Spiral Review: Lacks Depth in its Storytelling!

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and is written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. The film stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson and is the ninth entry into the Saw franchise. The Saw franchise has always been extremely controversial ever since the first film in 2004. That film is the first team-up of James Wan and Leigh Whannel, who are now a legendary duo in the horror world.

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Saw (2004) received the majority of mixed reviews upon its initial release. Personally, I loved the first Saw film, and when the mixed reviews came out for Spiral, I was not surprised, considering critics have never liked any of the nine Saw films. I only enjoyed the original film. I thought the sequels branched away too much from their roots. Those roots being that of a psychological thriller as the later films became more obsessed with the over-the-top gruesome traps rather than a gripping storyline.

With all that being said, after doing some reading about the film, I still had high hopes for the Spiral. Upon watching the trailer, I had two thoughts, the first being that the film looked like more of a whodunnit detective film than a traditional Saw film. I am a huge fan of the whodunnit genre, so this immediately interested me.

Secondly, the film’s trailer looked expensive, and I could already tell Spiral had a budget to work with that previous films in the franchise did not have. Spiral’s concept comes from Chris Rock’s original idea which was brought to life by writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. With this being the ninth film of the franchise, it’s not an easy job for the writing team to bring something different to the table.

If I can say anything about Spiral is that it is certainly different from its predecessor’s bringing a unique perspective to the franchise. Spiral also brings some solid performances from Chris Rock and Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and an underutilized Sam Jackson. Beyond that, there is not much else to praise.

Spiral’s big issue is its pacing and character development. It felt rushed from the beginning. The story did not have enough time to simmer on its characters. Therefore, resulting in extremely unfleshed-out personas. I also found a lot of the dialogue in the film to be quite corny and robotic. While I personally was underwhelmed by the film, I could still see how some fans of the franchise would like Spiral. I do not think this a terrible film. It’s a film that can be watched and enjoyed on Saturday afternoon at the movies.

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To sum up, Spiral lacks depth in its storytelling and its character development which ultimately ends up preventing it from reaching its potential as an upper-echelon thriller. What Spiral does have is solid performances and a unique and interesting plot which will be enough to have a good time at the movies for most audiences.

Rating – 2.5/5 | Grade – C+

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