SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW

SPIRAL is another ultraviolent SAW movie, about a Jigsaw copycat killer targeting a corrupt police department in an unnamed American city, starring Chris Rock as a good cop leading the task force trying to stop the vicious killer, but the good cop has been shunned by the other cops because, when he was younger, he exposed one of their fellow officers as corrupt. SPIRAL is mostly just more of the same gruesome torture porn, with maybe a little classier production, but the dialogue contains nearly constant foul language, and the movie seems to regurgitate some of the politically correct leftist lie that all cops are extremely corrupt.

The movie opens with one detective being lured into the subway system by a purse snatcher. The copycat Jigsaw killer captures him, puts him on a chair and places his head in an elaborate steel trap that will cut off his tongue. A video from the killer informs the cop that a train is coming and will hit him if he doesn’t bite down on a device in his mouth and sever his tongue with the steel trap. The killer’s voice informs the cop that the trap was designed because the cop’s lies on the witness stand have sent many innocent people to jail. Of course, as with nearly all the Jigsaw traps, the victim ends up dying, with the train splattering his body while the trap yanks his whole tongue from his mouth.

Chris Rock plays Detective Zeke Banks. Zeke likes to work alone because the other detectives have shunned him ever since he exposed a fellow officer as corrupt. Zeke’s father, Marcus, used to run the department, but has retired. The woman who’s taken his father’s place, Capt. Angie Garza, wants Zeke to investigate the dead body on the subway tracks. The body’s identity has not been discovered yet, however. Also, Garza wants Zeke to take on a partner, a rookie detective named William Schenk.

On the drive to the subway tracks, Zeke learns that William is happily married with a child. Zeke is undergoing a divorce, so he mocks William’s happy marriage. He predicts William’s wife will grow increasingly dissatisfied with being a cop’s wife. He points out that most crimes happen during the weekend. He says no amount of Tuesday nights with William will make up for the Saturday nights they will miss together because William has to work. He reminds William that cops have among the highest divorce and suicide rates.

Anyway, they soon discover that the victim on the subway tracks is a detective Zeke liked because he didn’t shun Zeke. Also, the copycat Jigsaw killer mails the man’s tongue to Zeke, along with a note. When a second murdered corpse shows up, Capt. Garza forms a task force, but wants someone other than Zeke to lead it. He convinces her, however, that he should lead the task force. Then, Zeke’s father goes missing as more dead, mutilated cops appear. The unknown killer keeps leaving notes accusing the dead cops of a serious act of corruption, including murder.

Can Zeke find out what happened to his father? Can Zeke stop this new fiend who’s torturing and killing cops?

The production values in SPIRAL, the new SAW movie, are perhaps higher than the previous sequels. However, it’s still just the same gruesome torture porn. Also, the new killer’s voice sounds rather wimpy, not creepy at all.

Besides the gruesome violence, SPIRAL contains the most foul language of any SAW movie, at least more than 190 obscenities and profanities, including many “f” words. Also, the copycat killer [SPOILERS FOLLOW] gets away with his vicious murders, and the hero cop fails to bring him to justice or save any of the cops targeted by him. Finally, SPIRAL ultimately tells an Anti-American, humanist, politically correct story that says corruption among American police officers is widespread. SPIRAL doesn’t give a racial tone to this message, however.