Film: Spiral
Starring: Chris Rock, Samuel L Jackson, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Review: Klep Napier
Rating: 2.5X’s out of 5X’s
Let’s see how many times we can pun the word “Saw”. Shall we?
From the director of Saw II, III and IV, Darren Lynn Bousman and Executive producer/star of the film, Chris Rock, comes a spin-off or sequel no one ever SAW coming.
Spiral follows Detective Ezekiel Banks [Chris Rock] a gritty skeptic of his work environment who falls into a series of gruesome murders eerily closer to his past than he ever could imagine.
Spiral has the correct recipe of the Saw franchise. Keep them guessing and if you can keep them cringing or maybe even a little vomiting along the way. Rock, handles “tough cop” on the hunt to catch his man surprisingly well and shines throughout even next to the likes of Samuel Jackson who plays Rocks father [Marcus Banks] in the film.
But even with two mega stars like Rock and Jackson at the helm, the film is the same old thing with a lot of predictability only true Saw fans may see coming. This doesn’t take away from how entertaining this thing is. Sometimes if you leave something alone for a bit then come back to it with a fresh perspective, the potential of the project begins to shine through. That’s what Spiral does for the Saw franchise.
What you get is a dark “who dunnit” buddy cop film with some Jig Saw style murders mixed into the plot. There’s absolutely no way to be bored during this film but what you SAW in past films is seriously what you get in this one. And not even two stellar A-listers could distract us from the predictability.
Overall this film is a decent watch for true horror buffs and franchise lovers, we only recommend for those invested and to those with a steel stomach. The violence is not for the weak folks so discretion is advised.