Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) is a 2021 horror film written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. The film is the ninth chapter in the Saw franchise. Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson feature in the thriller, which depicts police attempts to arrest a Jigsaw-style murderer. Executive producers include the series' creators, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Rock and series veteran Kevin Greutert.What exactly happens in the movie Spiral?
Off-duty Detective Marv Bozwick pursues a burglar through a sewage drainage pipe during a Fourth of July parade. Bozwick wakes in an active subway tunnel, hanging by his tongue, after being attacked from behind by a person wearing a pig mask. He is offered an option through recorded message: cut out his tongue and survive, or stay until the next train comes, killing him. Bozwick gets murdered by the train after failing to escape the trap in time. The following day, Detective Zeke Banks is assigned a new partner, idealistic rookie William Schenk, by police Captain Angie Garza. Banks and Schenk examine Bozwick's death, and Banks notices similarities to the Jigsaw Killer's method of operation.
Meanwhile, murder investigator Fitch, who rejected a backup call from Banks and almost died, is taken and put in a trap where he must pull off his fingers to prevent electrocution; he also dies. Due of his relationship with Fitch, several police suspect Banks. The package contains a pig puppet and Schenk's tattooed flesh. A little vial inside the box leads detectives to a butcher shop that Banks and his father used to frequent. The squad finds a recording recorder and Schenk's skinned body. Marcus goes to a warehouse to find the murderer but is taken. Garza is abducted and put in a trap in the precinct's cold storage where she must slice her spinal chord to stop hot wax from dripping down her face. She fails and Banks finds her body with burns from boiling wax.
Emmerson, believing that Banks may be an ally, provides him with a last test, which reveals Marcus suspended in the air and steadily losing blood. The dispatcher sends a SWAT unit to Emmerson's position when he phones 9-1-1 and pretends to be a civilian being chased by a gunman. He delivers Banks a handgun with a single bullet and gives him the option of shooting a target that would save Marcus but enable Emmerson to escape, or killing Emmerson and allowing Marcus to bleed to death. Banks fires the target to free his father, releasing his bindings and allowing him to fall to the ground; he then engages in combat with Emmerson. Shortly afterwards, the SWAT squad comes and mistakenly sets off a tripwire, allowing Marcus' bindings to once again pull him upward. The movement shows a gun attached to Marcus' arm, causing the SWAT squad to misidentify him as the shooter and execute him. Banks wails in anguish as Emmerson flees.
Who are the actors in Spiral: From the Book of Saw?
This is the only Saw film in which the character of John Kramer / Jigsaw isn't seen onscreen in any way other than through images, since Tobin Bell, who portrayed the role in the previous films, did not return. As Bousman noted, the film's murderer is a Jigsaw copycat, not the real Jigsaw, he stated his decision to not replace Bell in the famous role. When Billy the Puppet's origins were discussed, Bell indicated an interest in returning as Jigsaw.
Spiral's Chris Rock
Chris Rock contacted Lionsgate with his Spiral (2021) proposal as a chance to revitalize both the Saw series and his own career.
According to Chris Rock, Spiral (2021) was inspired by a chance encounter with Michael Burns, the vice chairman of Lionsgate, at a friend's wedding in Brazil, and he felt that doing something in the horror genre would be a new direction for his career, though he planned to include comedic elements in the film. Rock contacted Lionsgate with his plans to expand the series, and the studio was enthusiastic about the notion. The chief executive officer of Lionsgate, Joe Drake, said that Rock's concept was totally respectful of the material's past while reinvigorating the brand with his humour, artistic vision, and enthusiasm for this great horror property. The Spierig Brothers would not return for the ninth installment of the Saw franchise, according to industry speculations circulating in January 2018. In an interview with Screen Rant, the filmmakers revealed that their picture established the groundwork for potential sequels. By April 2018, Twisted Pictures was collaborating with Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger on a sequel to Jigsaw.
Why was Tobin Bell absent from Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)?
Spiral (2021) was the first Saw film without Tobin Bell repeating his role as Jigsaw, making it the first Saw film without Bell.
Stolberg stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw Click Here was never included in any draft of the screenplay for Spiral, despite discussions taking place even after the first test screening and throughout post-production. They felt that including Jigsaw would change the foundation of the story they were trying to achieve, not intending to diminish the character but wanting to place the franchise in a new direction. Due to the timeline of the franchise, Stolberg and Goldfinger proposed at one point to have an after-credits sequence where John 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: From the Book of Saw (2021) Ki.
This new Jigsaw copycat is different from the original in appearance, so it was decided to use a new puppet called Mr. Snuggles to replace Billy the Puppet. Bousman felt that if the original Jigsaw was changed, then a different puppet should also be used to ensure that the killer could not possibly be comparable. The production feared that reusing Bell's voice for Mr. Snuggles could have created questions about the relationship between both killers; an early draft actually featured Jigsaw's voice, only to then be revealed a digitally altered version of his voice and the story originally had all the speeches as actually being past recordings of Jigsaw's voice using words in a different order to show that the Spiral Killer had digitally rearranged the words. When they couldn't come up with a replacement for Bell's voice, the filmmakers had a difficult time locating one. There were several other human voices that Bousman tried before deciding on the computer-simulated one. Only two days before the sound mix was completed, the final voice was chosen for the picture.
With the news, Rock said he's been a fan of Saw since 2004. He was eager to take things to a dark new level.
Bousman turned rejected a Broadway production when Rock requested he direct it.
According to Burg and Koules, Rock's handling of Saw was analogous to what Eddie Murphy did for buddy cop flicks in 48 Hrs., giving the Saw series a whole new viewpoint. Similarly, Bousman stated that compared to previous installments, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) contained less violence and gore, expressing the belief that gore and violence were a gimmick for him when he first began working on the Saw films, but that both elements now serve the story, which focuses on character, tension, and fear.
Casting Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
Max Minghella took up the part of William Schenk / The Spiral: From the Book of Saw Killer because he desired to play in a movie with straightforward story-telling like the buddy cops of his childhood like 48 Hrs., and when he read the script, he believed it was that, as well as a Saw picture.
Officially, filming ended on August 28th, 2019. In post-production, Dev Singh finished the film's editing.
Spiral (2021)'s marketing.
The working title of the movie was The Organ Donor until January 22, 2020, when the name Spiral: From the Book of Saw and the fact that Mongrel Media would be the Canadian distributor got out. When the first teaser poster and trailer came out on February 5, 2020, it was clear that the movie's name was Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021).
A release date of October 23, 2020 had been set for Spiral, a Lionsgate Films release in the US. It was pushed ahead to May 15, 2020, in July of this year. Because to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's release date was postponed to May 21, 2021, replacing John Wick: Chapter 4 on the release calendar. As cinemas reopened, it was pushed back to May 14, 2021, a week sooner than originally planned.
On May 25, 2021, Lionsgate announced that starting October 8, 2021, Spiral: From the Book of Saw will only be available to stream on Starz in the US. Spiral (2021) came out on PVOD in Canada on June 1, 2021.
According to Darren Lynn Bousman, the Motion Picture Association gave the picture an NC-17 classification 11 times before deleting enough sequences to achieve a R rating.
At the box office, how much did Spiral bring in for the company?
Film critics liked how Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) tried to change up the formula of the franchise, but they said that it didn't give Saw the big boost it needed to become popular again.
The film received mixed or mediocre reviews, according to Metacritic's weighted average of 33 reviewers.
The film received an average grade of B- on a scale ranging from A+ to F from the audiences that were polled by CinemaScore. PostTrak reported that 63 percent of audience members gave it a positive score, with 43 percent saying they would absolutely recommend it to others.
A film reviewer said the film had a few surprising twists, but for a thriller about police immorality, it's curiously offtopic and bland.
Many film reviews thought Spiral: From the Book of Saw to be a terrifying, although irregularly paced, detective thriller, but criticized its writing for failing to communicate possible father-and-son conflicts.
A reviewer rated the film one star and said its finale was hurried, half-assed, clumsily written, and progressively uninteresting. The reviewer said game over.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw, according to one reviewer, is a sequel that aims to please both Saw fanatics and general moviegoers, although it's more likely to offend the latter group. An emulation of the series that fails to achieve its most basic standards in terms of visuals and story. It's also a terrible movie in general, which attempts to present a socially important narrative that it can't seem to grasp. His criticism of Spiral: From the Book of Saw also focused on the film's lack of ties to the Saw franchise, noting that Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) is just a Saw film for a short moment, and not at all like the previous Saw movies. Artless and tactless, it also plays like the most formulaic police procedural pilot episode rejected by the studio.
It's been almost a year since Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s release.
Twisted Pictures announced in April 2021 that they were working on a Saw X sequel. As a result, director Darren Lynn Bousman and the film's producers were astonished by the early announcement. Because they produced Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), it doesn't imply that the Saw series is canceled, he remarked. Just because Spiral is here, it doesn't mean there won't be a Saw IX. The Saw film series has nine installments, although this is the tenth. Jigsaw's successor, Saw IX, is very possible. My guess is that they're waiting to see how Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) does and how fans react before deciding what'll happen next in the series. In December of that year, Josh Stolberg stated that the script had been completed.
In an April 2021 interview with Deadline Hollywood, Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs said that Lionsgate TV is talking with Mark Burg and Oren Koules' Twisted Television productions about making a TV show based on Spiral.