It’s good to be back!
On the 17th May, UK cinemas reopened their doors in the country’s next big step towards normality and after fourteen long months Mark and I finally settled in our seats to watch something on the big screen. In a rather dramatic change of pace from our last outing which was Pixar’s Oscar-nominated Onward, we decided to mark our return to the hallowed halls of cinema with Darren Lynn Bausman’s Spiral, the latest instalment of the Saw franchise.
From its humble beginnings way back in 2004, the Saw series has grown into one of the most successful franchises of the horror genre before coming to an end (of sorts) in 2010. After a poorly received reboot/revisit/revival (?) in 2017, it seemed as though the franchise had well and truly come to a close. Enter Spiral – officially the ninth film in the Saw universe and also potentially, and highly likely, first instalment in a spin-off franchise.
The film opens in true Saw fashion with some poor schmuck coming to in the middle of a dark subway tunnel, his sins laid out in front of him by a mysterious voice and faced with the task of ripping out his own tongue before the arrival of an oncoming train. Not surprisingly, the schmuck fails his test and the title screen pops up once the gruesome results of his indecision are splattered across the train’s windshield.
Shunned as a ‘rat’ by his co-workers and struggling to step out from his father’s shadow, Chris Rock takes the lead as lone wolf detective Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Banks. After getting chewed out by his boss for not reporting undercover work, he is assigned to partner the rookie, William Schenk (Max Minghella). Their first case as a dynamic duo is that of the dead guy in the subway tunnel, a crime scene that has all the gruesome hallmarks of a Jigsaw copycat killer.
As more dead bodies turn up and their identities are revealed, they quickly realise that the mystery puppeteer is on a mission to cleanse the city of corruption, and no one is safe.
With Spiral being his third film of the franchise, the decision to hire Darren Lynn Bousman was a safe but smart choice, his ability to stay true to some of the key musical and editing choices that make the franchise the one we know and love, from elaborately gruesome torture devices to rapid close up shots of terrified eyes and screaming mouths.
The film itself does feel a little disjointed and unbalanced story-wise, toeing a very fine line between the gore-heavy shenanigans or its predecessors and a typical police thriller. Ultimately though, it fails to deliver anything of great substance in either genre but if we’re really honest with ourselves, fans of the franchise (myself included) don’t watch the Saw films for their substance.
From Rush Hour to Madagascar, Chris Rock is a great comedic actor but I’ll admit I was a little dubious of his ability to carry the lead of a film like this, although if it worked with the likes of Robin Williams (One Hour Photo) and Octavia Spencer (Ma) then why not? Unfortunately though, whilst not terrible, Rock did feel a little lost at times and his overall demeanor and squinted expressions out of synch with the tone of the film and the type of performance that he was going for.
Overall, Spiral delivered exactly what was realistically expected of it. There was nothing new or distinguishing about it but its overall familiarity was the perfect choice for a long awaited return back to the big screen.
