{"id":9721,"date":"2024-12-01T10:02:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T15:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9721"},"modified":"2024-12-01T10:02:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T15:02:56","slug":"spiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/01\/spiral\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiral"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Spiral <\/strong>(2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, pervasive language, some sexual references, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Darren Lynn Bousman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music: Charlie Clouser\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jordan Oram\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 14, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Samuel L. Jackson, Dan Petronijevic, Richard Zeppieri, Patrick McManus, Ali Johnson, Zoie Palmer, Dylan Roberts, K.C. Collins, Edie Inksetter, Nazneen Contractor, Thomas Mitchell, Carvin Winans, Leila Charles Leigh, Chad Camilleri, Genelle Williams.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $23.2M (US)\/$40.6M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Spiral<\/strong>, the ninth film in the Saw series, marks my triumphant return to the movies after 438 days of sheltering in place. 438 days, it\u2019s the longest I\u2019ve ever gone without a trip to the cinema. In that time, I haven\u2019t reviewed a single new film. Instead, I took Movie Guy 24\/7 in a different direction, focusing on movies from the 70s, 80s and 90s. While it\u2019s been fun, I think it\u2019s time to get back to reviewing current films. I can\u2019t promise I\u2019ll get to all of them (not at first anyway), but I\u2019ll do my best.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you know me, you shouldn\u2019t be all that surprised that I chose Spiral<\/strong> as my comeback review. Let me put it this way. If given the choice between a gory horror flick and anything\/any genre, I\u2019ll take the gory horror flick as long as it\u2019s rated R. Also, I\u2019m a fan of the Saw movies. I was really looking forward to seeing Spiral<\/strong> last year, but then COVID hit and messed up all of our plans for 2020. Naturally, I made a beeline for it after getting vaxxed and the all-clear from my physician. Now that I\u2019ve finally seen it, I have to admit I\u2019m a bit disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To be accurate, Spiral<\/strong> isn\u2019t a direct sequel to Saw or any of the sequels. Like its central villain, it\u2019s a copycat. That\u2019s the conclusion reached by Detective Zeke Banks (Rock, Lethal Weapon 4) shortly after arriving on the scene of the first murder with his new partner, rookie detective William Schenk (Minghella, The Handmaid\u2019s Tale). In the opening scene, an off-duty cop chases a thief into a subway tunnel where he\u2019s chloroformed from behind by a guy in a pig\u2019s mask. When he comes to, his tongue is caught in a trap and he\u2019s given the choice to either rip out his own tongue or be killed by an oncoming train. Let\u2019s just say the scene ends with a big SPLAT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0The victim was Banks\u2019 only friend on the force. His fellow cops hate him for turning in his former partner for murdering a witness who agreed to testify against a dirty cop. Banks, in turn, doesn\u2019t care for his co-workers very much, especially after one of them ignoring his call for back-up resulted in him being shot by a suspect. His CO (Nichols, Riverdale) puts him in charge of the case, most likely out of loyalty to Banks\u2019 father Marcus (Jackson, Pulp Fiction), the now-retired chief of police.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Obviously, Jigsaw copycat is targeting Banks for some reason. I won\u2019t say why, but I will say it\u2019ll come as no surprise when it\u2019s revealed at the end. Same goes for the killer\u2019s identity. You\u2019ll have no problem picking this individual out of the line-up. Sadly, Spiral<\/strong> is extremely predictable. Unlike its predecessors, there aren\u2019t any surprises or narrative tricks. It would have benefited from a wild plot twist or two. Plot twists are one of the series\u2019 defining traits. Then there\u2019s the blood and violence factor. While it has a few decent gory scenes, it\u2019s the least bloody entry in the series. The traps aren\u2019t all that imaginative either. The makers didn\u2019t put a lot of thought into them this time around. This is where Spiral<\/strong> truly disappoints. The gore and instruments of torture\/death are the whole point, am I wrong?<\/p>\n

\u00a0That being said, I like how director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III & IV) tries to change things up a bit in Spiral<\/strong>. Actually, the credit should go to Rock who also serves as executive producer. It was he who approached Lionsgate with the idea of extending the franchise into new territory. It starts off like a goof on an 80s cop actioner and its many conventions- e.g. the maverick lone wolf cop, the fed-up captain and the comedic exchanges with the unwanted new partner as they get to know each other. Sadly, this is dropped about midway through. Spiral <\/strong>also attempts to address the very timely issue of police misconduct. It\u2019s a little more successful in this area.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the lead, Rock is actually pretty good. He injects a bit of humor into the proceedings. He even manages to work in a witty New Jack City reference. Jackson is brilliantly cast as the father. Is this not a match-up we\u2019ve always wanted to see?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite its flawed nature, I kind of enjoyed Spiral<\/strong>. It\u2019s not as great as it could have\/should have been, but it\u2019s not a total bust either. If the makers plan to continue this storyline, they might want to consider going full tilt boogie with the crazy plot twists. Don\u2019t be afraid to go off the rails. The audience wants to go for a wild ride; why not give them one?\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiral (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, pervasive language, some sexual references, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Darren Lynn Bousman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music: Charlie Clouser\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jordan Oram\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 14, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Samuel L. Jackson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Spiral-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9781,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9721\/revisions\/9781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}