Detective Marv Bozwick, off-duty, follows a burglar through a sewage drainage pipe during a Fourth of July parade. Bozwick wakes in a busy subway tunnel, hanging by his tongue, after being attacked from behind by a person wearing a pig mask. He is offered the option of tearing out his tongue and living, or remaining until the next train comes, which would kill him. Bozwick gets murdered by a train when he is unable to escape the trap in time. Detective Zeke Banks is assigned a new partner the following day, idealistic rookie William Schenk, by police Captain Angie Garza. Banks and Schenk examine Bozwick's death, and Banks notices a resemblance to the now-deceased Jigsaw Killer's method of operation.
Meanwhile, a murder investigator called Fitch is kidnapped and put in a trap where he must pull his fingers off to prevent electrocution in a filling water basin; he too fails to escape and dies. Because of his relationship with Fitch, several police suspect Banks. The station then receives a package containing a pig puppet and a bit of Schenk's tattooed flesh. A little vial within the box points the cops to a butcher shop, which was originally a hobby store frequented by Banks and his father, retired police chief Marcus Banks. When the squad arrives, they find a recording recorder and a skinned body identified as Schenk. Marcus decides to seek out the murderer himself and goes to a warehouse, where he is kidnapped. Garza is abducted and held captive in the precinct's cold storage, where she must slash her spinal chord with a sword to prevent molten wax from dripping into her face. As Banks finds her corpse, she dies from her injuries caused by the scorching hot wax.
Detective Zeke Banks was played by Chris Rock.
Detective William Schenk / Emmerson was played by Max Minghella in the film. Leonidas Castrounis represented William the Younger. In the movie, Samuel L. Jackson played Marcus Banks.
Captain Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols in the film.
Detective Marv Bozwick was played by Daniel Petronijevic. Detective Fitch was played by Richard Zeppieri. McManus played Peter Dunleavy.
As Officer Jeannie Lewis, Ali Johnson was played by Ali Johnson.
Zoie Palmer played Kara Bozwick. Sergeant Morgey Silva was played by Dylan Roberts.
K. C. Collins was the actor who played the role of Detective Drury. Detective Deborah Kraus was played by Edie Inksetter. Chada was played by Nazneen Contractor.
Thomas Mitchell was Tim O'Brien. Chad Camilleri played the part of Benny Wrights.
Speez was played by Christopher Ramsay. Charlie Emmerson was played by Frank Licari. Lisa Banks was played by Genelle Williams. Lieutenant Pat Jones was played by Trevor Gretzky.
Chris Rock went to Lionsgate with his idea for Spiral as a way to bring new life to the Saw series and to his own career.According to Chris Rock, the inspiration for Spiral stemmed from a chance meeting with Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns at a friend's wedding in Brazil, and he felt doing something in the horror genre would be a new avenue to take in his career, though he planned to include some comedic elements in the film. Rock contacted Lionsgate with his plans to expand the series, and the studio became quite intrigued in the notion. According to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake, Rock's approach was totally respectful of the material's past while reinvigorating the brand with his humour, creative vision, and enthusiasm for this great horror property. By January 2018, industry reports suggested that Lionsgate was planning a ninth Saw film, for which the Spierig Brothers would not return. In an interview with Screen Rant, the filmmakers revealed that their picture established the groundwork for potential sequels. Twisted Pictures was working on a sequel with Jigsaw authors Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger by April 2018.
Tobin Bell did not reprise his normal role as Jigsaw in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), making it the first Saw film to do so.
Despite discussions occurring after the first test screening and throughout post-production, Stolberg stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw was never included in any draft for the screenplay of Spiral because they felt that including Jigsaw would change the foundation of the story they were trying to achieve, not to diminish the character but to move the franchise in a new direction. Because of the franchise's timeline, Stolberg and Goldfinger proposed an after-credits sequence in which Kramer met a young Schenk after the murder of the latter's father and bonded with him, maybe giving him the puppet he later uses as the Spiral Killer.
As the film's murderer is a Jigsaw imitator who differs from the original, it was decided to replace Billy the Puppet with Mr. Snuggles, as Bousman believed that if the original Jigsaw was changed, the original puppet should also be altered so that the new killer cannot be compared to the old one. Deeming Bell's voice as too iconic, the production feared that reusing it for Mr. Snuggles could have raised questions about the relationship between both killers; an early draft featured Jigsaw's voice, which was later revealed to be a digitally altered version of his voice, and the story originally had all the speeches as being past recordings of Jigsaw's voice with the words rearranged to indicate that the Spiral: From the Book of Saw Killer had digitally rearranged the words. The directors had struggled to locate a replacement voice for Bell's murderer. Before deciding on the computer-generated voice, Bousman experimented with several female, male, and kid voices. The final voice used in the film was chosen barely two days before the final sound mix was completed.
Take a look behind the scenes of Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
James Wan, Leigh Whannell, and Daniel Heffner, who made the original Saw, are now executive producers for Rock. Stolberg and Goldfinger were confirmed as screenwriters.
Options for roles in the Spiral (2021) production
Rock has a starring role in the show as Detective Zeke Banks. Rock, Stolberg, and Goldfinger had conversations prior to writing the screenplay that led to the creation of the character. During these conversations, Rock was thinking about what he would do if he were the original Saw protagonist, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, and was forced to cut off his own foot. Eventually, the three of them came to the conclusion that it would be more interesting if Rock played a cop who was shunned by his fellow officers.
Samuel L. Jackson decided to portray Chief Marcus Banks because he wanted to try something new, including the climax sequence in which his character is hung up like a marionette. Captain Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols, who, although being a Saw fan, preferred to watch David Fincher's Seven instead of the prior films in preparation for the part. Patrick McManus auditioned for the part of Detective Marv Bozwick, but was called back to play Peter Dunleavy, while Dan Petronijevic was cast as Bozwick.
Max Minghella, a lover of both horror and Spiral Movie Review buddy-cop films, took on the part of William Schenk / The Spiral (2021) Killer because he longed to feature in a picture with straightforward story-telling like the buddy police of his childhood like 48 Hrs., and when he read the screenplay, he thought it was that, as well as a Saw film.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was initially set to be released on October 23, 2020, by Lionsgate Films in the United States. It was pushed ahead to May 15, 2020 in July 2019. Because to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's release date has been pushed back to May 21, 2021, replacing John Wick: Chapter 4. As cinemas started to reopen, it was rescheduled for a week earlier release on May 14, 2021.
How did people rate Spiral?
Darren Lynn Bousman says that the Motion Picture Association gave the movie an NC-17 rating 11 times before they cut enough scenes to get a R rating.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw has grossed $40.6 million globally as of March 3, 2022, including $23.2 million in the United States and copyright and $17.3 million in other markets.
Spiral's critics:
Spiral (2021)'s efforts to shake up the series formula were hailed by reviewers, but it fell short of giving Saw the huge push it needed to reclaim its relevancy.
On Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 221 reviewer reviews are favorable, with a 5.1/10 average. The site's critical consensus was that Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) reveals a new path for the Saw series, even if the gruesome whole is less than its pieces.
Surveys by CinemaScore and PostTrak show that audiences generally awarded the picture a B- on a scale of A+ to F, with 43% of those asked indicating they would strongly recommend it.
Many film reviews thought Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) to be a terrifying, although irregularly paced, detective thriller, but criticized its writing for failing to communicate possible father-and-son conflicts.
In his one-and-a-half-star review, another reviewer criticized the film's tone and Darren Lynn Bousman's directing, calling it unreadable for its lack of tension, narrative, and plot advancement.
Another film critic said that it wasn't exactly a waste of an idea. But the franchise doesn't need to be changed up either. Rock's involvement in Spiral: From the Book of Saw gives it some fresh blood, but after a promising start, the movie just turns out to be a pretty good Saw movie with some bigger names than usual—one whose dreary lighting and procedural storyline remind me most of David Fincher's Se7en. If the point of the game was to see if a new take on a long-running franchise could stand up to the sequel machine, then the game is over.
A film critic gave the movie a bad review, saying that "Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) stumbles through its central mystery without grace, style, or even much thought." Even the death traps are strangely boring. He said that the movie had potential and that the most frustrating thing about Spiral: From the Book of Saw is that there is a better, smarter movie hiding under all this nonsense. There are too many fast cuts and scenes that get faster and faster. It's annoying that bad dialogue is shouted at full volume. In the end, Spiral (2021) is a movie about corrupt and even murderous cops who are suddenly held accountable. This kind of material has the potential to be both subversive for a Hollywood movie and timely, but Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) seems to care so little about any of this that it's almost frustrating. Its only goal is to kill many people, which it does.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s sequel?
In April 2021, Twisted Pictures announced production on Saw X. Bousman said the news startled him and the film's producers. He claimed that making Spiral: From the Book of Saw doesn't imply Saw is over. Spiral doesn't mean Saw IX won't happen. Not the ninth Saw film. A Saw IX might follow Jigsaw. I suppose they're waiting to see how Spiral (2021) does and how viewers react. Josh Stolberg said the script was done in December.
Is there going to be a TV show based on Spiral (2021)?
In an April 2021 interview with Deadline Hollywood, Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs said that Lionsgate TV is in early negotiations to produce a television series based on Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), with Mark Burg and Oren Koules' Twisted Television productions.