Reviewing Spiral, The Newest Installment Into The Saw Franchise, Starring Chris Rock and Samuel Jackson.

Originally titled Spiral: From the Book of Saw Chris Rocks' passion piece story that carries on the legacy of the Saw series finally arrived in theaters on May 14th, 2021. After being stuck in the Covid-19 purgatory of delayed-release dates a reputable horror franchise was finally back in theaters. Admittedly, I'm a big fan of the series originals that starred Tobin Bell as the titular bad guy, the psychopathic Jigsaw. The Jigsaw characters' psychopathy was different, new, and intriguing compared to the same old rehashed formulized slashers. In addition, the creative ways he would come up with for murdering, sometimes eviscerating his targets, made the series fun and oftentimes, cringeworthy.

With Spiral we get another Jigsaw copycat. Not that it's a bad thing as the jigsaw murders are ones that could have a little spice and twist added, new motives and players, and go on as long as theatergoers are willing to pay for a ticket. So, what did we get with the ninth installment into the Saw franchise?

During a 4th of July parade, Detective Marv Boswick, "Boz" chases a thief into the sewers only to face the cloaked figure in a pig mask. Waking up to find himself suspended by his tongue in a currently active subway he receives the typical Jigsaw message: rip out your tongue and live or be stuck where you're at until the next train arrives. Live or die, the choice is yours. Enter the hero and ex-partner, Detective Zeke Banks.

Rock wrote the original treatment as a self-described "Saw superfan" and brought his vision for the series future to the good folks at Lionsgate. From there, Lionsgate was reported as saying they were “all in” on Rock’s idea to revive and revitalize the franchise. As the hero of the story, he plays Zeke Banks, an upright and morally righteous cop who's considered a rat and snitch by a corrupt and scandalous precinct house. While living as a cop forced to work on his own because there aren't any of them he can trust, Zeke also has to live under the shadow of his former Captain of the department father, played by Samuel Jackson.

Rocks' character of Banks is forced into a partnership with rookie detective William Schenck, played by Max Minghella. Together, the two of them are thrust into investigating the death of Zeke's old partner "Boz" and as the circumstances continue to get more and more complicated, Zeke is forced to take a look at the list of suspects being connected to him. As with the past movies, the killer is attacking the corrupt. Before they were the morally corrupt citizens that didn't appreciate their lives, drug dealers, adulterers, money launderers, fakes, and phonies. In Spiral, originally titled Spiral, From the Book of Saw, the killer is targeting police corruption.

The games are far more gruesome, which would have played better in October around Halloween than it has for a May release. Considering the original plan was to release in October before the newest Halloween movies were able to lock down October dates, the move to May just may have been a bad choice. There are certain months that some movies go to die, kind of like moving television from shows from Tuesday to Friday.

Behind a stellar marketing campaign and returning writers along with director Darren Lynn Bousman, Spiral is really just another Saw movie that takes off in a different time with different players. Much to nobody's surprise, Chris Rock's inexperience in serious roles and a skillfully mastered lack of utilizing Samuel Jackson were not enough to make Spiral or the Saw movies relevant again. We are treated to one Sam Jackson calling card "mother" f$%er. Sure, there will always be fans of the idea of a new Saw movie, which was born this time almost immediately after the 2017 Jigsaw. Unlike other long-running franchises, Spiral returns Saw to the franchise tomb where it likely should have stayed.