Spiral: From the Book of Saw is a 2021 horror film written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Josh Stolberg, and Peter Goldfinger. The ninth entry in the Saw film franchise. Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson feature in this thriller about police attempts to arrest a copycat Jigsaw murderer. Executive producers include the series' original creators, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Rock and series veteran Kevin Greutert.After the release of Jigsaw in 2017, Chris Rock expressed a desire to go into the horror genre, prompting speculation of a new Saw film. Jigsaw's directors, the Spierig Brothers, were interested in returning for another feature but ultimately opted against it. In May 2019, the project was formally unveiled, with Rock polishing a screenplay written by Stolberg and Goldfinger. The remainder of the cast joined in July, with shooting in Toronto taking place in July and August.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was originally supposed to be released in May 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Lionsgate released it in theaters on May 14, 2021. The film got mixed reviews from reviewers, who appreciated the series's new direction but were split as to whether or not it had successfully reinvented the brand.
Detective Marv Bozwick follows a burglar into a sewage pipe during a Fourth of July celebration. Bozwick is attacked from behind by a pig-masked person and wakes up dangling by his tongue in a subway tunnel. A recorded message gives him a choice: cut off his tongue and survive, or wait until the next train comes and kill him. Bozwick gets slain when he can't escape the trap in time. Next day, Captain Angie Garza assigns Detective Zeke Banks idealistic rookie William Schenk. Banks and Schenk analyze Bozwick's death and find similarities to the Jigsaw Killer's method.
Banks is caught while following a lead. When he wakes up in the warehouse, he is handcuffed to a pipe and there is a hacksaw nearby. He thinks about cutting off his arm, but a loose bobby pin helps him get away. He then finds Peter Dunleavy chained in place. Dunleavy was his former partner, but Banks fired him and put him in jail after Banks found out that Dunleavy had killed someone. In front of him is a big machine that crushes glass. It has been changed so that it quickly throws shrapnel at him. A tape recorder tells Banks that he can either set him free or let him die. Banks tries to get the key in time to save Dunleavy, but he can't. Banks then goes to a different room and finds Schenk. It turns out that Schenk faked his own death by using the skinned body of the thief who lured Bozwick into the tunnels. Schenk was the copycat all along. He says that his real last name is Emmerson and that he is the son of Charlie Emmerson, who Dunleavy killed because he was going to testify against a dirty cop. He also says that Marcus, when he was chief, hid corrupt officers on purpose so that Article 8 could be used more effectively to clean the streets of crime.
Exactly who played the lead roles in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)?
Detective Zeke Banks was acted by Chris Rock. Max Minghella was the actor who played the role of Detective William Schenk / Emmerson.
Leonidas Castrounis was William.
Jackson played Marcus Banks. Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols. Detective Marv Bozwick was played by Daniel Petronijevic.
Detective Fitch was played by Richard Zeppieri.
McManus played Peter Dunleavy. Officer Jeannie Lewis was played by Ali Johnson. Kara Bozwick was played by Zoie Palmer. Dylan Roberts was Morgey Silva.
K. C. Collins played Drury.
Detective Deborah Kraus was played by Edie Inksetter.
Coroner Chada was played by Nazneen Contractor.
Detective Tim O'Brien was played by Thomas Mitchell.
Benny Wrights was played by Chad Camilleri.
Speez was played by Christopher Ramsay.
Frank Licari was Charlie Emerson. Genelle Williams played Lisa Banks. The role of Officer Pat Jones was played by Trevor Gretzky.
Tobin Bell, who portrayed John Kramer / Jigsaw in all previous Saw films, did not return for Spiral (2021), making it the first film in the series to not physically include Bell or the Jigsaw persona onscreen other than via images. Bousman said that the film's murderer is a Jigsaw clone, not the real Jigsaw, and that he does not want to replace Bell in the famous role. Bell has shown interest in reprising his role as Jigsaw if the plot delves into Billy the Puppet's origins.
Chris Rock contacted Lionsgate with his Spiral: From the Book of Saw proposal as a chance to revitalize the Saw series as well as his own career.Chris Rock met Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns at a friend's wedding in Brazil and believed shooting a horror film would be a fresh direction for his career. He wanted to integrate humorous aspects in the picture. Lionsgate was interested in Rock's plan to prolong the series. Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake said Rock's approach was respectful to the material while reinvigorating the brand with his humour, creativity, and enthusiasm for the iconic horror property. By January 2018, reports suggested Lionsgate was planning a ninth Saw picture without the Spierig Brothers. The filmmakers told Screen Rant that their picture sets up sequels. By April 2018, Twisted Pictures was developing a Jigsaw sequel with Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger.
Rock's role was formerly linked to Danny Glover's David Tapp from the previous film in an early draft of the screenplay. Because it failed the smell test, Stolberg and Goldfinger decided not to pursue this path. Bousman said in May 2021 that talks are on regarding bringing Costas Mandylor back as Mark Hoffman in a future film. Bousman and the crew debated whether or not Tobin Bell should reprise his role as Jigsaw until the last day of production, but they decided that having Bell back would make the film seem like a continuation of the Saw series rather than a standalone picture, as it was intended. Because Jigsaw was killed off in the third picture, Bousman believed that previous films had done Jigsaw a disservice by utilizing flashbacks to bring him into the tale, and he didn't want to make the same error in Spiral, nor disrespect Bell's legendary portrayal. Bousman contemplated having Bell perform a Johnny Cash song during the concluding scene of Spiral (2021), but decided against it because he thought it was too gimmicky.
Tobin Bell did not play Jigsaw in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), making it the first Saw movie in which Bell did not appear.
Stolberg told Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw was never in any draft of the screenplay for Spiral, even though they talked about it after the first test screening and all the way through post-production. They thought that including Jigsaw would change the core of the story they were trying to tell, not because they didn't like the character but because they wanted to take the franchise in a new direction. Stolberg also thought that because of the franchise's timeline, any possible connection between John Kramer and William Schenk/The Spiral Killer should have happened when the latter was still a child. Stolberg and Goldfinger once proposed an after-credits scene in which Kramer met a young Schenk after the murder of the latter's father and became close to him, maybe giving him the puppet he later uses as the Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) Killer.
Since the killer in the movie is a Jigsaw copycat who is different from the original, it was decided to replace Billy the Puppet with a new puppet named Mr. Snuggles. Bousman thought that if the original Jigsaw was replaced, the original puppet should also be replaced with a new one so that the new killer can't be compared to the old one. The production team thought that using Bell's voice for Mr. Snuggles could have led to questions about the relationship between the two killers. In an early draft, Jigsaw's voice was used, but it turned out to be a digitally changed version of his voice. All of the speeches were also originally recorded versions of Jigsaw's voice with the words in a different order to show that the Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) Killer had digitally changed the words. The filmmakers had a hard time replacing Bell's voice with a new one for the killer. Before choosing the voice made by the computer, Bousman tried out many voices of women, children, and men. The last voice used in the movie was chosen just two days before the sound mix was done.
The film officially began pre-production on May 16, 2019. Former series director Darren Lynn Bousman will direct the feature, which will be produced by Burg and Koules. In addition to developing the plot proposal, Rock was engaged as an executive producer.James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Daniel Heffner, the original Saw creators, have joined Rock as executive producers. Scriptwriters Stolberg and Goldfinger have been confirmed.
Zeke Banks (Rock) Rock, Stolberg, and Goldfinger conceived the character from conversations they had before writing the screenplay. Rock wondered what he would do if he were the original Saw protagonist Dr. Lawrence Gordon and forced to cut off his own foot. They decided it would be interesting if Rock played a cop ostracized by his colleagues.
Samuel L. Jackson decided to portray Chief Marcus Banks because he wanted to try something new, including the climax sequence in which his character is hung up like a marionette. Captain Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols, who, although being a Saw fan, preferred to watch David Fincher's Seven instead of the prior films in preparation for the part. Patrick read more McManus auditioned for the part of Detective Marv Bozwick, but was called back to play Peter Dunleavy, while Dan Petronijevic was cast as Bozwick.
What was the total box office take for Spiral?
What did the film's reviewers have to say about it?
Spiral's efforts to shake up the series formula were lauded by reviewers, but it fell short of giving Saw the huge push it needed to reclaim its relevancy.
Another film reviewer said the writing caught the grizzled-cop-movie tone and created some memorable characters, but the plot was repetitive, the mystery was annoyingly obvious, and the inventive deaths were less imaginative than before. Spiral: From the Book of Saw chose respectability above entertainment value, but it didn't quite accomplish either.
Many film reviews praised Spiral: From the Book of Saw as a really terrifying, albeit unevenly paced, detective thriller, while criticizing its writing for failing to communicate the possible tensions between its major characters' father-and-son relationship.
Some film reviewers praised the performance and Spiral: From the Book of Saw's simple yet captivating idea, but they also remarked on the unknown killer's voice, which he claimed sounded like Kermit the Frog, and noted that the screams and gore aren't for the genuine audience. They are the attraction.
In his one-and-a-half-star review, another film critic criticized the movie's tone and Darren Lynn Bousman's direction, which he said disappointed him after he praised the cast. He called the movie "impossible to follow" because it lacked tension, story, and plot development.
Reviewer Decker Shado's interpretation of Spiral (2021) was very different. From the Book of Saw, and the mind of Chris Rock it's Spiral, the latest movie in the Saw franchise having come out late in 2021. After we got an entire SUMMER OF SAW you should probably know the drill by now, a killer is on the loose who doesn't directly do in his prey, but rather tests them with mechanical contraptions as ingenious as they are disturbing. Or at least, that's the concept. A lot of these traps leave quite a bit to be desired... and the methodology is also a bit off, as is the goal. It's explained much better in his video.
A film reviewer said Spiral: From the Book of Saw bungles its primary enigma without elegance, flair, or much consideration. Even death traps are dull. The most frustrating thing about Spiral, he said, is that a better, smarter movie is hiding beneath all the nonsense. There are too many short cuts and fast sequences. The yelled dialogue is annoying. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) is a film about corrupt and murderous cops facing a reckoning, which could be subversive and timely for a Hollywood film, but it seems to care little about any of this. It wants to shed blood and does so.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw sequel?
Twisted Pictures revealed in April 2021 that a sequel, named Saw X, is in the works. However, Bousman and the film's producers were taken aback by the early announcement. He said that just because they created Spiral (2021) doesn't imply the Saw franchise is dead. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s arrival does not rule out the possibility of a Saw IX sequel. The Saw series does not have a ninth installment. Jigsaw may be followed by a Saw IX. I believe they are waiting to see how Spiral: From the Book of Saw performs and how the public reacts before deciding what to do next. In December of that year, Josh Stolberg announced that the script was done.
A Spiral TV series?
Lionsgate TV chairman Kevin Beggs told Deadline Hollywood in April 2021 that the company is in early negotiations to produce a Spiral: From the Book of Saw TV series with Mark Burg and Oren Koules' Twisted Television.