobin Bell) and his 3,705 apprentices saw themselves as hardcore social justice warriors. They targeted corrupt cops, health insurance companies, con men and plain-old racists (back before that was a potentially controversial reason to be tortured to death). John was an extreme version of the first Superman comic books. The Man of Steel originally targeted abusive spouses, corrupt bureaucrats, and the like before World War II changed the game.

Spiral does try to offer up an approximation of how a Jigsaw-like murder spree might play in 2020 versus 2005, even if it's still as narratively claustrophobic as its predecessors. The picture gets off to a great start, with a veteran cop trapped in a classic Saw-like concoction and given the choice of swift death or painful self-mutilation. The next reel introduces us to Chris Rock's beleaguered cop (an honest if overzealous detective who his colleagues ostracized for ratting out a murderously corrupt partner) as an unauthorized raid results in him being assigned a rookie partner (Max Minghella). The film feels a bit like "What if Serpico turned into a Saw movie?" and its early beats of the cynical Black veteran schooling his young and naïve partner play more like Se7en than a Saw movie.

Saw was initially inspired by David Fincher and Andrew Walker's Se7en (a classic "rip-off, don't remake" triumph), so the narrative structure feels suitable for this relaunch. At its best, Spiral plays as a genre appropriation of a more conventional police thriller. Genre appropriation could be the way to keep Saw going should enough folks show up at theaters. However, it still suffers a little from what bogged down the two previous Saw flicks. Saw 3-D and Jigsaw introduced new police-specific protagonists and new relationships between the lead cop and the (potential) baddies, leading to spending much of the running time establishing the new normal. Since Spiral contains no characters from the previous films (yes, it explicitly acknowledges John Kramer's legacy), we get the same table-setting we suffered through in the 2010 finale and the 2017 relaunch.  

Spiral features an apparent Kramer copycat explicitly targeting corrupt cops in Jigsaw-like death traps while and calling out the department's "destroy the village to save it" mentality. However, the film feels oddly gun-shy in terms of acknowledging race as a motivation for this behavior. Not only is institutional racism never brought up, but our protagonists are Chris Rock (as a cop ostracized by his colleagues for ratting out a murderously corrupt partner), Samuel L. Jackson (Rock's retired cop father), Max Minghella (Rock's newbie rookie partner) and Marisol Nichols (the Captain). The explicitly diverse cast almost backfires, and the film's overriding plot flirts with a "bad apples" mentality.  Moreover, the murderer's targets are so explicitly criminal in their actions that it's hard to care whether Rock's protagonist (Det. Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks) solves the case or saves the day.

Spiral works as an engaging horror-tinged thriller for those not caring about its politics or its existence within the broader Saw universe. It looks gorgeous, and a rewatch of the series leading up to this one reminded me that those early sequels are visual delights even if what we see onscreen isn't very delightful. Unlike the "shot-for-3-D" The Final Chapter and the "looks like a direct-to-DVD" likes of Saw V and Jigsaw, Spiral looks like a big and splashy horror movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Chris Rock isn't exactly a dynamic dramatic actor (offhand, his best film performance remains Nurse Betty), but he doesn't hinder a film that requires quite a bit from him. The rest of the cast, including Sam Jackson, mostly fills out the edges.

As for the violence and gore, don't believe the hype about toning down the carnage or providing a more palpable Saw experience. No, the film won't make you reach for a barf bag, but the movie damn well earns its R-rating. Of course, that most of the victims are trigger-happy cops frankly mitigates the ick factor. This isn't Saw III, where the victims (and protagonists) were so sympathetic that you didn't want the (truly grotesque) traps to succeed. Without divulging spoilers, the movie plays fair in terms of its twists, turns and reveals, and there is still fun to be had if you find yourself ahead of the film. I wish it spent more time on Rock and Jackson's father/son relationship and that it was more aggressive in its politics, but it works as an enjoyable horror movie.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw succeeds in crafting a bigger, most expansive Saw adventure and differentiating itself from what came before while still operating in a shared universe. While it was supposed to open last May, it feels oddly skittish in terms of its alleged topicality. Saw VI took no prisoners in its takedown of the health insurance industry. Even the otherwise abysmal Saw 3-D at least explicitly called out racism as a cause for criminality.   Warts and all, it could have used another ten minutes or so for character work. It is good enough and different enough to pass the Amazing Spider-Man test, in that fans in the future may choose to watch Spiral when they feel like watching a random Saw movie.