Spiral: From the Book of Saw is a horror movie that will come out in 2021. It was written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. It is the ninth movie in the series of Saw movies. Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson are all in the movie, which is about how the police try to stop a killer who looks like Jigsaw. As executive producers, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, who came up with the idea for the series, and Kevin Greutert, who has worked on both Rock and the series before, are in charge.After the release of Jigsaw in 2017, Chris Rock expressed a desire to go into the horror genre with a new Saw film. However, the Spierig Brothers, who had hoped to return to helm another picture, opted against it. As of May of this year, Rock is working on a screenplay written by Stolberg and Goldfinger. July and August were the months of shooting in Toronto for the remainder of the actors.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw, originally set for May 2020, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and released on May 14, 2021 by Lionsgate. The film garnered mixed reviews from reviewers, who applauded the franchise's new approach but weren't sure whether it properly reinvented it.
What is Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s plot?
Detective Marv Bozwick, who is not on duty, chases a thief down a sewer drain pipe during a Fourth of July parade. Bozwick is attacked from behind by a person wearing a pig mask. When he wakes up, he is hanging by his tongue in an active subway tunnel. A recorded message tells him he can either cut out his tongue and live or wait until the next train comes, which will kill him. Bozwick is killed by the train because he can't get out of the trap in time. The next day, Captain Angie Garza of the police department pairs Detective Zeke Banks with William Schenk, an idealistic rookie. Banks and Schenk look into Bozwick's death, and Banks realizes that the way he died is similar to how the now-dead Jigsaw Killer did things.
A homicide investigator, Fitch, was kidnapped and put in a trap where he had to tear his fingers off to prevent electrocution in a filling water basin; he also failed to escape, and died. Due of his previous association with Fitch, several police began to assume that Banks may be the culprit. On arriving at the station, Schenk's tattooed skin is found inside an animal puppet. This butcher shop, where Banks and his father, former police chief Marcus Banks, used to frequent, is now the target of a lead found in a little vial inside the box that was found by the police. The crew finds a tape recorder and a skinned body, which they identify as that of Schenk. Taking matters into his own hands, Marcus heads to a warehouse, where he is kidnapped. In the precinct's cold storage, Garza is abducted and forced to cut her spinal chord with a blade in order to prevent hot wax from dripping into her face. If she does not, she will die from her injuries as soon as Banks comes across her corpse and the wax has melted.
Banks is taken captive while following a lead, and when he comes to in the warehouse, he is tied to a pipe and there is a hacksaw nearby. He gives some thought to cutting off his arm, but he is able to get away by using a bobby pin that is loose. He then finds his old colleague, Peter Dunleavy, who was sacked and sentenced to jail after Banks uncovered a murder he committed, shackled in place. Banks was the one who exposed the crime. In front of him is a large piece of machinery designed to break glass, and it has been adapted to swiftly throw shrapnel in his direction. A voice on a tape recorder tells Banks that he has the option of either releasing him or abandoning him to his fate. In spite of Banks' best efforts, he is unable to retrieve the key in time to rescue Dunleavy. Banks then moves to another chamber where he discovers Schenk, who it turns out pretended to be dead by using the skinned body of the thief who lured Bozwick into the tunnels. Schenk was the copycat the whole time, and it was shown that he had faked his own death. He says that his real surname is Emmerson and that he is the son of Charlie Emmerson, who was the victim of a murder committed by Dunleavy because Charlie had promised to testify against a corrupt law enforcement official. In addition to this, he discloses that Marcus, during the period that he served as chief, purposefully sheltered corrupt cops in order to rid the streets of crime more effectively in accordance with Article 8.
Emmerson believes Banks may be an ally, so he gives him a last test, which shows Marcus restrained in the air and slowly being drained of blood. Emmerson contacts 9-1-1 and pretends to be a citizen being chased by a gunman, prompting a SWAT unit to be sent to his area. He delivers Banks a handgun and one cartridge, instructing him to either fire a target that would rescue Marcus while allowing Emmerson to go, or to murder Emmerson and let Marcus bleed to death. To rescue his father, Banks fires at the target, loosening his shackles and lowers him to the ground, before fighting Emmerson. The SWAT squad comes shortly after and accidentally sets off a tripwire, yanking Marcus upward again. Marcus' arm gets fitted with a gun, causing the SWAT squad to mistake him for the shooter and murder him. As Emmerson flees, Banks shouts in sorrow.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) starred who?
Zeke Banks was played by Chris Rock. Detective William Schenk/Emerson was played by Max Minghella.
Young William was played by Leonidas Castrounis. The role of Marcus Banks was played by Samuel L. Jackson.
Captain Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols.
Daniel Petronijevic portrays Marv Bozwick, a detective. Richard Zeppieri played the role of Detective Fitch.
Peter Dunleavy was played by Patrick McManus.
As Officer Jeannie Lewis, Ali Johnson was played by Ali Johnson. She played Kara Bozwick in the movie.
Dylan Roberts was Morgey Silva. Inspector Drury was played by K. C. Collins.
Edie Inksetter was Deborah Kraus. Coroner Chada was played by Nazneen Contractor. Thomas Mitchell gave the performance of Detective Tim O'Brien in the show. Chad Camilleri gave the performance of Benny Wrights. Speez was played by Christopher Ramsay. Charlie Emmerson was played by Frank Licari. Genelle Williams is Lisa Banks.
Officer Pat Jones was played by Trevor Gretzky.
Tobin Bell, who portrayed John Kramer / Jigsaw in all previous Saw films, did not return in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), making it the first film in the series without him or the character beyond photos. Bousman said the film's murderer is a Jigsaw copycat and he won't replace Bell in the legendary role. Bell wanted to return as Jigsaw provided the narrative explored the origins of Billy the Puppet.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw's association with Chris Rock
Chris Rock pitched Spiral (2021) to Lionsgate as a chance to revitalize the Saw series and his own career.According to Chris Rock, the inspiration for Spiral came from a chance meeting with Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns at a friend's wedding in Brazil, and he felt that doing something in the horror genre would be a new direction for him 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 was enthusiastic. Rock's approach was totally respectful of the material's past while reinvigorating the brand with his humour, artistic vision, and enthusiasm for this legendary horror property, according to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake. According to industry reports, Lionsgate has began conversations for a ninth Saw film in January 2018, however the Spierig Brothers would not be returning. In an interview with Screen Rant, the filmmakers stated that their picture paved the way for future sequels. Twisted Pictures and Jigsaw authors Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger were working on a sequel by April 2018.
Mark Burg and Oren Koules phoned Stolberg and Goldfinger following the release of Jigsaw to alert them about Rock's plans for a new Saw picture, with Rock calling the trio soon after to explore his notion. A number of alternative concepts were submitted to Lionsgate before Rock came, but none of them were accepted. Stolberg and Goldfinger had already created eight distinct versions of the picture before Rock arrived and blended his vision with the duo's. For Rock, Burg and Koules commissioned a proposal from the pair. When Stolberg and Goldfinger presented their proposal to both Rock and Lionsgate, they were both enthusiastic about it, encouraging them to begin writing their first draft. It was Rock's job to help with the writing of Stolberg and Goldfinger.
In an early draft, Rock's character was linked to Danny Glover's David Tapp from the previous film. Stolberg and Goldfinger decided against going in this way since it didn't smell right. Bousman said in May 2021 that negotiations had been place regarding perhaps recasting Costas Mandylor as Mark Hoffman in a future film. Tobin Bell's appearance as Jigsaw in the film was heavily debated by Bousman and the crew until the last day of production, but they thought that bringing Bell back would make the film seem like the ninth edition of the Saw series rather than a new picture as it was intended. Because the Jigsaw character was killed off in the third picture, Bousman believed that earlier films did Jigsaw a disservice by bringing him into the tale via flashbacks, and he didn't want to make the same error in Spiral: From the Book of Saw or disrespect Bell's legendary performance. Bousman explored including Bell in Spiral (2021) by having Bell perform a Johnny Cash song during the concluding scene, but discarded the idea because he thought it was too gimmicky.
Tobin Bell missed Spiral.
Tobin Bell didn't play Jigsaw in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), making it the first Saw film without him.
Despite discussions after the first test screening and through post-production, Stolberg told Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw was never included in any draft of Spiral: From the Book of Saw's screenplay. They felt that including Jigsaw would alter the story they were trying to tell, not to diminish the character but to take the franchise in a new direction. Stolberg felt that due to the franchise's timeline, any possible connection John Kramer could have had with William Schenk / The Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) Killer should have been when the latter was still a child; Stolberg and Goldfinger proposed at one point to have an after-credits sequence where Kramer met a young Schenk after the murder of the latter's father and bonded with him, possibly giving him the puppet he later uses as the Spiral Killer.
It was decided to replace Billy the Puppet with a new puppet known as Mr. Snuggles because the killer in the film is a Jigsaw imitator who is different from the original. This decision was made because director Darren Lynn Bousman felt that if the original Jigsaw was replaced, the original puppet should also be gone and replaced with a new one so that the new killer cannot be compared to the old one. 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: From the Book of Saw (2021) Killer had digitally rearranged the words. The production feared that reusing Bell's voice for Mr. Snuggles could have created questions about the relationship between both killers because Bell's voice was considered to be too iconic The producers had a difficult time finding a new voice for the murderer to replace Bell's original performance. Before deciding on the voice that was replicated by the computer, Bousman tried out a variety of voices, including those of men, women, and children. Only two days before to the completion of the sound mix, the final voice that would be utilized in the film was chosen.
Inside Spiral: From the Book of Saw
The film began pre-production on May 16. Former series director Darren Lynn Bousman and Burg and Koules produced the film. In addition to being an executive producer, Rock wrote the narrative treatment.James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Daniel Heffner, who created Saw, have joined Rock as executive producers. As scriptwriters, Stolberg and Goldfinger have been confirmed.
Rock said that he has liked the Saw movies since the first one came out in 2004. He was excited about the chance to take this to a new, very dark, and strange place.
Rock suggested Bousman direct a Broadway production when Bousman declined to direct Saw IV.
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.
Stolberg also indicated that the ninth film would be in the same canon as the previous eight and not a reboot or direct sequel to Jigsaw.Options for Spiral's cast
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 do something new, like the climax sequence when he's 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, watched David Fincher's Seven to prepare. Patrick McManus initially auditioned for Detective Marv Bozwick but was cast as Peter Dunleavy. Dan Petronijevic played Bozwick.
Max Minghella is a fan of both horror movies and buddy-cop movies. He took on the role of William Schenk / The Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) Killer because he yearned of starring in a movie with simple story-telling like the buddy cops of his youth such as 48 Hrs., and when he read the script, he felt that it was that along with a Saw film. Max Minghella is a fan of both buddy-cop movies and horror movies.
How was it working on the set of Spiral (2021)?
Jordan Oram is the cinematographer for The Organ Donor, which started principal filming on July 8, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario. The film will include performances by Rock, Jackson, Minghella, and Nichols. According to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock, as well as Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols, will make this picture utterly unique in the Saw series, and they can't wait to unleash this surprising and scary new plot on fans of the genre. On full throttle, this was the next level of Saw. On set, Rock rewrote his character's debut sequence and entirely reworked it. According to Bousman, a sequence involving a trap was deleted from the movie because it was too gruesome.
It was declared over on August 28, 2019. Dev Singh finished the editing in post-production.
It's not clear to me just how Spiral (2021) was promoted.
The working title of The Organ Donor was used until the name Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was leaked to the press on January 22, 2020, along with Mongrel Media as the Canadian distributor. Spiral was confirmed as the title of the film in the first teaser poster and trailer, which were published on February 5, 2020.
The theatrical and streaming release of Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was set for release on October 23, 2020, by Lionsgate Films. July 2019 rescheduled it until May 15, 2020. Due to COVID-19, the film's release was postponed until May 21, 2021, stealing John Wick: Chapter 4's position. It was moved forward to May 14, 2021, when cinemas reopened.
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 (2021) was launched in copyright on PVOD.
How would you rate Spiral, if you could?
According to Darren Lynn Bousman, the picture was rated NC-17 11 times before getting an R.
How much did Spiral (2021) make at the theaters?
Spiral: From the Book of Saw has amassed a global total of $40.6 million in revenue as of March 3, 2022, with the United States of America and copyright accounting for $23.2 million of that total and other regions contributing $17.3 million.
For its opening weekend, Spiral: From the Book of Saw was expected to make $10–15 million from 2,811 theaters in the United States and copyright with Those Who Wish Me Dead, Profile, and Finding You. As a result, predictions for the film's opening weekend dropped to $9 million from the original $3.7 million (including $750,000 from Thursday night previews). It went on to launch at $8.8 million, leading the box office (the sixth time for the series) but marked the lowest opening weekend of the franchise. Audiences reported on were 56 percent male and 75 percent under the age of 35, with a favorable reaction occurring more commonly near the East Coast of the United States. The next weekend, it held onto the top spot despite a 48 percent decline in revenue to $4.6 million.
Spiral (2021) got mixed reviews from reviewers.
Film critics liked how Spiral (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.
On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, 37 percent of 221 reviewers' reviews are favorable, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus was Spiral reveals an exciting new approach for the Saw series, even if the gruesome whole is somewhat less than its pieces.
The film received a score of 40 out of 100 on Metacritic, which is a weighted average and is based on the opinions of 33 different reviewers. This indicates that the reviews were either mixed or average.
CinemaScore audiences rated the picture a B- on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak said 63% gave it a good review and 43% would certainly recommend it.
It's a thriller about police immorality, so the film tackles that topic in an oddly offtopic, almost garishly generic way, according to a film critic who saw it.
A separate reviewer said the writing caught the grizzled-cop-movie tone and created some memorable characters, but the plot was repetitive, the mystery was annoyingly foreseeable, and the inventive deaths were less imaginative than before. Spiral (2021) traded entertainment value for respectability, but failed to accomplish either goal.
Many film reviews praised Spiral: From the Book of Saw as a really terrifying, albeit unevenly paced, detective thriller, while criticizing its writing for failing to depict the potential tensions between its major characters' father-son relationship.
Some film reviewers praised the performance and Spiral: From the Book of Saw's simple yet captivating idea, but they also remarked on the unknown killer's voice, which he claimed sounded like Kermit the Frog, and stated that the screams and gore aren't something that should be endured by the movie's genuine audience. They are the attraction, in fact.
The finale was panned by a film reviewer, who awarded the film one out of five stars and said that he believed it was hurried, half-assed, clumsily written, and worst of all, progressively uninteresting. He gave the picture one rating out of five. The phrase "game over" was how he concluded his evaluation.
Another film critic awarded the movie one and a half stars and made negative comments about the film's tone and the direction that it was given by Darren Lynn Bousman. He said that he was disappointed by the direction because he had praised the cast, and he described the movie as being "downright illegible" due to its lack of tension, story, and progression in the plot.
A separate film reviewer complimented the opening sequence but deemed it to be the film's sole redeeming feature, stating that the idea is "dishonest at best and fearmongering at worst." This film, like one of Jigsaw's easy riddles, is not as clever as it thinks it is.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw: From the Book of Saw is likely to offend both Saw devotees and mainstream viewers, according to one observer. It's a shallow replica of the series, lacking key aesthetic and narrative elements. It's also a terrible picture that can't manage a socially significant tale. Spiral (2021) is hardly a Saw picture, delivering just momentarily on the primal pleasure of mutilation and none of the series' other precepts, he said. It's the most artless, tactless form of a failed police procedural pilot.
Critic In the words of Decker Shado on Spiral From the Book of Saw and the imagination of Chris Rock comes Spiral (2021), the most recent installment of the Saw series, which was released in late 2021. After a whole Summer of Saw, you should know the routine by now: a serial killer is on the street who does not murder his victims directly, but rather tests them with innovative and unsettling mechanical contraptions. At minimum, this is the premise. Quite a few of these traps leave a lot to be desired... both in terms of their methods and their purpose. His review explains it much more thoroughly.
Another critic stated it's not a concept waste. The franchise doesn't require a reboot. After a promising start, Spiral (2021) becomes a very average Saw movie with more stars than usual. Its jaundiced lighting and procedural narrative resemble David Fincher's Se7en. Whether the goal was to explore if a new approach on a long-running series could withstand sequels, it failed.
A film reviewer gave the film a bad review, noting that Spiral: From the Book of Saw fumbles through its fundamental enigma without elegance or flair, or even much thinking. Even the death traps lack any kind of originality. His main criticism of Spiral (2021) was that below all of the fluff, there is a better, smarter picture waiting to be discovered. There are just too many fast cuts and scenes that pick up the tempo quickly. The horrible speech that's blasted at full volume is unpleasant. For a Hollywood picture, Spiral (2021) has the potential to be both subversive and relevant, but it's almost irritating in how little it appears to care about any of this in the film. It merely wants to bleed a lot of blood, which it does.
It's been almost a year since Spiral (2021)'s release.
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 (2021) doesn't imply Saw is over. Spiral: From the Book of Saw 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.
How likely is it that there will be a Spiral (2021)-themed television series?
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: From the Book of Saw.