Spiral: From the Book of Saw

There is a specific brand of madness that occurs when a top-tier comedian decides they want to get "serious" by getting covered in corn syrup and pig guts. I remember sitting in the theater for Spiral: From the Book of Saw, clutching a bag of blue raspberry gummies that had turned my tongue the same neon shade as a 2004 music video, wondering if Chris Rock was about to break into a routine about the differences between "traps" and "tests." It’s one of those Hollywood stories that feels like a fever dream: Rock met the head of Lionsgate at a wedding and pitched a way to revitalize the Saw franchise. The result? A movie that feels like it’s wearing a Se7en costume it bought at a clearance sale, trying very hard to be a gritty police procedural while the ghost of Jigsaw whispers "Game Over" from the rafters.

A Stand-Up’s Bloody Day Job

The casting is the first thing that hits you. Seeing Chris Rock as Detective Zeke Banks is—to put it mildly—distracting. He spends a lot of the runtime doing this gravelly, "tough cop" squint that feels like he’s trying to remember if he left the stove on. Opposite him is the legendary Samuel L. Jackson as his father, Marcus Banks. While Jackson is always a delight, his presence here is basically a specialized cameo designed to give the trailer a few "motherf***er" moments to sell tickets.

The chemistry between Rock and his rookie partner, Max Minghella (who you might recognize from The Handmaid’s Tale), is actually decent. They have a breezy, banter-heavy dynamic in the first act that feels more like a buddy-cop movie than a horror flick. But this is a contemporary legacy sequel, and it carries the weight of 2021’s cultural anxieties. Released as the world was gingerly stepping back into movie theaters post-pandemic, Spiral tries to grapple with police corruption and systemic rot. It’s a bold swing for a franchise known for "The Rack" and "The Reverse Bear Trap," but the movie handles social commentary with the subtle grace of a sledgehammer to the kneecap.

The Traps and the Tropes

Director Darren Lynn Bousman, the man who essentially defined the "torture porn" aesthetic with Saw II, III, and IV, returns to the director's chair here. He knows how to make a room look like it hasn't been cleaned since the Nixon administration. The cinematography by Jordan Oram is a departure from the sickly green and yellow palettes of the early 2000s; instead, we get a hot, sweaty, over-saturated orange glow that makes every character look like they’re one bad day away from a heatstroke.

As for the traps? They’re nasty. We get a tongue-stretching device and a finger-ripping machine that will make anyone who plays guitar wince in sympathy. However, compared to the elaborate, Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions of the Tobin Bell era, these feel a bit... simple? They lack that twisted moral irony that John Kramer used to provide. The new killer uses a pig-headed puppet and a distorted voice that sounds less like a mastermind and more like a teenager using a free voice-changer app. The mystery is so transparent you could read a newspaper through it, which is a bit of a letdown for a franchise that built its reputation on the "Major Twist" ending.

Stuff You Didn't Notice

One of the weirdest bits of trivia about Spiral is that Chris Rock actually brought in 21 Savage to executive produce the soundtrack. It was a calculated move to modernize the brand, moving away from the industrial metal vibes of the early 2000s toward a sleek, trap-heavy sound. It’s an interesting pivot, though hearing a beat drop while someone is losing a limb is a jarring "2020s" experience.

Speaking of pivots, the film was originally titled The Organ Donor, and if you look closely at some of the background props, you can see remnants of that more clinical theme. Also, Darren Lynn Bousman has mentioned in interviews that they had to trim several seconds of the "Finger Trap" and "Tongue Trap" just to avoid an NC-17 rating. Even in the streaming era, the MPAA is still surprisingly squeamish about digital de-gloving.

Perhaps the most "modern" thing about Spiral is its existence as a "soft reboot." It acknowledges the Jigsaw murders as historical events but tries to move the needle toward a Line of Duty style thriller. It’s a trend we see everywhere now—from Halloween to Scream—where the film is terrified of being "just another sequel" and instead tries to be "elevated." Sometimes, though, you just want to see a puppet on a tricycle.

Ultimately, Spiral is a fascinatng artifact of the early 2020s. It shows a franchise trying to grow up and find a conscience, but struggling to leave the gore-soaked playground that made it famous. If you’re a Saw completionist, you’ve seen worse (looking at you, Saw 3D), but if you’re looking for the next great horror-mystery, this one might leave you feeling a bit unfulfilled. It’s a gritty, sweaty, occasionally funny experiment that proves Chris Rock should probably stick to the stage, and the Saw franchise might need a bit more than a celebrity coat of paint to truly find its voice again.