Spiral: From the Book of Saw, 6/7 Knives

Hey everyone, my name is Jared, and welcome to this review. The Saw franchise made a big splash into the horror scene, starting in 2004 with the main story ending in 2010. After that in 2018, we got our first spin-off Jigsaw which is (in my opinion) one of the worst films. Then it was announced that we would be getting Spiral: From the Book of Saw. This film was recently released and like expected the critics hated it while the audiences loved it. On Rotten Tomatoes, it currently has a critic score of 37% while holding a 76% audience score. This happens very often due to the horror genre being viewed negatively simply because it is horror. Spiral is well crafted and well written and deserves much more than 37%. While it’s definitely not a straight saw film, the story they came up with is up to par if not better than the original. Chris Rock does an incredible job as the main character while bringing his own spark to the franchise. Without much further ado let's jump into this review.

SPOILERS

If you wish to go into Spiral completely unspoiled (which you should, trust me) skip down to the bottom where you will see “no more spoilers” all in caps. If you haven’t seen this movie yet I would go into it without spoiling anything for yourself.

Overview

Spiral is an incredibly well-directed, written, and acted movie. This movie, while holding the tagline “From the Book of Saw '' feels entirely fresh and new compared to the rest of the Saw franchise, while also maintaining the feeling that the original series gives you. Chris Rock gives you the hilarious comedy that only he could bring without losing the horror movie aspect. At about the halfway point into the movie, it stops being funny and instead becomes terrifying and is incredibly intense all the way to the end. I think what this movie does well combines the incredible talent of Chris Rock's comedy with the direction of Darren Bousman and the writing of Josh Stolberger (Jigsaw, Piranha) and Pete Goldfinger. The story of Spiral is exceptionally good and potentially the most creative out of any Saw film we’ve seen so far. Chris Rock's character is a lone cop in a corrupt police precinct where a killer starts killing corrupt cops one by one. He’s assigned a partner after a solo mission gone bad and that’s where our story begins. Before we move onto the story I would like to point out the direction in this film. Oftentimes in movies, especially horror movies, the audience tends to feel as if they are a third party watching a movie. This is oftentimes not what the filmmakers intend for you to do and with Spiral you never feel that way. At no point in this entire movie did I ever feel like I was an audience member. The entire time I was watching I was completely invested and never lost sight of what they were intending me to feel. I’m honestly very worried that because Spiral is a Saw movie and a horror film, that a lot of people won’t watch it. When in reality if you were to watch this without loving horror movies you would understand that the direction is incredibly well done. I hope more people will watch this movie even if they don’t love scary movies. While this is a Saw movie at its core, Spiral is a movie that transcends the franchise that it was born from.

Credits

So the credits in this movie are mostly at the end but before we get there I’d like to talk about the title screen. The title screen slowly fades over an amazing score before fading back out. This doesn’t make it seem as cool as it truly is, but when you see it for the first time it manages to fully incorporate the feeling the film would give you for the rest of the time you’re watching it. Okay moving on to the credits at the end of the film. I won’t be spoiling the ending of the movie (next section by the way so don’t read that section if you haven’t seen the movie yet). At the end of the film after the very well done ending it cuts straight to black and the credits start to play. While there isn’t anything special about the actual credits there is a very fitting and cool song that was produced and created by 21 Savage. When I first heard this song I was concerned it was going to be used in a very cringey way at some point during the movie, however, its use during the end credits was very well done and fit the tone. The main thing I would also like to say about this is that there is no end credit scene. In fact, the only end-credit scene that any Saw movie has ever had is in Saw seven. In the director's cut of that film, the post-credit scene ties up some stuff that happened in a different film for plot purposes. Honestly, the lack of a credits scene is best for this type of movie. While the credits are nothing special they still match this movie better than any type.

Story

Please stop reading from this point on if you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want it spoiled (which if you plan on seeing it at any point don’t spoil it for yourself, trust me). Okay, so the movie starts out with a detective running at a July-fourth celebration. Someone steals a purse and escapes into the sewer. He goes in after him and sees a mannequin that is dressed like the man he saw. He tells the doll to put its hands up, then he kicks the mannequin and it falls over. He’s very surprised that it wasn’t the man and all of the sudden gets captured by a pig head. He is put into a trap, marking the very first trap of the movie. His tongue is screwed through and he is standing on a tiny stool. Not only this but he is also in the middle of the subway system and a train is coming. He doesn’t have much time before the train is about to hit him. He struggles to try to figure out what to do but it’s too late by the time he chooses to rip his tongue off. As soon as he does the train hits him and he splatters on the windshield. The title screen is revealed, then the story starts. We meet our main character in an undercover mission, he and his gang bust into a drug dealer's hotel room. He gets caught by the police and it’s revealed that he is actually an undercover cop. From here to the huge finale I'm going to purposefully leave it slightly ambiguous because you need to watch this movie as blind as possible. After that, the main character acquires a box that shows this movie's version of someone's “Tape”. This happens quite a few times throughout this movie. This movie feels closer to something you would see on N.C.I.S if it had a baby with a Saw movie. As the movie gets closer to the end it has you guessing who is the copycat Jigsaw up until the minute it’s revealed to you. The ending is a classic Saw twist. I honestly had my jaw open for close to the last 20 or thirty minutes of the movie. It was one twist after the other. This is why I'm having such a hard time spoiling it in this review. All I can say about the ending is that if you go into this movie blind you will absolutely love it and if you try your hardest not to be trying to guess the twist you will find yourself so surprised. I enjoyed the story in this movie more than any other Saw film.

Scariness

I will say this about Spiral and its scariness, it is much more intense than it is scary. The jump scares in this movie do get me and I usually am not too afraid of jumpscares. I think the film isn’t overall terrifying or even very scary, but it is very intense which one could consider scary. The way the traps are designed and filmed is actually terrifying that when it comes time to watch them it feels like you’re inside the trap and it’s terrifying. I hope that with the next Saw film they’re able to make it scarier while also maintaining the ability to keep the R rating. I think that Spiral is more intense than anything and where it is scary it is terrifying.

The Kills

Per usual Spiral is exactly like the rest of the Saw franchise. The kills are gruesome, hard to watch, and very well created. There are, if I remember correctly, four trap kills. The kills are all incredibly well done and make you feel the pain the people are going through. It’s almost to the point where even I had a hard time trying to watch it all. The direction in some of the shots is so gruesome that it’s very hard to watch. I will discuss one death and leave everything else to be a surprise. One of the traps is one where someone's fingers are attached to what is basically a Chinese finger trap on all of his fingers. He has to remove all of his fingers to get out in time or else he will get electrocuted. The scenes of his fingers basically getting ripped off are some of the most gruesome things I’ve seen in a Saw movie in quite a long time. The editing in not only this trap but all the traps is so similar to those of the early Saw movies that it feels exactly like the original movies do. If you are at all squeamish I would skip this movie or maybe wait until it comes out on Blu-ray and skip the more gruesome traps because the story is worth it.

Characters

The characters in this movie are very well executed except for a few stereotyped background characters. The main character is incredibly well written and doesn’t suffer from some of the cheesiness that the other films in the franchise sometimes do. Chris Rock's character is one of the most well-written characters of any Saw movie. The relationship between his character and his father, Samuel L Jackson’s character, feels very real and what you would imagine a father and son’s relationship would be like in their circumstances. The only character I thought was even remotely weird or slightly bad was the antagonist. I can’t say exactly what or why because honestly I don’t even know maybe that was because it was such a good twist so it feels weird I don’t know. The characters in this movie are well-written, diverse, and fit into the narrative perfectly.

SPOILER FREE SECTION

Okay well, I’m going to do my best to review this without spoiling it. First off I applaud you for not wanting to see spoilers because that’s how this movie should be seen. If you like any of the previous Saw movies you will at least enjoy this movie. The characters are better than any previous film and Chris Rock does a very good job at combining his comedy and the seriousness that the movie needs. If you are at all interested in checking out this movie I would, you won’t regret it.

RATING

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is an amazing spin-off of the Saw franchise and does a better job than Jigsaw at separating itself from the original storyline. While Spiral soars it also is just slightly short of perfection. For that reason, I’m giving Spiral a 6/7 Knives. I think if you enjoy horror movies to any degree you will at least be able to enjoy this movie at its core. That’s all for this review, I hope you enjoyed it and while I'm not being paid to say this, go and watch this movie in the theatres; not only will you be supporting theatres to help them get back on their feet, but also watching what I consider to be the best movie currently in theatres. Well, if you want to see more reviews and all things horror, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @slashithorror and subscribe to our mailing list. Like always, remember, treat every day, like it’s Halloween.