‘The spiral: a symbol of change, evolution, progress...’
Whilst the arty side of the horror genre is currently enjoying a renaissance, the good old fashioned horror franchise is in trouble. Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street seem to be dead in the water. The Hellraiser franchise hasn’t enjoyed a theatrical release since the 90s and the Paranormal Activity movies are a distant memory. Aside from the diminishing returns of the Conjuring universe and the continued success of Michael Myers, these are lean times for devotees of the horror franchise. And yet, the world of Jigsaw limps blindly on, waiting for someone to put it out of its misery…
Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) is persona non grata in the unnamed police force in which he works after he turned in his partner for shooting an innocent man. This despite his father (Samuel L. Jackson) being the former chief of police. When cops start showing up dead, the new chief – Ange Garza (Marisol Nichols) – assigns rookie cop William Schenk (Max Minghella) to help Detective Banks crack the case.
A film that unites the best Saw cast since the original with the director of the wildly successful second, third and fourth entries in the series should be a winner. Instead, Spiral finds itself saddled with Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger – the writing team behind the excretable Jigsaw. Spiral is an exercise in wasted talent and missed opportunities. What a shame.
Rock, Sam Jackson and the rest really do try their best with the shit they have been given, and it’s frustrating how close this movie comes to achieving greatness, or at least something above mediocrity. Instead, all that potential is squandered on poor pacing, a hackneyed plot and a faintly ridiculous conclusion. The Saw franchise has always stalled when leaning too far into the police procedural side of things and Spiral is further proof that taking that road doesn’t really work in the Jigsaw universe. This is a film preoccupied with cops and killers. Civilians barely get a look in. This robs the death scenes of their visceral power and is only compounded by the fact that the games and contraptions presented here are some of the most tired death scenes in the whole franchise. If a Saw movie can’t even get killing right then what are we all doing here anyway?
This is undoubtedly a series of films in need of a shot in the arm. Spiral is not the movie to reignite an ailing franchise. Indeed, it’s possibly the worst of the bunch. Let’s all have a break from Jigsaw for a little while now…