Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)

A bit of context is needed here. A friend and I make it a point of tradition to meet up and visit the cinema whenever there's a new Saw film released. I'm not really sure why anymore, considering he often makes the trip down from Birmingham to make it happen, and of course, the questionable range of quality that the Saw franchise has offered. There's no doubting that Saw (2004) was both an excellent stripped down twisty version of Se7en (1995) and a bit of a trend setter in the explosion of mainstream torture porn of the noughties. Its problem is that it's probably not been equaled by anything that's come after it, and that includes the truly abysmal Hostel franchise (2005-2011). However, the Saw franchise set up its rules in its first outing, and has impressively stuck to its guns throughout the next seven films (although Saw 3D [2010] was absolutely dreadful) and despite the wavering quality, its commitment to its fan base and its genuine achievement in invention and backstory has been undeniably impressive. So, after the perfectly acceptable sort of reboot in 2017, Jigsaw, it was probably inevitable that we'd get another one sooner or later. What a shame then, that comedian Chris Rock decided to get involved and produce this absolute barrel scraping, ear scraping, shoddily made pile of garbage. Rock not only produces, he gives himself the central role of Detective Banks who is on the trail of a copycat Jigsaw serial killer. The serial killer follows none of the strict rules that made Jigsaw such an impressive cinematic character, and performs boring and not particularly terrifying acts on his victims. Sure, I wouldn't wish his actions on anyone, but at least Jigsaw was an inventive lunatic. Chris Rock is indescribably bad as the lead detective. His insistence on attempting to make jokes in various scenes is both ill-judged, but then not remotely amusing either, leaving a deathly silent cinema audience around me-an experience I've never shared in any outing to the cinema to see a Saw film. It also features a rubbish cameo from Samuel L. Jackson, who stands around dropping the F-bomb for presumably a hefty pay check. Spiral is only ninety minutes long, but the only good use for it is if the footage of the film is used as part of a torture sequence in Spiral 2. 1.9/10