Spiral is a 2021 horror film written and directed by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger and produced by Darren Lynn Bousman. Saw 9 is the ninth film in the franchise. It stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson and explores police attempts to catch a Jigsaw copycat murderer. Exec producers include James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Rock and the show's longtime cast member Kevin Greutert.After the success of Jigsaw in 2017, Chris Rock expressed interest in returning to the horror genre with a sequel to Saw. Jigsaw's directors, the Spierig Brothers, were considering returning for a sequel but ultimately decided against it. Rock is polishing a screenplay by Stolberg and Goldfinger, which was formally unveiled in May 2019. The remainder of the actors arrived in July, and shooting took place in Toronto in July and August.
Spiral was originally set to be released in May 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Lionsgate released it in theaters on May 14, 2021. Critics appreciated the franchise's new approach but were split on whether it had entirely succeeded in revamping it.
What is the story of Spiral: From the Book of Saw about?
Off-duty Detective Marv Bozwick gives pursuit to a criminal who escapes during a Fourth of July parade by following him through a sewage drainage pipe. After being ambushed from behind by a person wearing a pig mask, Bozwick awakens to find himself suspended by his tongue in an active subway tunnel. He is given a choice via recorded message: either rip out his tongue and live, or remain until the next train arrives, which will kill him. Bozwick chooses to rip out his tongue and live. Bozwick is murdered by the train because he was unable to free himself in time from the trap. The next day, Police Captain Angie Garza partnered Detective Zeke Banks with an optimistic rookie named William Schenk. Banks and Schenk examine the death of Bozwick, and throughout their investigation, Banks finds that the manner in which Bozwick died is very similar to the Jigsaw Killer's mode of operation, which has since been put to rest.
Meanwhile, a homicide detective named Fitch is kidnapped and put in a trap where he must cut off his fingers to avoid electrocution in a basin of water that is filling up. He also can't get out of the trap and dies. Fitch had ignored a backup call from Banks a few years earlier, which almost killed him. Due to his history with Fitch, some officers start to think that Banks might be responsible. Then, a box with a pig puppet and a piece of Schenk's tattooed skin arrives at the station. A small vial inside the box tells the police to go to a butcher shop that used to be a hobby shop where Banks and his father, retired chief Marcus Banks, would go. When the team gets there, they find a tape recorder and Schenk's skinned body. Marcus decides to find the killer himself. He goes to a warehouse, where he is taken away. Soon after, Garza is kidnapped and put in a trap in the precinct's cold storage, where she has to cut her spinal cord with a blade to stop hot wax from coming out of a pipe onto her face. She fails to do so, and Banks finds her body after she has died from injuries caused by the boiling hot wax.
While pursuing a lead, Banks is abducted and wakes up in a warehouse chained to a pipe with a hacksaw nearby. An untightened bobby pin saved him from having his arm sawn off. His old colleague Peter Dunleavy, who was sacked and imprisoned after Banks disclosed a murder he committed, is shackled in place. In front of him is a massive glass-crushing machine, which has been modified to throw shrapnel towards him at a quick rate. You have two options: liberate him or let him die, as recorded on a cassette. The secret to save Dunleavy is out of Banks' hands, despite his best efforts. Banks then discovers Schenk, who is shown to have faked his own death by using the skinned body of the robber who lured Bozwick into the tunnels and has been the copycat all along. He adds that his last name is really Emmerson, the son of Charlie Emmerson, who was shot and executed by Dunleavy because he had promised to testify against a crooked officer. For the purposes of Article 8, he further indicates that when Marcus was chief, he purposefully supported corrupt personnel.
Believing Banks to be a potential ally, Emmerson puts him to the test by having him hold Marcus captive in the air while slowly draining him of blood. In response to Emmerson's 9-1-1 call, the dispatcher sends a SWAT squad to his position because he claims to be an innocent citizen being chased by a gunman. A revolver with one cartridge, he gives Banks a choice: either fire a target which would rescue Marcus but let Emmerson escape, or murder Emmerson and leave Marcus to die of his wounds. Before engaging in combat with Emmerson, Banks fires at a target to free his father from his chains. After doing so, he lowers his father to the ground. Shortly later, the SWAT squad comes and mistakenly causes Marcus' handcuffs to tug him upward again. The movement shows a gun strapped to Marcus' arm, which leads the SWAT squad to mistake him for the shooter and murder him. As Emmerson flees, Banks cries in agony with despair.
Who played who in Spiral?
Detective Zeke Banks was acted by Chris Rock.
Detective William Schenk / Emmerson was played by Max Minghella.
In the role of Young William, Leonidas Castrounis represented the actor. In the movie, Samuel L. Jackson played Marcus Banks. Marisol Nichols was cast in the role of Captain Angie Garza.
Daniel Petronijevic played Marv Bozwick.
Detective Fitch was played by Richard Zeppieri.
Peter Dunleavy was played by Patrick McManus.
Officer Jeannie Lewis was acted by Ali Johnson.
Palmer played Kara Bozwick.
Dylan Roberts played the role of Sergeant Morgey Silva.
K. C. Collins gave the performance of Detective Drury. Detective Deborah Kraus was played by Edie Inksetter. Coroner Chada was played by Nazneen Contractor. Detective Tim O'Brien was played by Thomas Mitchell in the show.
Camilleri played Benny Wrights. Chris Ramsay was Speez.
Charlie Emmerson was acted by Frank Licari.
The role of Lisa Banks was played by Genelle Williams. Trevor Gretzky played Pat Jones, an officer.
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.
Chris Rock was a part of Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
Chris Rock contacted Lionsgate with his Spiral: From the Book of Saw proposal as a chance to revitalize the Saw series as well as 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.
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 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 was in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021).
Tobin Bell did not reprise his normal role as Jigsaw in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), making it the first Saw film in which Bell did not appear.
Stolberg stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw 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 alter 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 Ki.
Since the film's killer is a Jigsaw copycat who is different from the original, it was decided to replace Billy the Puppet with a new puppet named Mr. Snuggles. Bousman thought that if the original Jigsaw was replaced, the original puppet should also be replaced with a new one so that the new killer can't be compared to the old one. The production team thought that using Bell's voice for Mr. Snuggles could have led to questions about the relationship between the two killers. In an early draft, Jigsaw's voice was used, but it turned out to be a digitally altered version of his voice. All of the speeches were also originally recorded versions of Jigsaw's voice with the words in a different order to show that the Spiral Killer had digitally rearranged the words. The moviemakers had a hard time replacing Bell's voice with a new one for the killer. Before he chose the voice made by the computer, Bousman tried out many voices of women, children, and men. The final voice in the movie was chosen just two days before the sound mix was done.
Spiral's backstage.
The film started pre-production on May 16, 2019. Former series director Darren Lynn Bousman will return to direct the feature, with Burg and Koules serving as producers. In addition to developing the narrative concept, Rock served as an executive producer.
Exec producers include original Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Scriptwriters Goldfinger and Stolberg have been confirmed.
Rock said he's been a Saw fan since 2004. He was eager to make it dramatic and weird.
Bousman turned rejected a Broadway production when Rock requested he direct it.
It was suggested by Burg and Koules that Rock's approach of Saw was analogous to what Eddie Murphy had done in 48 Hrs. with buddy cop movies. Furthermore, Bousman stated that Spiral (2021) contained less violence and gore than previous Saw films, expressing the belief that the gore and violence were the gimmick for him when he first started working in the Saw films, but that both elements now serve the story, which focuses more on character, tension and fear.
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 roles in the Spiral: From the Book of Saw 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 do something new, such as the climax sequence in which his character is hung up like a marionette. Marisol Nichols was chosen as Captain Angie Garza; the character was initially designed for a male actress, but the filmmakers finally selected Nichols, who, while being a Saw fan, preferred to watch David Fincher's Seven instead of the prior films in preparation for the role. Patrick McManus auditioned for the part of Detective Marv Bozwick in an effort to pursue an acting career on film and television after years of performing on stage, but was called back to portray Peter Dunleavy while Dan Petronijevic was cast 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 Killer because he wanted to act in a movie with straightforward story-telling like the buddy police of his childhood like 48 Hrs.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw's filming was...
The main filming started on July 8, 2019, in Toronto, Ontario. The working title of the movie is The Organ Donor, and Jordan Oram is the cinematographer. It was said that Rock, Jackson, Minghella, and Nichols would be in the movie. The CEO of Lionsgate, Joe Drake, said that Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Rock, Max Minghella, and Marisol Nichols would make this film unique in the Saw series, and they couldn't wait to show fans of this franchise this unexpected and scary new story. This was the next level when Saw was going full speed. On set, Rock made changes to the script and rewrote the scene where his character is introduced. Bousman says that a scene with a trap had to be cut from the movie because it was too scary.
Filming ended August 28, 2019. Singh edited post-production.
How did you go about marketing Spiral: From the Book of Saw?
The working title of the movie was The Organ Donor until January 22, 2020, when the name Spiral 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).
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) in theaters and streaming
Spiral: From the Book of Saw 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.
Lionsgate confirmed on May 25, 2021 that Spiral would premiere exclusively on Starz in the United States on October 8, 2021. Spiral (2021) was available on PVOD in copyright on June 1, 2021.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw's rating?
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.
Spiral made how much money at the box office?
Spiral grossed $23.2 million in the U.S. and copyright and $17.3 million in other regions as of March 3, 2022.
At 2,811 theaters, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was expected to make $10–15 million in its first weekend, with competition from Those Who Wish Me Dead, Profile, and Finding You (all of which were also released in North America). At $3.7 million on its opening day, the picture underperformed expectations, falling short of its $9 million budget (including $750,000 from Thursday night previews). Although it topped the box office for the sixth time in the series, its opening weekend was the lowest in the series. A favorable reaction was more common on the East Coast of the United States, where 56% of the audience was male and 75% were under the age of 35. Despite a 48 percent decline to $4.6 million, it was still number one the following weekend.
What did the critics say about Spiral: From the Book of Saw?
Despite the positive reviews Spiral: From the Book of Saw received from film reviewers, many believed it failed to give Saw the huge push it needed to reclaim its place as one of cinema's most popular franchises.
On Rotten Tomatoes, a website that collects reviews, 37 percent of the 221 reviews are positive, giving the movie an average rating of 5.1/10. The general opinion of the site's critics was that Spiral: From the Book of Saw suggests an interesting new direction for the Saw series, even though the gory whole is not as good as its parts.
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the movie a score of 40 out of 100 based on the opinions of 33 critics, which means that the reviews were mixed or average.
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.
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: From the Book of Saw (2021) traded entertainment value for respectability, but failed to accomplish either goal.
Many film reviews praised Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) as a really terrifying, albeit unevenly paced, detective thriller, while criticizing its writing for failing to communicate the possible tensions between its major characters' father-and-son relationship.
Some film reviewers praised the performances and Spiral's plain yet captivating idea, but noted the killer's voice sounded like Kermit the Frog and that for this movie's genuine audience, the screams and gore aren't to be endured. It's their attraction.
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 film reviewer in his one star and a half review, offered the picture critical notes for its tone and Darren Lynn Bousman's directing, which he stated disappointed him owing to his love for the performers, calling it outright unreadable for its lack of tension, plotline, and movement in the storyline.
A separate film reviewer complimented the opening sequence but called it the film's sole redeeming feature, noting that the idea is dishonest at best and fear mongering at worst. This film, like Jigsaw's easy puzzles, is not as brilliant as it thinks it is.
According to one reviewer, Spiral: From the Book of Saw: From the Book of Saw is likely to offend both Saw devotees and mainstream viewers. It's a poor rip-off of the show, failing to fulfill even the most basic aesthetic and narrative requirements. It's also a lousy movie in general, since it attempts to portray a socially important subject but falls short. Spiral: From the Book of Saw is barely a Saw picture, delivering only momentarily on the primal pleasure of mutilation, and on none of the series' other precepts, he said. It's also the most artless, tactless form of what it really is: a discarded pilot episode for a repetitive cop drama.
Decker Shado discussed his feelings towards Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021). It's Spiral (2021), the next Saw film from Chris Rock and the Book of Saw, which will be released in late 2021. 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 be familiar with the plot. At least, that's the gist of it. Several traps have a lot to live up to, as well as the methods and the objective of the traps. You may learn more about it in his video.
Another critic stated it's not a concept waste. The franchise doesn't require a reboot. After a promising start, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (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 fumbles through its fundamental enigma without elegance or flair, or even much thinking. Even the death traps are oddly unimaginative. He admitted the picture had promise, noting that the most frustrating thing about Spiral is that there is a better, wiser movie lying behind all the foolishness here. There are too many rapid cuts and speed ramping sequences. The horrible speech that's blasted at full volume is unpleasant. Spiral: From the Book of Saw is ultimately a picture about corrupt, and even deadly officers suddenly facing a reckoning, and that type of material has the potential to be both subversive, for a Hollywood movie, and current but remarked that Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) is almost irritating in how little it appears to care about any of this. It merely wants to bleed a lot of blood, which it does.
Will Spiral: From the Book of Saw have a second part?
Twisted Pictures revealed in April 2021 that a sequel film, named Saw X, is in the works. Bousman, on the other hand, felt that the announcement was made too soon, which startled him and the film's producers. He claims that just because they created Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) doesn't imply the Saw franchise is dead. Spiral (2021)'s arrival does not rule out the possibility of Saw IX. This is not the ninth installment in the Saw series. Jigsaw might very well be followed by Saw IX. I believe they're waiting to see how Spiral: From the Book of Saw performs and how viewers react before deciding what to do next. In December of that year, Josh Stolberg announced that the script was completed.
A Spiral (2021) TV series?
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 (2021), with Mark Burg and Oren Koules' Twisted Television productions.