Spiral: From the Book of Saw

Lionsgate | Release Date: May 14, 2021

5.2	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 131 Ratings

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rockram198Jun 4, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The political point of the film worked just fine, but I still left feeling disappointed. I got a feeling of contempt from the writers for Saw fans while watching this film. The Jigsaw 'copy-cat' has no interest in subjecting his victims to games - he is woefully uninteresting, merely another madman seeking revenge. I think this film was originally supposed to be its own thing until Lionsgate picked it up and retroactively pulled it into the Saw universe. At no point does this film feel at all indicative of a previous Saw film. There are no real choices to be made by the people in these traps. The killer simply wants to execute people, which is just not interesting at all. In fact, this kind of character has already been vilified and punished by Jigsaw in the past (e.g. Amanda, Hoffman). What hurts the most is that the sheer discrepancy between the copy-cat killer and Jigsaw himself is never really address by the film. This movie has absolutely no sense of what the core appeal of Saw is: Jigsaw's messed up ideology. The screenwriters think all the audience want is blood and gore with no regard for how or why the blood and gore is happening. No doubt, many people will buy tickets for just that reason, but that's not where the franchise's 1 billion dollar net profit comes from. This franchise would be nothing without its fans and ignoring what makes these films appealing to fans is such a disservice. At this point in the film one of two things should have happened:

1) Have either a new character with actual screen presence and charisma or a returning apprentice finish the film and trump the copy-cat's twist by subjecting him to a real game with a real choice, ending with his death and a real Jigsaw killer on the loose again.

2) Just straight up delete Saws 3-8 from the canon and start again with Tobin Bell, the only reason any Saw fan goes to see these films.

Can you think of a better ending? Making a political point about trigger happy cops is fine but this just feels awkwardly shoehorned into the Saw franchise. Apparently this film is considered to be a spin off with little to do with the OG films anyway. Spiral is not Saw IX, so I guess I just won't watch Spiral 2.… Expand

4 of 5 users found this helpful41

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Griz-May 17, 2021

Coming from a huge fan of the Saw franchise this movie is disappointing. I really wanted to like it but kind of fault like a drama film with a couple gore scenes.

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

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MetacriticOnurJun 2, 2021

bad
[ bad ]

adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36.
not good in any manner or degree.

5 of 9 users found this helpful54

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TheGayPhoenixMay 23, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I just saw Spiral and I wasn't a fan of it.

What I liked:
• The traps and how simplistic yet cringey they were.
• The style of editing and how similar enough to the other Saw movies it looked.

Things that I thought were okay:
• The acting.
• The pacing, which sometimes felt too fast (especially for the traps).

Things I didn't like:
• The timing of the traps. Most of them didn't give enough time for the victims to escape, and the glass crusher trap gave too much time and by the time the key came out, the guy was pretty much already dead.
• The twist at the end, which was pretty dumb and predictable.
• The SEVERE lack of Samuel L Jackson. His character was only given about 10 minutes (give or take) of total screen time with only 3 scenes.
• The killer's voice, for hopefully obvious reasons. At first, I liked it but the more he talked, the less threatening he sounded.

How I would rank the Saw movies from my favorite to my least favorite:
1
6
2
3
4
5
Jigsaw and Spiral are tied.
7… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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tsylataCehTMay 28, 2021

Никогда не смотрел пилу, но знаю что там есть какой то сюжет, крутые ловушки и тд. А что это за недоразумение я так понять и не смог.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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CreeTickJun 5, 2021

The more you watch this movie, the more you realise the director wants to prove that he/she can come up with more ways to be gruesome than the last and that's bloody great but the director gets really caught up in that forgetting he actuallyThe more you watch this movie, the more you realise the director wants to prove that he/she can come up with more ways to be gruesome than the last and that's bloody great but the director gets really caught up in that forgetting he actually has a story that needs proper telling. A good watch but the errors are also staring right back at you.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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sergiopalma02Nov 16, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The best part of this movie is the flashback scene where Chris Rock is 20 years old but hasn't been aged down except for a backwards cap and Samuel L. Jackson wears a fake mustache. The worst part of this movie is everything else.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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cristinasavi98Jul 2, 2023

Questo è il peggior film di Saw.
Non posso credere che i critici abbiano effettivamente affermato che l'ottava puntata era peggiore di questa.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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