In true Saw style there’s a twist in the tale, as the final reel reveals the killer is in fact William, himself the son of a man murdered by Zeke’s former partner, a crime subsequently covered up by Marcus. Already ostracised after he snitched on a corrupt colleague years ago, Zeke is buddied up with new Detective William (Max Minghella) and they – with some advice from Zeke’s father, and former captain, Marcus (Samuel L Jackson) – try to uncover who is behind it all. Taking place in a world where Kramer existed but bearing few other connections, it follows jaded cop Zeke (Chris Rock) as he begins to suspect that a Jigsaw copycat is taking out cops in his precinct. And it’s this legacy which Spiral returns to and reinvents. As Amanda (Shawnee Smith) says after surviving the original film’s iconic Reverse Bear Trap, “he helped me”.Īll this is to say that, regardless of its reputation as degenerate, splatter-happy pornography, Saw had something to say.
#Spiral book of saw twist serial
Where Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook traded in rich metaphors of grief and mental ill-health, and Ari Aster’s Midsommar was the world’s most traumatic breakup movie, the original Saw is a grimy little film made by the then up-and-coming James Wan and Leigh Whannell: the two have since gone on to helm such super-hits as The Conjuring and The Invisible Man respectively, but back in 2004 there was a whiff of exploitative snuff to their tale of a serial killer who placed his victims in gruesome traps to trigger their survival instincts and thus their appreciation for life.Įven if the series did eventually descend into a labyrinth of convoluted plot twists (films 1-8 can almost be watched back-to-back as one sprawling story) there was always an interesting moral dimension: what if the Jigsaw Killer – a.k.a John Kramer (Tobin Bell) – wasn’t really a killer at all, but some kind of post-modern, secular saviour? Like Fight Club’s Tyler Durden, Kramer was sickened by the stultifying inertia of thankless modern life, and his barbaric wake-up calls were – at least initially – always meant to lead to a kind of redemption.
Whilst some praised it as “the most political horror film since Get Out”, such voices were few and far between, the general critical temperature being one of tired indifference.Īs a rule the Saw films haven’t garnered the glowing reactions reserved for more “elevated” horror films. When Spiral: From the Book of Saw was released earlier this year – ostensibly the 9 th entry in the infamous “torture porn” saga – it was greeted with mixed reactions. Is the latest instalment of the 00s goreno franchise actually great? Tim Coleman makes the case…
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