Spiral: From the Book of Saw - Ninth Installment of the Saw Series

This movie was released on Catchplay+ on Friday together with few other films on various streaming platforms. I opted to watch it on Saturday as I already set my mind on another movie earlier. It was an interesting option since the movie was still quite new, released only around 4 or 5 months ago I think and it was from a pretty successful franchise. Well let's get on with it.

Brief Story Line

Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock - The Witches, Grown Ups etc) was a cop who always worked alone until his superior Captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols - Riverdale TV series etc) assigned him with a rookie cop William Schenk (Max Minghella - The Handmaid's Tale TV series etc). Both were tasked to investigate the brutal murder of a police detective with a clue left by the murderer who seemed to have resemblance with the notorious Jigsaw Killer.

Due to the severity of the case, Zeke also sought the help from his father and former police captain, Marcus Banks (Samuel L. Jackson - Glass, The Legend of Tarzan etc). As additional clues were given, Zeke and the rest of the police had to race against time to catch the culprit.

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As you have probably known, this movie was part of Saw franchise and it was the ninth installment of the series. If you have seen the previous movies, you would know the main story or formula where group of people were captured and given the option to save themselves by sacrificing their body parts and sometimes other people. Now I myself am not a major fan of the series, so I did not see all the previous movies. The only ones I saw was the original and the 8th installment, Jigsaw. Anyway this one felt interesting as the mystery solving became the focus, while the copycat murderer did a killing spree which was as violent as the original killer.

From what I read, this film was said to be heading into a new direction. I was a bit confused with this part as I thought the movie's difference was the murder mystery solving which has been done in Jigsaw. Perhaps I should be watching all the Saw movies in order to fully understand this statement. However, I thought the torture scenes were still very bloody and gore, making me felt like nothing really changed. There was no shocking twist either in here as the supposed surprise could be felt from miles away. And the ending itself was not really satisfying. It's like the writers Peter Goldfinger & Josh Stolberg (Piranha, Sorority Row etc) and director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III & IV) wanted to prepare us for a direct sequel (not too sure if we are going to get it though).

The trademark of the heavy violence and disturbing scenes were still pretty strong in here. And there were also some jump scare scenes, but to me personally, I did not feel anything exciting while watching it. There was nothing really special and it was not a movie that was truly memorable. Not even the big names like Chris Rock or Samuel L. Jackson were exceptional enough to make this film great as I thought their roles were a bit too stereotypical. The rest of the cast felt invisible as well. 

Overall if this was supposed to be a new franchise based on Saw, I think it was not really that successful. So if you are fans of Saw franchise and want to see violent tortures but without the surprising twists, then you can give this a try. Do not watch it if you are new at this and not ready for the grisly, gruesome bloody murder/torture scenes. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars