#REVIEW: “SPIRAL”

Review by David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong

Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) is a good cop who ratted out his partner and has never been forgiven by his peers. He takes lead on a grisly subway murder alongside his rookie partner Detective William Schenk (Max Minghella) and immediately starts drawing similarities to the Jigsaw killer. When packages start arriving at the police station to taunt Zeke, it becomes clear they are dealing with a copycat.

SPIRAL, or SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW as it was originally stylized, is the ninth entry in the popular Toronto-made Horror series. While it is basically a spinoff, it dovetails nicely within the grander narrative and thankfully only references or homages the earlier films rather than trying to shoehorn in Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, shown only in pictures) despite having died way back in SAW III. Instead SPIRAL carves its own path, telling a story about crooked cops that would have played like an incendiary grenade had it been able to open last May in the shadow of George Floyd’s murder. The Film takes some big swings that do not always land, but the way it tries to say something deeper about police corruption and its effect on the community is admirable.

That said, the larger narrative is what gets in the way of SPIRAL truly breaking out. Much like the rest of the series, the Film is packed with dense exposition, contradictions, and an outrageous amount of flashbacks. The Film gives so much information in so little time that you barely have a moment to process it before Fan-Favourite Director Darren Lynn Bousman goes head-on into the next scene. Pertinent information is intentionally withheld for maximum twist effectiveness and/or possible future films, leading to frustrating moments where characters are introduced and then never show up again. I love the Film’s lean 93-minute running time, but felt like I got whiplash trying to take it all in. There is so much story to cover that it makes the traps – the hallmark of the SAW franchise – feel like an afterthought. They are just as obscenely graphic and viciously over-stylized as you remember, yet lack the creativity and the impact they had before. And really, how many skinning scenes is too many skinning scenes?

Much like the story, the acting is a mixed bag. Rock tries incredibly hard to carry the Film on his shoulders, but it is hard to take him seriously (especially when his character’s introduction involves him delivering a standup bit). He does well in some moments and feels like a parody in others. It is certainly an out-of-the-box performance for the comedian; I just wish he had better ironed out some of the kinks. Supporting wise, Minghella does well for himself and fares better than the stunt casting of Samuel L. Jackson that amounts to a handful of scenes of profane intensity and not much else. Marisol Nichols (who plays Hermione Lodge on Riverdale) fares even worse, with her juicy, expression heavy role making barely any impact on the story.

I wish I liked SPIRAL a whole lot more than I did. While it forges new ground for the SAW franchise, it is dragged down by an overly-dense storyline and a lead performance that is a challenge to take seriously. Here’s hoping Rock gets a chance to redeem himself in a follow-up.

Mongrel Media release SPIRAL on Premium Digital and On-Demand on Tuesday, June 1, 2021.

The Film is playing in select theatres now.

*Please ensure you exercise caution in observing COVID-19 protocols if seeing this in-theatre.*