Spiral (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.When Chris Rock expressed a desire to go into the horror genre with 2017's Jigsaw, rumors about a second Saw film started circulating. In the end, the Spierig Brothers, who directed Jigsaw, opted not to return for another picture. Rock is now working on a screenplay by Stolberg and Goldfinger that was publicly unveiled in May of this year. July and August were the months when the remainder of the actors joined, with shooting taking place in Toronto.
Lionsgate pushed the cinema release of Spiral back to May 14, 2021 in the United States because to the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the film had been slated to be released in May 2020. Critics were split on whether or not the film was successful in reimagining the series entirely; although they complimented the franchise's new direction, they were divided on whether or not the film was successful in reimagining the franchise.
Spiral (2021) has a storyline.
Off-duty Detective Marv Bozwick pursues a burglar through a sewage drainage pipe during a Fourth of July parade. Bozwick wakes to find himself dangling by his tongue in a busy subway tunnel 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 wait until the next train comes, killing him. Bozwick gets murdered by the train after failing to escape the trap in time. The next 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 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. Fitch had rejected a backup call from Banks some years earlier, almost killing him. Due of his relationship with Fitch, several police accuse Banks of being the perpetrator. The station then receives a parcel containing a pig puppet and a bit of Schenk's tattooed flesh. The police are directed to a butcher shop by a little vial within the box, which was once a hobby store where Banks and his father, retired chief Marcus Banks, would frequent. The squad finds a recording recorder and a skinned body identified as Schenk when they arrive. Marcus decides to seek out the murderer himself and visits a warehouse, where he is kidnapped. Garza is abducted and put in a trap in the cold storage of the precinct, where she must slice her spinal chord with a blade to prevent hot wax from running through a conduit over her face. She fails to do so, and when Banks finds her corpse, she dies from her injuries caused by the boiling hot wax.
Banks is caught while following a lead. When he wakes up, he is handcuffed to a pipe and a hacksaw is nearby. He thinks about cutting off his arm with a saw, but he gets away by using a loose bobby pin. He then finds Peter Dunleavy chained in place. Dunleavy was his former partner, but Banks fired him and put him in jail after Banks found out that he had killed someone. In front of him is a big machine that crushes glass and has been changed to quickly throw shrapnel at him. A tape recorder tells Banks that he can either let him go free or let him die. Banks tries to get the key to save Dunleavy, but he can't get it in time. Banks then goes to another room and finds Schenk, who turns out to have faked his own death by using the skinned body of the thief who lured Bozwick into the tunnels. Schenk was the copycat all along. He says that his real last name is Emmerson and that he is the son of Charlie Emmerson, whom Dunleavy killed because Charlie had agreed to testify against a dirty cop. He also says that Marcus, when he was chief, protected corrupt officers on purpose so that Article 8 could be used more effectively to clean the streets of crime.
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.
Exactly who played the lead roles in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)?
Chris Rock was cast in the role of Detective Zeke Banks.
Detective William Schenk / Emmerson was played by Max Minghella.
Young William was played by Leonidas Castrounis. Samuel L. Jackson gave the performance of Marcus Banks in the movie.
Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols.
Detective Marv Bozwick was played by Daniel Petronijevic.
Detective Fitch was played by Richard Zeppieri.
Peter Dunleavy was played by Patrick McManus.
Ali Johnson played Jeannie Lewis.
Kara Bozwick is played by Zoie Palmer.
Sergeant Morgey Silva was played by Dylan Roberts.
Detective Drury was played by K. C. Collins. Detective Deborah Kraus was played by Edie Inksetter. Coroner Chada was played by Nazneen Contractor.
Mitchell played Tim O'Brien. Benny Wrights was acted by Chad Camilleri.
Chris Ramsay was Speez. As Charlie Emmerson, Frank Licari played the role. Genelle Williams played Lisa Banks in the film. Lieutenant Pat Jones was played by Trevor Gretzky.
There was no return for Tobin Bell's character of John Kramer / Jigsaw from the previous Saw films. This means that the Jigsaw character in Spiral: From the Book of Saw has never been seen onscreen save via images, a first for the Saw series. 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. To return as Jigsaw, Bell has indicated interest in exploring Billy the Puppet's backstory.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s Chris Rock
Chris Rock contacted Lionsgate with his Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) proposal as a chance to revitalize the Saw series as well as his own career.
According to Chris Rock, the idea for Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) came from a chance meeting with Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns at a friend's wedding in Brazil, and he thought doing something in the horror genre would be a new direction for him to go in his career, though he planned to include some comedic elements in the film. When Rock contacted Lionsgate with his plans to expand the brand, they were immediately intrigued. Rock's approach, according to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake, was entirely respectful of the material's past while reinvigorating the brand with his humor, artistic vision, and enthusiasm for this legendary horror property. According to industry reports, Lionsgate has began talks for a ninth Saw film in January 2018, however the Spierig Brothers would not be returning. 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.
Stolberg and Goldfinger had been pitching a new Saw film focused solely on John Kramer / Jigsaw rather than on any of his established apprentices to series veterans Mark Burg and Oren Koules following the release of Jigsaw. However, Burg and Koules then called the pair to inform them about Rock's ideas for a new film, with Rock contacting them shortly thereafter to discuss his concept. Stolberg and Goldfinger had come up with eight distinct versions for the picture before Rock came and fused his concept with that of the trio. Prior to that, various writers had submitted their ideas to Lionsgate for the next Saw film, but none of them had been successful. The pair was given the assignment to develop a proposal for Rock by Burg and Koules. This was done by Stolberg and Goldfinger, and their proposal was accepted by both Lionsgate and Rock. This prompted them to compose their first draft, which was authorized one week after it was sent in. During the writing process, Rock provided assistance to Stolberg and Goldfinger, helping them rewrite the tale when it was deemed essential.
In an early version of the script, Rock's character was related to David Tapp, who was played by Danny Glover in the first movie. Stolberg and Goldfinger decided not to go this way because it didn't make sense. In May 2021, Bousman said that he and Costas Mandylor had talked about bringing Mark Hoffman back in a future movie. Bousman and the rest of the crew talked a lot about having Tobin Bell play Jigsaw in the movie until the last day of filming. However, they thought that if they brought Bell back, the movie would feel more like the ninth installment of the Saw series than like a separate movie, which is what it was meant to be. Since Jigsaw died in the third movie, Bousman thought that the previous movies did not do Jigsaw justice by using flashbacks to bring him into the story. He didn't want to make the same mistake in Spiral (2021) or disrespect Bell's iconic performance. Bousman thought about having Bell sing a Johnny Cash cover during the ending sequence of Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), but he decided against it because he thought it was too gimmicky.
Tobin Bell didn't appear in Spiral: From the Book of Saw for whatever reason.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the first Saw film without Tobin Bell as Jigsaw.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Stolberg stated that Jigsaw was never included in any draft of the screenplay for Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), as the inclusion of Jigsaw would have altered the story's foundation; they did not intend to diminish the character, but rather wanted to move the franchise in a different direction. Stolberg also felt that due to the franchise's timeline, any possible connection between John Kramer and William Schenk / The Spiral (2021) Killer should have occurred when the latter was still a child, taking into account his portrayer's age; Stolberg and Goldfinger proposed at one point to have an after-credits sequence in which Kramer met a young Schenk after the murder of the latter's father and befriended him, possibly giving him the puppet he later uses as the
Because the killer in the film is a Jigsaw copycat who differs from the original, it was decided to replace Billy the Puppet with a new puppet in the form of Mr. Snuggles, as Bousman believed that if the original Jigsaw was replaced, the original puppet should be replaced as well, so the new killer could not be compared. The production feared that using Bell's voice for Mr. Snuggles would raise questions about the relationship between the two killers; an early draft actually featured Jigsaw's voice only to be revealed as a digitally altered version of his voice, and the story originally had all the speeches as past recordings of Jigsaw's voice using words in a different order to show that the Spiral Killer had digitally rearranged the words to show that the Spiral: From the Book of Saw Killer had digitally rearranged the The filmmakers had a difficult time replacing Bell's voice as the murderer. Bousman auditioned a variety of women, children, and men's voices before deciding on the computer produced voice. Only two days before the sound mix was finished, the final voice for the movie was chosen.
Spiral: Behind the Scenes
The film officially began pre-production on May 16, 2019. Former series director Darren Lynn Bousman will direct the feature, which will be produced by Burg and Koules. In addition to developing the plot proposal, Rock was engaged as an executive producer.
Rock now has James Wan, Leigh Whannell, and Daniel Heffner serving as executive producers. Wan and Whannell were the original filmmakers of Saw. It has been established that Stolberg and Goldfinger will be writing the screenplay.
Along with the news, Rock noted that he has been a fan of the Saw franchise ever since it released its debut picture in 2004. He was delighted by the possibility to take this to a very severe and twisted new level, which he thought would be a great challenge.
Bousman didn't want to direct another Saw movie after Saw IV, so when Rock asked him to direct a Broadway show in New York City, he said no.
When it came to buddy police movies like 48 Hrs., Burg and Koules compared Rock's approach of Saw to what Eddie Murphy had done for buddy cop pictures. According to the director, Spiral: From the Book of Saw has less violence and gore than previous Saw films, stating his belief that gore and violence were a gimmick for him when he first began working on the films, but that both components now serve the plot, which focuses more on character, suspense and terror.
Stolberg also indicated that the ninth episode would live in the same continuity as the previous eight films and will not be a reboot or direct sequel to Jigsaw.options for Spiral's cast members
Rock played Zeke Banks. Rock, Stolberg, and Goldfinger conceived the character from conversations they had before writing the screenplay, with Rock wondering what he would do if he were the original Saw protagonist Dr. Lawrence Gordon and forced to cut off his own foot. They decided it would be interesting if Rock played a cop ostracized by his colleagues.
Samuel L. Jackson decided to portray Chief Marcus Banks because he wanted to execute a new sequence, as when his character is hung up like a marionette. Marisol Nichols was hired as Captain Angie Garza. The character was initially intended for a male actress, but the producers handed it to Nichols, who, despite being a Saw fan, saw David Fincher's Seven to prepare. Patrick McManus initially auditioned for Detective Marv Bozwick but was cast as Peter Dunleavy. Dan Petronijevic was selected as Bozwick.
Max Minghella, a devotee of horror and buddy-cop films, took on the role of William Schenk / The Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) Killer because he wanted to act in a movie with straightforward story-telling like the buddy police of his childhood like 48 Hrs.
How was the experience of shooting Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)?
Under the working title of The Organ Donor, principal shooting started on July 8, 2019, in Toronto, Ontario, with Jordan Oram acting as cinematographer. The picture will feature Rock, Jackson, Minghella, and Nichols, among others. According to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock, as well as Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols, will make this picture wholly unique in the Saw canon, and they can't wait to share this surprising and scary new narrative with fans of the series. On full blast, this was the next level of Saw. On set, Rock contributed rewrites and entirely reworked his character's introductory sequence. According to Bousman, a sequence with a trap was deleted from the film because it was too gruesome.
Officially, filming ended on August 28th, 2019. In post-production, Dev Singh finished the film's editing.
How was Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) promoted?
The film was formerly known as the working title The Organ Donor; however, on January 22, 2020, the name Spiral (2021) was leaked to the press, along with the news that Mongrel Media will be the Canadian distributor. The title of the movie was revealed to be Spiral with the publication of the film's first teaser poster and trailer on February 5, 2020.
Spiral's theatrical and streaming debut
In the United States, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was going to be released on October 23, 2020 according to the film's initial release date plan, which was handled by Lionsgate Films. The original date of July 15, 2020 was pushed ahead to May 15, 2020 in July 2019. The release of the movie was pushed back to May 21, 2021, as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 epidemic. This date will now take the place that John Wick: Chapter 4 was supposed to occupy. Later on, the release date was moved up to May 14, 2021, one week earlier than originally planned, just as movie theaters were starting to reopen.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw will premiere exclusively on Starz in the United States on October 8, 2021, according to Lionsgate's announcement on May 25, 2021. Via June 1, 2021, Spiral was launched in Canada on PVOD.
How would you rate Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), if you could?
According to Darren Lynn Bousman, the picture was granted an NC-17 classification by the Motion Picture Association 11 times before ultimately receiving a R rating after editing enough sequences.
How much did Spiral (2021) make at the theaters?
As of March 3, 2022, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) had made $23.2 million in the U.S. and Canada and $17.3 million in other countries, for a total of $40.6 million around the world.
Spiral (2021) was released in North America with Those Who Wish Me Dead, Profile, and Finding You, with an opening weekend take of $10–15 million expected from 2,811 theaters. A drop from the original forecast of $9 million to $3.7 million was achieved on the first day of release (including $750,000 from Thursday night previews). It opened with $8.8 million, topping the box office for the sixth time in the series, although it was the franchise's lowest opening weekend. Males accounted for 56 percent of the audience and 75 percent of the audience was under 35 years old, with a favorable reaction more prevalent on the East Coast. Despite a 48 percent decline to $4.6 million during the next weekend, it stayed at the top of the charts.
What did critics say about the movie Spiral (2021)?
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 reviewers are favorable, averaging 5.1/10. Spiral promises a fresh approach for the Saw series, but the grisly whole is less than its pieces.
Based on 33 reviewers, Metacritic gave the film a score of 40 out of 100, indicating mixed or mediocre reviews.
CinemaScore rated the picture a B- on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak said 63% of viewers liked it, with 43% saying they'd suggest it.
According to one reviewer, "the picture takes an unexpected twist or two," yet given that it's a thriller about police immorality, "the film handles that subject in a strangely untopical, even garishly generic fashion."A different film critic thought that the screenplay captured the grizzled-cop-movie tone and created some memorable characters, but that the story was boring, the mystery was frustratingly predictable, and the creative deaths were less creative than ever. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) gave up fun in order to be taken seriously, but it didn't end up being either.
Many film reviews deemed Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) to be a truly terrifying, albeit unevenly paced, detective thriller, while also criticizing its writing for failing to communicate the possible tensions between the father-and-son relationship of its primary protagonists.
Others praised the performance and Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s simple yet captivating idea, although some made criticisms of the voice actor's impression of Kermit the Frog in the role of the unknown assassin. They also noted how gruesome the gore and screaming scenes are for a real audience. They are, in fact, the enticement.
A film reviewer awarded the film one star out of five and criticized its finale, noting that he believed it was hurried and half-assed and clumsily written and worst of all, becoming progressively uninteresting.. He concluded his evaluation by declaring that the game was over.
Another reviewer awarded the picture a one-and-a-half star rating because of its tone and Darren Lynn Bousman's directing, which he stated disappointed him because of his love for the performers, and called it unreadable for its lack of tension, plotline, and plot advancement.
A separate film reviewer complimented the opening sequence but concluded that it was the film's sole redeeming feature, stating that the idea is "dishonest at best and fearmongering at worst." This film is not as brilliant as it thinks it is, like Jigsaw presenting one of his simple riddles.
One critic gave the movie a 3 out of 10 and said that Spiral: From the Book of Saw is likely to turn off both Saw fans and people who don't know much about the series. It looks and sounds nothing like the series and can't even meet the most basic visual and story expectations. It's also a bad movie in general that tries to tell a story that is important to society but can't do it. He also said that the movie didn't have much to do with the Saw series. He said that Spiral (2021) is barely a Saw movie because it only shows the visceral thrill of mutilation briefly and doesn't follow any of the other rules of the series. It's also the most boring and insensitive version of what it's supposed to be: a rejected pilot episode for a boring police procedural.
Internet Personality Take on Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) by Decker Shado. Spiral, the newest film in the Saw series, will be released in late 2021 and is based on the Book of Saw and the imagination of Chris Rock. A murderer on the prowl is testing his victims with mechanical contraptions that are as frightening as they are brilliant. After a whole SUMMER OF SAW, you should know the routine by now. At least, that's the gist of things. Many of these traps fall short, and the methods and purpose are often a little incorrect. In his video, he explains it much better.
Another film reviewer felt the notion isn't wasted. The franchise doesn't require revamping. After a promising start, Spiral: From the Book of Saw becomes a decent Saw movie with larger names—one whose jaundiced lighting and procedural narrative remind David Fincher's Se7en. Whether the objective was to determine if a new perspective on a long-running series could withstand sequels, it's over.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw fumbles through its fundamental riddle without elegance, flair, or even much thinking, according to a film reviewer who gave the picture a bad review. Even the death traps lack creativity. He recognized the picture's promise, adding that the most frustrating aspect of Spiral is that a better, wiser film lies behind all the foolishness. There are just too many fast cuts and sequences when the pace ramps up. The awful speech, which is blasted at full volume, is irritating. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) is ultimately a picture about corrupt, even deadly officers having a reckoning, and that kind of material has the potential to be both subversive and current for a Hollywood film, but it has to be noted that Spiral is almost irritating in how little it appears to care about any of this. It just wants to bleed a lot, which it does.
The sequel to Spiral: From the Book of Saw has yet to be announced.
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 doesn't imply Saw is over. Spiral (2021) 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 does and how viewers react. Josh Stolberg said the script was done in December.
Spiral (2021) on TV?
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 of Twisted Television about making a TV show based on Spiral: From the Book of Saw.