10 Ridiculously Overhated Recent Movies

Spiral: From the Book of Saw got an overly harsh response not just from critics, but also from fans of the series.

Fans might've been alienated by the way this installment was so disconnected from the main narrative of the series, which is understandable to an extent, but any film should be judged fairly as an overall package. If one does that with Spiral, there's loads to like.

It's a brutally tense cinematic bloodbath filled with potent horror scenes and harrowing displays of karma, and it'll have viewers the world over watching through their fingers. So even if this is a very different Saw movie, it's still just as shocking and gloriously messed up as the franchise's best installments.

Furthermore, although the pacing is too quick and the final twist is so obvious it isn't even funny, the film's strong cast - led by a pre-slap Chris Rock, who plays against type rather well - stylish visuals and well-written dialogue more than compensates for these shortcomings. Overall, this is an absolutely rock-solid Seven-esque murder mystery, and certainly not the bad movie many accused it of being.

Interestingly, Spiral - which tackles the subject of police corruption - came out at the same time as Candyman (2021), which covered similar themes. Spiral actually tackled the subject with far more nuance than Candyman, which received far better reviews despite being a terrible film by any traditional measure of quality.