SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW (2021)
Label: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD)/A (BD)
Rating: R
Duration: 93 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) (UHD), 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) (BD)
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Cast: Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Samuel L. Jackson
What do you do when you have beat a long-running, and very successful franchise into the ground? You beat it some more, and then you beat it again, and spin it as a spin-off, or in this case a "From the Book of Saw" entry.
In Spiral: From The Book of Saw (20121) we have protagonist Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks (Chris Rock, Bad Company) who years ago ratted-out a crooked cop for murdering a witness. Since then he has been on the shit-end of the stick with the other cops at his precinct, to that point we get a flashback showing how he once called for back-up and his fellow officers didn't respond, and he ended up shot in the back. Also working against him is that he lives in the shadow of his father, the beloved retired Police Chief Marcus Banks (utilized the very under Samuel L. Jackson, Django), with whom he has a strained relationship with.
Following a disasterous undercover bust Zeke is assigned a new rookie partner, Det. William Schenk (Max Minghella, Art School Confidential), their first case is to investigate an accident, an apparent bum who got splattered by the subway train. While investigating it they discover that the victim was indeed no bum, he was a cop, and this was no accident. All the clues point to there being a new criminal mastermind in the mold of the now-dead John Kramer a.k.a. the Jigsaw killer, who seems to taking aim at crooked cops, trapping them in horrific torture devices, with the choice to come clean and ease their pain or suffer horrific deaths for their crimes.
To be fair, I have never been a Saw fan, the first film was alright, but I didn't love it, and I thought it was diminishing returns after that. For reason not completely based on logic I can somehow I can enjoy the Friday the 13th and Halloween franchises long after they ran out of steam, but Saw just never did it for me, but I can appreciate that the series is basically the cotemporary version of my beloved slasher franchises. That said, I went into Spiral with a fairly open mind with the thought that they could definitely pull some life out of the franchise, especially considering they're starting a new storyline here.
The flick has a serious Se7en police procedural vibe about it, and I liked the look and feel of the film, it's got some decent atmosphere and the new more-colorful was quite nice, so hats off to the set designer and cinematographer Jordan Oram, both do good work here. The traps and deaths are alright, but they're no great shakes either; we get a finger-severing traps, a tongue ripped out, a hot-wax trap, and a blood siphoning get-up - but it's all very 'been there and done that', nothing to set it apart from from what we've seen before.
The killer this time around is very Jigsaw-esque, which should be no surprise, a hidden figure wearing a Motel Hell style pig-mask whom abducts crooked cops ands puts them through the the torture-device rigmarole. Heck, the killer even has a mini pig-doll marionette that figures into things.
Hands down though the single thing that sinks this flick for me is the performance from Chris Rock. He is just being Chris Rock, he's the main protaganist and he ain't even trying to do anything but be himself, The opening scenes of him on an undercover operation is just him trying out some comedy routines about Forest Gump and A.I.D.S., it's funny sure, but it's not what the character calls for, in my opinion, this is not Bad Company or Lethal Weapon 4. Later in the film he starts to lose his shit as the cop bodies pile up and it hits close to home, with Rock taking a big swing and going off the deep end like Nic Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. I actually like Cage in that flick a lot, but Rock is no Cage! I am not a Rock hater either, I just saw him in the third season of the TV series Fargo and loved him in it, he has the ability. I am unsure if this is a case of a director not reeling an actor in to get the right performance or if this weird tonally skewed mess was an agreed upon goal with the director. Whatever the case I think it's ruinous, unless you're looking for a thriller that makes you laugh-out-loud, if that's the goal, mission accomplished.
There's some good meat on them bones though, the backstory of the other officers hating Zeke because he ratted out a bad cop is a solid premise, and combing that with the idea of the new killer targeting corrupt cops has some solid drama to it, even the potentially too-woke basis for the new Jigsaw style killings isn't that annoying, they don't overplay it.
So, I didn't straight out hate Spiral, just like I don't hate the Saw films, I just don't care for them that much either. This is just more of the same for me, all the stuff some of you love about the Saw franchise with new characters and a bit more color, but the traps are uninspired and the mystery of the killer is predictable and lazy.
Audio/Video: Spiral: From The Book of Saw (2021) arrives on Blu-ray + 4K UHD Combo from Lionsgate in both 1080p HD and 2160p UHD framed in 2.39:1 widescreen. The UHD offers a pleasing image throughout, fluid and crisp imagery, great color saturation with pleasing highlights, and deep black levels. Audio comes byway of English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with Optional English Subtitles. The Atmos offers a wonderfully dynamic audio range, from the pulse of Charlie Clouser's score to the sounds of human suffering and piercing gunfire it offers a pleasing and immersive experience.
Extras include a pair of audio commentaries; the first with Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Co-screenwriter Josh Stolberg, and Composer Charlie Clouser, and a second with Producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg. We also get a 59-munute five-part making of documentary The Consequences of Your Actions: Creating Spiral, plus the 9-minute Drawing Inspiration: Illustrated Trap Breakdowns and the 6-minute Decoding The Marketing Spiral. The disc is buttoned-up with a pair of trailers for the film.
The 2-disc BD/UHD combo arrives in an eco-friendly black keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork and a slipcover, both with the same stylized artwork, and I really like the artwork on this edition.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Co-screenwriter Josh Stolberg, and Composer Charlie Clouser
- Audio Commentary with Producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg
- The Consequences of Your Actions - Creating Spiral 5-Part Documentary: - A New Chapter in An Old Book (12 min), New Blood (12 min), A Steady Hand (8 min), Setting The Traps (10 min), Hacking Away (18 min)
- Drawing Inspiration: Illustrated Trap Breakdowns (9 min)
- Decoding The Marketing Spiral (6 min)
- Theatrical Teaser Trailer (2 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
Not my cup o' tea but we get a a solid UHD for Spiral: From The Book of Saw (2021) from Lionsgate with a bunch of extras, so that's cool I guess.
Screenshots from the Blu-ray:
