Spiral

Starring: Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Dan Petronijevic, Richard Zeppieri, Patrick McManus, Ali Johnson
Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A renegade police detective (Chris Rock) investigates a series of murders done in the style of Jigsaw.

Review:

Tim: I'm still not entirely sure we needed a 9th entry in the Saw franchise. It's been 4 years since Jigsaw and 11 years since the last "main" chapter in the franchise. That being said, I enjoyed Spiral more than most. I actually think it's the best film in the franchise since Saw III, 15 years ago. That's not to say this is a good movie. It's flawed for sure. However, compared to many of the indistinguishable sequels, I found this film's uniqueness to be refreshing.

I get that many people who criticized this movie disliked the departure from Jigsaw and the focus of the franchise. This is definitely the biggest departure for the franchise. However, after 8 films, we certainly didn't need more of the same. I thought the points where the film did connect (mostly the insane, overly elaborate and illogical death traps) actually hurt the movie more than it helped. However, as a whole, the film felt sufficiently different and I appreciated that.

I will say that another big issue is that the film's story is obvious. I'm usually too focused on the movie and story to guess about the ending. For that reason, a lot of movie's twists take me by surprise. That didn't happen here. Even though I was actively not trying to guess the ending, the film's big "twist" is so obvious and telegraphed so clearly that it would be more shocking if someone didn't see it coming. That absolutely hurts the film- when it does the big reveal and the audience is like, "Well, of course."

Now, what I enjoyed was the new characters and the story around them. I love that Chris Rock decided to do a movie in this franchise. Rock is good in the lead role. It's playing against type, although he's played more of this kind of role in recent years. I found his character interesting. Some of the drama was forced and manufactured, but by and large I enjoyed getting to know this detective and why he was despised by the rest of the precinct. I loved the casting of Samuel L. Jackson as his father. While these two don't get a lot of screen time together, the scenes they do have are among the best of the film. It was fun getting to see these two interact and bring these roles to life. The fact that it was in a Saw movie was besides the point- the movie established interesting characters and that's always a good thing. The supporting cast is good, too, led by Max Minghella. I've been a big fan of Minghella for a number of years and think he has real range as an actor. He adds a solid supporting performance to the film. The rest of the cast was solid, if mostly unremarkable Marisol Nichols was slightly above average. It did feel good to have recognizable actors in this franchise. No disrespect (okay, a little) to Tobin Bell, but the movie is helped by its star power.

I found the mystery interesting. I liked that it was more of a focus than the death traps. The movie actually tells most of those sequences in reverse order. It might hurt the suspense some, since we see the result before learning the "how". However, it moved the story away from the "torture porn" criticisms that you could easily lob at most of the movies in the franchise. The way the movie handled it was a bit clumsy, yes. However, it attempted something different and focusing more on the characters and story than the gruesome deaths is something I'll always appreciate.

Spiral has its flaws, but it was a decent movie. I haven't been able to say that about a film in this franchise in 5 films and 15 years. This movie didn't get the best critical reception and didn't light the box office up. So, it'll be viewed as a disappointment. It's not the franchise savior it wanted to be. As for me, though, I appreciated the different approach here. It wasn't good, but it was better than what we've seen.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Saw, Jigsaw