Spiral

While Spiral has been released for a few days in the United States and we will have to wait until July 21st to discover it in theaters in France, we can only be happy to discover the atmosphere of a cinematographic saga that impressed us by its atmosphere and its torture of guilty people who have been able to escape the justice system. This is the ninth installment of the Saw film series and it is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who is making his fourth film in this cinematographic saga. We also find the original creators of the saga, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as executive producers. 

We had to wait four years after Jigsaw to find this visual universe in which people must undergo the worst possible tortures as a way to forgive their past faults. While the first installments featured the ingenious and psychopathic killer John Kramer (Tobin Bell) in the central role of these films and Jigsaw tried to propose a student trained by him in the role of the master of these sadistic games, this new chapter not only tries to relaunch the franchise but also to completely redesign the universe by proposing a different approach. 

Spiral: The Legacy of Saw (Spiral) has the merit of amply fulfilling the specifications of this saga that made its success by proposing very violent torture scenes but also a game in which individuals must sacrifice a part of themselves (literally and figuratively) to stay alive. The first film became a classic horror thriller and allowed director James Wan to make a name for himself. He went on to direct the excellent Dead Silence (2007), The Conjuring (2013), Furious 7 (201) and Aquaman (2018). The other films of this cinematographic saga were content with a not always convincing direction to propose to the public what it expected, that is to say scenes of more and more violence, even if it meant proposing plots cruelly lacking in rhythm. 

This time we can only acknowledge that the director Darren Lynn Bousman has amply achieved his mission by taking back the reins of this cinematographic saga and benefits not only from a more luxurious cast with the presence of actors Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson but also from a scenario that holds all its promises.

In Spiral, Detective Ezekiel Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) and his rookie partner (Max Minghella) and a veteran police officer, Marcus Banks (Ezekiel Zeke's father) (Samuel L. Jackson) find themselves embroiled in a murder investigation that is eerily reminiscent of the Jigsaw killer's in its sadism. Ezekiel Zeke finds himself on the front line and gradually sees his colleagues being massacred by a psychopathic killer. 

This time all the victims are police officers and as the plot progresses everything seems to turn to Ezekiel Zeke and make his investigation a real crusade against a killer who seems to know well his past as an honest officer and the fact that he is not appreciated by his colleagues, most of them corrupt. In a current context in which law enforcement in the United States must face some serious mistakes by some of its representatives, this film seems to surf easily with the public's will to proceed to a real cleaning up within the law enforcement. This aspect easily reinforces our adhesion to this certainly imperfect horrific thriller that seems to want to cross the universe of David Fincher's film Seven (1995) with that of Saw. 

While the presence of Chris Rock in the main role easily brings an undeniable added value and especially allows to create a real emotional link with the spectators, the presence of Samuel L. Jackson seems to answer more to a will to give this film a greater commercial appeal especially since it benefits from a real public that follows him since he took over the role of Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately his anecdotal presence in this film and his few scenes with actor Chris Rock do not allow him to give a real dimension to his character. 

By trying to go too fast to the action, the film forgets to give a real presence to the characters and thus loses emotions at many moments. Spiral had enough possibilities to be the horrific thriller of this end of the world pandemic. In this case, it is content to entertain the audience but fails to revive this cinematographic saga.

Spiral
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Producd by Oren Koules, Mark Burg
Written by Josh Stolberg, Peter Goldfinger
Starring Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Samuel L. Jackson
Music by Charlie Clouser
Cinematography : Jordan Oram
Edited by Dev Singh
Production company : Twisted Pictures
Distributed by Lionsgate (USA), Metropolitan FilmExport (France)
Release date : May 14, 2021 (United States), July 21, 2021 (France)
Running time : 93 minutes

Seen on June 1, 2021

Mulder's Mark: