Spiral: From the Book of Saw Film Review

I like the Saw movies – Yep I just said that out loud. Back in the early Noughties, Saw was a thing. A deeply graphic Horror series, that for all its grossness never attempted try to copy other Horrors. It’s a franchise with its own identity and dare I say it, a decent plot line that held it all together. Even after the series big bad Kramer had been killed in Saw III, Saws 4 and 5 continued to explore the Saw ethos. It’s a franchise that has spawned video games, fan fiction and a (rather excellent) theme park ride. That was until the eighth film in the franchise suddenly popped up, and just like one of Kramer’s traps, ripped apart any good will that was left for the franchise.  However, like the good tool it is, the Saw keeps on spinning and Spiral: From The Book Of Saw has arrived. Let’s see if it lives or dies, I’ve watched it and made my choice!

Rock’s performance is saved a little when he shares the screen with co-stars such as Max Minghella or Samuel L. Jackson. Weirdly though, these scenes descend Spiral into a poor parody of a 1980’s style buddy cop comedy.

5 Out Of 10

Saw composer Charlie Clouser returns for Spiral.  Clouser has also benefited from a switch to location based filmmaking, and uses this to bring a lighter sound with more precision. Gone are the darker tones of the original films. I have the usual problem though, that the score is not memorable. A few days after watching and I cannot describe to you any of the soundtrack. Contrast that with horror classic Psycho and key score elements come to mind.

The audio though is good enough with dialogue clear to understand (even with Rock’s loud style) and Spiral is presented in ATMOS making good use of the spatial audio. The traps in particular benefit from clever use of ATMOS with the trap mechanisms sounding visceral. Look out for a scene with flying glass.

10 out of 10

Jordan Oram is the cinematographer for Spiral and to be fair he’s done a great job.  The switch to focusing Spiral away from the victims POV has allowed Oram to concentrate more on the visual spectacle. Gone are the mainly studio sets and in come location visits. Oram has implemented colour filters that give the film a slightly blue/grey colour palate this allows the bright red Spiral logo to pop on screen. The clever touch that people may have missed is that the actors wear clothes that complement the cinematography. Quite meticulous attention to detail.

Spiral is available in 4K HDR, with the HDR providing a noticeable boost the blue cast and darker scenes benefit greatly from enhanced shadow detail.

6 Out Of !0

Over the years Twisted Pictures have built a solid reputation for visual effects, this is kind of continued with Spiral.  The attention to detail is turned up to the max and realistic graphic horror is on full display. The issue I have though is the traps.  In the original series John Cramer’s MO was never to directly kill people. His point was to give people a choice, survive severely mutilated or die a very grim death.  Spiral’s traps maim and kill, mostly simultaneously, you know that whoever is in the trap is dead. Credit goes to the effects and make up teams who have delivered a film that retains some of Saw’s DNA, but turns up the gross-out shock factor.

After watching Spiral it’s hard to decide if it’s a direct sequel or reboot to the Saw franchise. This kind of sums up the experience of watching Spiral.  It’s a film that knows the idea it was aiming for, but gets so caught up trying to be different, that it makes itself irrelevant. The ending of Spiral also causes problems as it sets itself up for a sequel, with the viewer left knowing who the protagonist is and what drives him, thus removing any further element of suspense in future films.

Spiral would have worked much better if the producers had kept with the victim point of view concept and the audience was treated to a slow reveal of the corrupt police angle, thus carrying on the lineage, protecting the suspense and not reinventing the wheel.

John Kramer was right when he said…

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Credits

Words Garry Llewellyn

Editor JJ

I give Spiral an Average rating, what would you give…

Filmmakers Role
Darren Lynn Bousman Director
Josh Stolberg Writer
Pete Goldfinger Writer
Mark Burg Producer
Oren Koules Producer
Charlie Clouser Composer
Jordan Oram Cinematographer
Dev Singh Editor
Anthony Cowley Production Designer