Review: 'Spiral' gives fresh blood to the 'Saw' franchise, with a timely theme and a strong central performance by Chris Rock
The nerve-jangling horror movie “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” pumps new life into the old franchise, by sticking to its bloody, twisted roots and adding an eerie timeliness.
Chris Rock stars as Det. Zeke Banks, a lone-wolf cop in the Metropolitan Police, who’s called a rat in the squad room because, 12 years earlier, he turned in a dirty cop — against the advice of his father, Marcus (Samuel L. Jackson), who was then the chief of police. Screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger (who co-wrote the 2017 “Saw” offshoot “Jigsaw”) deliver Banks’ backstory in measured doses, flashbacks that pertain to the grisly murder case at hand.
Someone, Banks quickly discovers, is killing cops. And they’re doing it in elaborate and bloody methods, as if Rube Goldberg partnered up with Sweeney Todd to create machines that killed in the goriest ways possible. The killer seems to be a copycat of the infamous Jigsaw — but targeting corrupt cops, all of whom have a connection to Banks’ troubled career.
Banks has to beg his captain, Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols), to let him take the lead on the case. Capt. Garza agrees, on the condition that Banks take a rookie detective-in-training, William Schenk (Max Minghella), under his wing.
The script is as twisted as barbed wire, and just as sharp. It pulls out the classic cop-movie tropes, like Banks’ hard-won cynicism after a career watching his back, and neatly subverts them to propel the horror elements. It also delivers a stinging critique of police corruption that’s even more appropriate now than last year, when the movie was set to be released. (There are also at least two distinct “Pulp Fiction” references: Look for the words “Vincent & Jules” on a door in a key moment, and think about how Rock’s character is named Zeke — short for Ezekiel, the book of the Bible that Quentin Tarantino’s film quotes.)
Director Darren Lynn Bousman is a veteran of the franchise, having directed “Saw II,” “III” and “IV.” He knows the audience wants to see gore, delivered through greasy mechanical contraptions that ratchet up the torture by chilling degrees, and he delivers. The methods, though familiar, remain surprising and unsettling, as the killer remains many moves ahead of Banks and his fellow cops.
The strength of “Spiral,” though, is Rock, who sets aside his comedian’s cockiness to dig into Banks’ regret-filled soul. Rock respects the franchise — he has declared himself a fan, and is an executive producer here — and shows that respect with the best dramatic performance of his career, one that will make audiences think twice about him and the “Saw” universe.
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’Spiral: From the Book of Saw”
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, May 14, at theaters everywhere. Rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, pervasive language, some sexual references and brief drug use. Running time: 93 minutes.