Spiral's casting choices are pretty solid, at least. If Spiral really wanted to stand out from its predecessors, it might have helped to lean into some darkly comic elements or focus more heavily on the themes hinted at by the story.
SPIRAL SAW AFTER CREDITS SERIAL
These touches make way for the movie's serial killer hunt, though, which is a shame. There’s a timely thematic message at Spiral’s center that leaves viewers with something to ponder once the credits roll, and Rock does bring some comedic touches to scenes early in the film – an obvious upside to casting a seasoned standup as the lead.
SPIRAL SAW AFTER CREDITS SERIES
Outside of the gore and series throwbacks, though, Spiral doesn’t have much else going for it. They also help series newcomers to get a basic understanding of previous Saw movies, and even if a couple of references feel a tad forced, they provide context to events surrounding the Jigsaw killer. There aren't many of them, but these callbacks do help to cement Spiral’s plot in the Saw universe. If you've seen the other Saw movies, you'll be happy to hear there are references to the series’ wider lore in Spiral. As someone who isn’t ordinarily affected by gory horror, there were certainly moments where I felt genuinely squeamish, and it’s a positive for Spiral that it elicited that reaction from me. Saw fans will get a sadistic kick out of the contraptions on show, especially those reserved for the less likeable characters. For those hoping for some truly grisly moments, there are plenty of them. Of course, some viewers won’t be watching Spiral for its plot, but for its terrifying traps and gruesome deaths. The amount of exposition before and after each death doesn’t help Spiral’s cause, either, and it would’ve helped if audiences were given the chance to put the puzzle pieces together themselves, rather than have plot points force fed to them. Nobody’s ever in much of a hurry to stop the killer’s murder spree, one driving sequence aside, as Zeke hares across town to prevent one particular event from happening. Zeke is in a race against time to stop the murderer's plans from coming to fruition, but it doesn’t feel like there's much tension in this, even though there’s a serial killer at large. Ironically, despite Spiral’s pacing, it also never seems like there’s any urgency to the characters’ actions. Spiral puts Zeke through a gauntlet of psychological torture, but it’s difficult to empathize with him when he appears to shrug most of this off with relative ease. Despite the gravity of what happens to Rock’s protagonist in this story, or the horrifying events that play out around him, Spiral doesn’t allow Zeke to come to terms with the story's major developments. This lack of suspense bleeds over into the film’s tentpole moments, too.
The plot moves at such a quick pace that there’s no time to take stock of the events that play out, which kills any of the tension that might have built up over the film's runtime. It’s a decision that seems stranger still considering that Spiral is, well, anything but suspenseful. Still, it feels like a misstep, particularly when Spiral supposed to continue the horror-flavored story that we’ve followed since 2004’s Saw. Sure, switching up the series' genre is one way to give it a fresh start, and audiences may not necessarily care about how Spiral is categorized from this standpoint.
SPIRAL SAW AFTER CREDITS MOVIE
It seems peculiar, then, that Spiral isn’t being marketed as a horror movie in the same vein as previous entries, with Lionsgate angling Spiral as a suspenseful thriller instead.
As with previous entries, there’s a new cast of characters who become embroiled in a murderous game of cat and mouse, plenty of gruesome moments (more on these later) and a wider mystery that the film’s protagonist – Chris Rock, in this case – has to solve. Structurally, Spiral is a solid homage to the Saw series.
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