Detective Zeke Banks' cover is blown when officers try to arrest him thinking he's a criminal, but this bust is the least of his concerns when he discovers he's at the centre of a case surrounding a Jigsaw wannabe!
Let me start by saying Chris Rock is the entire movie, and asking why hasn't he hit up more serious roles in his career? I didn't think I needed a sarcastic, ball-busting character to traverse this storyline, but actually it was such a refreshing revisit to a movie that's already had 4 detectives come to their end. The story starts with Zeke; Chris' character, undercover attempting to get in with a local group of criminals. He's in deep but some sloppy work ends up with citizens calling the local police department and an absolute twonk of an officer calls out his name. To the criminals sat in the car with him this was a shock as it wasn't a name they were familiar calling him, totally blowing his cover and it ends up being a bust. As Zeke ventures back to the office and talks things over with his superior, he has to run through the usual coulda shoulda woulda scenarios about why he didn't communicate about his actions, how he can't trust anyone else etc etc. We get a back story pretty quickly for his character who is clearly the least favoured officer in the precinct. Not a hit with his co-workers. So when a man is hit by an underground train and he gets bad vibes he begins to wonder if we have a copycat on our hands. It's not long before he has his answer, with evidence sent directly to his desk from the killer themselves.
I love the Saw franchise, having seen the first movie when I was most definitely too young but eager for something new and different. I feel like it revitalised the horror genre at a time that it was somewhat stagnant. The thing about the original film is THAT twist, that makes you doubt everything you thought whilst watching. Are there hidden cameras? Is he watching through that mirror? Will the family be saved? Will he even allow them to live? All questions we wanted answered and the characters work their way through the situation as quickly as we can think these ideas up. The sequel was different, with a lot more targets and extra side-line stories to keep us busy. The third instalment focuses on one victim who isn't really a victim at all but must work through his own hardships and negative experiences, offering forgiveness through his option to hurt himself in order to save others, and his missus of course. People always have a chance to escape in these 3 movies, but the movies that followed didn't tie in quite as well and just became an annual expectation of the most gore driven movie you'd see that year. With the rise of a new Jigsaw came the offering of a new type of criminal too. He was clearly not in it to make people redeem themselves was he?
Spiral went back to the franchises' roots in a sense, with a strong protagonist detective driven story which envelops everybody we meet, and there are no stones unturned that's for sure! I was a tad overwhelmed by the payoff - if you pay attention you can easily discover the criminal at large. This is the only reason I rated the film above average but not highly.
The cast list for this movie was top notch, and I was peachy keen to see what Samuel L. Jackson would bring to the table in a horror movie, but unsurprisingly he's just Samuel L. Jackson from any movie made since the 00s. The other characters aren't huge names but they played their part. You want someone who comes across as a sleazebag, you got 'em! you want some dirty cops, no problemo. Nothing new there. But can we just get back to Chris Rock? OMG. He needs to do more movies, and more serious roles. Despite playing a pretty hard-hitting character like Zeke he managed to utilise comedy; in a horror movie no less, and I was honestly feeling for the poor guy at some points in the movie. Kick a man whiles he's down or what?!
A good use of music throughout, lots of suspense building as is necessary with this type of movie, plenty of loud noises to make you syp, lots of well devised contraptions as you would have seen in the previous films, and I would actually say that the crimes came across as being more intelligent than movies 5,6+ which was probably planned but thought it was worth noting. Watch out for the chinese finger trap scenes because I can tell you now I felt all of that. Eeeeeeeeek! Also welcome back director Darren Lynn Bousman, your work is so much cleaner than that of V,VI,VII and Jigsaw. I think I missed that directing style, the camerawork and the overall construction of the movies from when you did II,III and IV. Totally unlike me. James Wan is also a genius, but we already knew that.
A must see movie, I am actually excited for a sequel - has one been announced? I don't even know, I do want one though. Please find the time in your busy life to go to your local cinema and watch this!
Review by CB
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