What a glorious thing to be back at the theaters! 442 days have passed since I last ventured to the silver screen to see Corpus Christi, at the time blissfully unaware this would be my final theatrical experience in 2020. Now we are back, cinemas are reopening, and I'm ready to consume whatever Hollywood has to offer.
That Spiral, a Saw sequel, is my first movie back is a more random choice than anything. I've only seen the first Saw movie and have not indulged in any of the other several entries in the franchise. Like other gimmicky horror films like Final Destination, you get the premise with one film, and only really come back to see the more people put through torture by insanely complicated devices.
Spiral certainly delivers on the torture porn. This movie has a surprisingly stacked cast with Chris Rock, Max Minghella, and Samuel L. Jackson making up the main roles. They all play cops of the South Metro PD, and a disciple of the killer Jigsaw from the original films has decided it's time to make a political statement by killing "only those cops" that deserve it.
Chris Rock plays Det. Zeke Banks, a cop who ratted out a fellow officer many years ago and is still paying the price within his precinct. Tasked with showing rookie William (Minghella) the ropes, Zeke tracks down the various clues the new killer, who wears a pig mask, leaves. Meanwhile, cops who committed various sins from lying on the witness stand to covering up police brutality meet a grisly demise.
The film has a surprising amount of backstory to dole out; the movie has no time to establish Zeke's relationships with his peers, so we get fed bits of information in heavy-handed flashbacks that tend to overwhelm more than anything. The film is a refreshingly fleet 93 minutes, but it packs in a lot of story in its runtime and can't help but feel a little overstuffed at times.
Not to mention the theme of police brutality, always a rough subject has taken on more meaning than ever. Spiral is one of those films delayed by the pandemic, originally slated for a May 2020 release; it almost coincided with the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests that broke out across the nation. There has been a lot of ill-will towards the police, so your mileage may vary on seeing them torn apart on screen for their injustices.
Me, I just find the whole film pretty hokey. It has a predictable twist, and the traps are conceived in such a way as to make the victims think there is a chance at escape when there really isn't. You just watch someone scream as their tongue is ripped from their mouth or fingers detached from their hand. It's very unpleasant, and it doesn't really matter what sins the victim perpetrated.
Chris Rock gives it his all, and Sam Jackson is, well, Sam Jackson. If Saw is your sort of thing I think this will satisfy; it's certainly grislier than the film that kicked the whole series off, but I'm not sure how it compares to the other films in the series. This stuff really isn't my cup of tea, but damn was it nice to be back in a theater again.
No comments:
Post a Comment