Spiral: From the Book of Saw

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Spiral: From the Book of Saw follows grizzled detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) as he and his new partner (Max Minghella’s William Schenk) attempt to track down and stop a Jigsaw copycat killer. It’s an intriguing premise that is, at the outset, employed to promising effect by Bousman, as the filmmaker, working from Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger’s screenplay, opens the proceedings with an impressively brutal death sequence that leads into a familiar yet entertaining first act – with the watchable atmosphere heightened by Bousman’s gritty visuals and Rock’s affable (if mostly unconvincing) turn as the haunted central character. There’s little doubt, then, that Spiral: From the Book of Saw‘s downfall is triggered by a repetitive and increasingly generic midsection that slowly-but-surely wears out its welcome, as the movie, beyond a certain point, begins to feel less like a Saw picture and more like a run-of-the-mill Se7en clone – with the puzzling, disastrous decision to entirely eschew the killer’s behind-the-scenes exploits paving the way for an aggressively erratic (and far from engrossing) second half. And although the film closes with a Saw-like reveal that’s enhanced by the series’ iconic “Hello Zepp” track, Spiral: From the Book of Saw has long-since cemented its place as a seriously disappointing followup that is, astonishingly enough, the franchise’s weakest, least interesting entry.

** out of ****