Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the Ninth film in the Saw franchise. Ninth film. Nine? How did this little short film from 2003 produce, to date, Nine films? Well, because people like myself keep showing up for them. First off, I have to say that I am a huge fan of the Saw series, not every installment but most of them. For me it’s not the traps, it’s the story and how everything comes together; because once that dulcimer starts playing, shit is about to all come together baby!
Spiral starts off on the fourth of July with police officer Marv Bozwick being lured into a… trap! He wakes up in chains in a subway tunnel with his tongue hooked into a torture devise and he must rip his tongue out if he wishes to survive before an oncoming train comes around the corner and kills him. Well like most of these movies the opener trap fails their test and they die.
After that we are introduced to Chris Rock’s character Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks, who is talking about the movie Forrest Gump with some other guys as they’re about to do a money heist. Well the plan goes off just perfectly but as they’re waiting for the garage door to open to make their getaway, a swat team is waiting for them. One swat guy looks at Ezekiel and asks, “Zeke?” revealing that Zeke was an undercover cop. The film cuts to Zeke at the police station where he is quite upset that his cover was blown and that he needed more time. Police captain Angie Garza, played by Marisol Nichols, tries to calm Zeke down while he shouts that he cannot trust anyone on the force. Zeke then goes to his desk and sees a dead rat in a trap. Zeke looks disturbed and upset and wants to know who did this? I was a bit confused at this point. Yes, he was an undercover cop and didn’t want his cover blown, but it did, and now the whole force is calling him a rat? Are they mad he was undercover? Were the guys he was with part of a big corruption plan at that station? No, they’re calling him a rat due to an incident that happened many years ago and the force still doesn’t trust him, but more on that in a bit.
Captain Angie Garza assigns Zeke a new partner to team up with and Zeke doesn’t take to the idea of a partner too kindly. Zeke meets his new partner William Schenk, played by Max Minghella, and they begin their day together. While out on patrol Zeke notices the tattoo “Charlie” on Schenk’s arm, which he mentions is his son’s name. They exchange a few stories about life back at home and bond pretty quickly. They get a call about a homicide and go to investigate. They come across the remains of Marv Bozwick and believe it looks similar to the Jigsaw killings from years ago. A flash drive is found which contains the message from a distorted voice saying that they are reforming the metro police by getting rid of corrupt cops.
Soon after that Zeke and Schenk go to meet with Zeke’s old partner, Peter Dunleavy, who was fired years ago because he shot and killed a witness they were assigned to protect, but Peter was trying to cover up the crime by taking care of loose ends. Because of Zeke turning in Peter, that turned the whole precinct against him, calling him a rat.
That night Zeke heads home and enters his apartment, only something doesn’t seem right. He pulls out his gun and finds his father, former police chief Marcus Banks, sitting at the dinner table, played by the man Samuel L. Jackson. Zeke tells him that there may be another Jigsaw copycat out there. Marcus says he’ll do some digging and see if he can find any information.
Zeke arrives back to work and detective Fitch, a cop who did not answer a backup call for Zeke when Zeke was pinned down years before, goes missing. We then see Fitch go through a trap where he has to cut his fingers off if he wants to live or something? I dunno, this trap didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but he fails and dies. A package is sent to Zeke which has a pig puppet with human skin as the body of the puppet. On the skin is the tattoo “Charlie”. Zeke is extremely upset about this and wants answers now as to who is doing this. Soon after that Zeke tries to talk to Captain Angie Garza, but she is in her own trap in the basement of the precinct. Zeke finds out someone saw her go to the basement not too long ago. As her trap is playing out Zeke works hard to get into the basement, only to be too late.
Soon Zeke gets a lead and decides to follow it, but is then captured. He wakes up handcuffed to a pipe and only a saw to set him free. But then he sees a bobby pin and is able to undo the cuff, that was pretty lucky. He then discovers Peter Dunleavy in his own test and Zeke is given the choice to let him die for killing the witness or try to save him. A glass grinder is then revealed as it grinds up glass bottles and blows the sharp shavings all over Peter. Zeke tries to save his old partner, but is too late. Zeke then goes into another room and…
SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE RECAP!
Have you decided to stay and play this game? Okay, last chance…
Zeke enters a warehouse to see Schenk standing right in front of him, revealing to be the one who is the Jigsaw copycat. He also reveals that his real name is William Emerson, and his father was the witness that Peter killed. William then says that he really wanted to be Zeke’s partner since he seems to be the only good cop in the city and that he wants to be his partner. But before he can do that, Zeke will need to confront the cop who employed and who was really the leader of all of the corruption, his father Marcus Banks. Marcus is then revealed to be in chains with blood dripping out of him. William calls the police and claims a gunman is chasing him and then hangs up and puts a gun with one bullet in Zeke’s hand and gives him the choice; shoot a target that will release his dad or kill William but his dad will bleed to death. Zeke makes the choice to save his father, but due to William’s call a swat team now enters the warehouse and trips a wire that then raises a chain on Marcus’s hand, which has a gun attached to it, the swat team opens fire on Marcus as Zeke screams in horror and William gets away. Credits Roll.
I have to say, I am a little confused, because William wants to be Zeke’s partner but he is Zeke’s partner? He didn’t have to kill anyone and he could go to Zeke and say, hey, my dad was killed by your old ex partner and since that day I have wanted to bring down the corrupt cops, and I know you’re a good one. I dunno, it just didn’t make sense.
SPOILERS OVER.
I did not hate the movie but overall the movie felt very clunky to me. I really felt anytime we went into a trap scene, it just felt out of place and didn’t really add anything to the overall story. The Saw franchise is definitely known for its traps, but this time they only took away from the story and everything else going on. Plus there were some flashbacks that did not feel necessary or their placement didn’t feel right. And then the big reveal of the big baddy at the end, now I have heard that people were able to put it together before the reveal, but my dumbass did not, but still when the reveal happened, I dunno, it did not feel earned or satisfying.
When first hearing about this movie, I was pretty excited to hear that Darren Lynn Bousmen (Director of Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV) was coming back to direct. I felt he brought back some of the style that was missing from the previous installment Jigsaw, and did bring a really good look to this, but I did feel that he wasn’t at the top of his game.
As far as acting goes, everyone did well, only complaint though is there were a few scenes that I felt Chris Rock was stumbling through his lines, and it could have been because he wasn’t use to dramatic acting or he didn’t have the best direction. But after seeing him a few months earlier in Fargo (Season 4) I know he has the acting chops to pull off a dramatic role.
Overall I thought the movie was okay, not the game changer as word was being tossed around when this was spreading that it would be. I wish they didn’t have traps in this or used them differently and helped craft the story so the ending felt like a bigger reveal than it overall was. Is it my favorite in the Saw franchise? Not at all, but I am curious if they do decide to continue this. Two out of Five Stars.