To say that the Saw franchise became somewhat convoluted is a massive understatement. Explain to me again how John Kramer is orchestrating this complex series of events some 5 movies after his death? It became a bit of a joke, how, in the third act, are the writers going to twist this around to not only reveal some new antagonist, but also to make links to events for something that happened elsewhere in the complex timeline.
So how do they fare in Spiral? I guess the answer lies in its full title ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’. Now that’s all kinds of awful for all kinds of reasons, but it tells us what we’re dealing with. This is a story that happens within the same universe, but the events are not directly linked to the myriad complexities of what happened in the Saw movies. This is a universe in which John Kramer exists, but the authorities talk of a copycat. We have inspiration and imitation but no connection. This is not, thankfully, a master and protégé story.
Certain things tie in into the Saw universe in the story: the mentions of Jigsaw, the Spiral motif, the fiendish and gory traps. This is played out in the direction too. The Saw score is used here. Other iconography of the series is present. The style of storytelling with the third act twist.
I guess the question is whether it needed to be a ‘Saw’ movie at all. At its heart it’s a thriller, a good cop in a race against time to stop the serial killer who’s target is a corrupt police force. The story works even if it is a tad predictable. It feels very much like this core story is at the heart of the piece, and then it’s been customised as a Saw story. You know what, that kind of works. It’s different to the Saw movies which spend much more time with those in the game rather than externals trying to stop it (though the franchise has these moments differently weighted in different films). As such, those moments when we did see someone taking part felt a little different. The first one is particularly gruesome. It’s only purpose seems to be establishing that yes, this is a Saw movie. The next is even stranger. We know the character is dead before we see the game played out. Therefore it serves no purpose other than the gore. For this reason, I think, those gory moments were perhaps the less effective.
This feels like the right choice for the franchise. Draw a line under John Kramer and move on. The producers have a choice now. They can continue with what they’ve started here for a couple of films, or they could flip to another page in the Book of Saw, show us how other vigilantes are acting in a post-Jigsaw world.