Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (18)

Hot-headed cop Zeke Banks is forced to babysit detective-in-training William Schenk. The mismatched partners are called to a subway tunnel where they discover the eviscerated remains of Detective Boswick - the first victim of a serial killer copycatting John Kramer aka Jigsaw. Captain Garza reluctantly appoints Zeke lead investigator. As the body count rises and a summer heatwave intensifies, the killer gleefully goads the police.

LondonNet Film Review
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (18)

Although it’s never explicitly stated, the ‘book’ referenced in the subtitle of the ninth instalment of the Saw horror franchise is most likely a tattered notepad of plotlines for earlier films, which were soundly dismissed as too derivative or laughably predictable. Screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger have apparently plundered these rejected narratives. They clumsily construct a dreary crime thriller around a Jigsaw copycat with a penchant for mechanical contraptions that force victims to make split-second choices between gruesome dismemberment and death. Staple ingredients of the torture porn genre are – alas – present in Spiral: From The Book Of Saw…

Darren Lynn Bousman returns to the director’s chair after gore-slathered stints behind the camera of the second, third and fourth chapters. He wastes little time hanging one unfortunate soul by their fleshy tongue as a wince-inducing prelude to an orgy of stomach-churning splatter and make-up effects that leave nothing to the imagination. Death-trapped characters are neither likeable nor sympathetic so their demises register purely as plot-driven bloodletting. Chris Rock is woefully miscast as the lead detective in charge of unmasking a madman. In a rare dramatic role, he oscillates between two grating extremes – unhinged and constipated – and when the script unmasks the glaringly obvious mastermind there’s unintentional hilarity as his jaw drops on screen.

Detective Zeke Banks (Rock) has acquired a reputation as a hot-headed maverick, 12 years after he broke ranks to expose a dirty cop. Following an argument with Captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols), who inherited the role when Zeke’s father Marcus (Samuel L Jackson) retired from the force, Zeke is forced to babysit detective-in-training William Schenk (Max Minghella). The rookie idolises Marcus’s efforts to clean up the streets. “I’m not him. Prepare to be underwhelmed,” angrily counters Zeke.

The mismatched partners are called to a subway tunnel where they discover the eviscerated remains of Detective Boswick (Dan Petronijevic) – the first victim of a serial killer copycatting John Kramer aka Jigsaw. Captain Garza reluctantly appoints Zeke lead investigator, which enrages fellow detectives Fitch (Richard Zeppieri) and Kraus (Edie Inksetter). As the body count rises and a summer heatwave intensifies, the killer gleefully goads the police and Zeke deduces a deeply personal motive for the carnage.

Spiral: From The Book Of Saw is an inelegant and lumbering return to the meat grinder – including one scene that directly references the devilish 2004 film – which set the barbarity in motion. Jackson is sidelined for extended periods, for which he should be grateful, and there’s scant evidence of a family resemblance with Rock to fuel the fire of a fractious father-son dynamic. Bousman hacks and slashes the cast at regular intervals and engineers a frenetic denouement that baits the hook for further sequels. Zeke was right. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

– Lawrence Gordon