Spiral: From The Book Of Saw Review - 4 Ups & 6 Downs

Downs...

6. It's Another Lazy "Soft Reboot"

If Jigsaw marked an attempt to pass the torch from Tobin Bell's John Kramer to one final apprentice, many fans were left rather unconvinced by this.

As such, Lionsgate decided to hold fire on a direct sequel, instead eventually announcing a new take from the mind of Chris Rock.

And while Spiral does absolutely exist within the continuity of the original Saw movies, it more-or-less ends up feeling like a lazy copycat of the better entries in the series.

The casual mentions of John Kramer just feel like perfunctory lip-service to remind audiences this is actually a legit Saw movie, rather than a by-the-book thriller with the Saw label slapped on it.

Most of the changes made to the series' iconography - especially the awful new digitised Jigsaw voice - don't really work, and while Saw clearly had to move away from Kramer eventually, this just isn't a very inspired way to do it.

You can sense the filmmakers struggling to craft a storyline that pays fitting tribute to the series' past while also moving it in a direction for modern audiences.

Furthermore, the film's soft box office opening in the U.S. - even for the standards of the pandemic era - might suggest this new take on Saw is over before it's even really started.