Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (2021) Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman
Instagram post:
The Saw franchise is synonymous with brutal, explicit violence by means of cruel, ironic torture methods, which have fans of gore and horror in rapture. However, the quality of the films has steadily declined entry by entry.
This edition, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, just about bucks that trend, but only by virtue of being slightly better than the previous film in the franchise; Jigsaw. The screenplay, written by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, with further editing from Chris Rock, whose brainchild the film originally was, is unfortunately a mess.
The plot is poorly written, which leads to some horrendous pacing issues. The dialogue is painfully exposition-heavy, not just in the first act, but the whole film. The flashback sequences are honestly laughable, especially with how Bousman chooses to present the younger iterations of some characters.
The CGI is poor, although the visuals are saved by the franchise's typically good physical effects. That said, the traps, for which the physical effects are mostly used for, and the inevitable kills that are to be expected in these films, are disappointing in comparison to the previous Saw films.
The unexpected star of the film is comedian Chris Rock, whom had pushed for this film, after deciding he wanted to explore the horror genre. His performance is a rather mixed bag. He clearly took this seriously, which I respect him for, but it was difficult to take him seriously with some of the bizarre choices of camera shots used, as well as an awful filter. Beyond that, he's not terrible by any means, aside from a few moments of overacting, he managed to portray a troubled police officer well enough. I would say his is the best of a mediocre set of performances.
Speaking of which, an actor whose performance went from decent to dier is Max Minghella. His display in acts one and two were relatively strong, but it act three he falls off completely. It's such a stark and disappointing contrast, to see him going from adequate to appalling in a matter of minutes. It is worth saying however, that he is absolutely not helped by the woeful writing.
Marisol Nichols has a few decent scenes, especially in act one, but she, like everyone else, falls victim to the mediocrity of the writing. That said, she does have the second best performance of the film, behind Rock, although honestly that isn't saying a whole lot.
Legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson appears, which surprised me until I remembered that for every amazing film he does, there's some equally shocking ones too. And, if I'm honest, his display here felt phoned in for the most part. He does have a couple of stronger moments, but I didn't feel like he really cared about what he was doing, which very clearly came through on-screen.
Finally, I'll quickly give a mention to K.C. Collins and Dan Petronijevic, who were the only other remotely noteworthy performers from an unmemorable cast.
Overall, this is another disappointing inclusion to the franchise, with expectations continually lowering, year by year. That said, this is not the worst of the Saw films, so there's that. And I still hold out hope that this franchise will see one more success before it's finally done and dusted.
Comments