Spiral (also subtitled From the Book of Saw) is a 2021 American horror thriller film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. It serves as a spin-off and the ninth installment of the Saw film series, following Jigsaw (2017). The film stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson, and follows police efforts to stop a Jigsaw copycat killer. The original creators of the series, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Rock and series veteran Kevin Greutert, serve as executive producers.
Talks of another Saw installment began after the release of the previous film, with Rock wanting to branch out into the horror genre. The project was officially announced in May 2019, with Rock polishing a script by Stolberg and Goldfinger. The rest of the cast joined in July, with filming taking place in Toronto through that month and August.
Scheduled to be released in May 2020, Spiral was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 14, 2021, by Lionsgate Films. The film grossed a total of $40.6 million against a budget of $20 million, becoming the lowest grossing installment in the franchise, and received mixed reviews from critics. A tenth installment, Saw X, was released in September 2023.
Plot During a Fourth of July parade, off-duty Detective Marv Bozwick chases a thief down a sewer drain pipe. Attacked from behind by a figure wearing a pig mask, Bozwick awakens to find himself suspended by his tongue in an active subway tunnel and is given a choice via recorded message: tear out his tongue and live, or remain until the next train arrives, killing him. Unable to escape the trap in time, Bozwick is hit by the train and killed.
The next day, police Captain Angie Garza assigns Detective Zeke Banks a new partner, idealistic rookie William Schenk. Zeke and Schenk investigate Bozwick's death and Zeke recognizes the elaborate trap as the modus operandi of the now deceased Jigsaw Killer.
Meanwhile, homicide detective Fitch – who several years prior had ignored a backup call from Zeke, resulting in Zeke nearly getting killed – is abducted and placed in a trap where he must allow a device to rip his fingers off to avoid electrocution in a filling water basin; he also fails to escape and dies. Some officers begin to suspect that Zeke may be responsible, due to his history with Fitch. A box then arrives at the station, containing a pig puppet and a piece of Schenk's tattooed skin inside. A small vial inside the box directs the police to a butcher shop, which was previously a hobby shop that Zeke and his father, retired chief Marcus Banks, used to visit. Upon arriving, the team discovers a tape recorder and a skinned corpse, identified as Schenk. Deciding to track down the killer himself, Marcus travels to a warehouse, where he is abducted. Shortly afterwards, Garza is kidnapped, and placed in a trap in the precinct's cold storage where she has to sever her spinal cord on a blade to stop boiling wax flowing from a pipe onto her face. She fails to do so and dies from her injuries, moments before Zeke discovers her body.
While chasing a lead, Zeke is captured and wakes up at the warehouse, handcuffed to a pipe with a hacksaw nearby. He considers sawing off his arm, but successfully escapes using a loose bobby pin. He then discovers his former partner Peter Dunleavy, who was imprisoned when Zeke exposed a murder he committed, chained in place. In front of him is a large glass-crushing machine, which has been modified to hurl shrapnel at him. A tape recorder explains that Zeke can choose to either free him or leave him to die. Although Zeke attempts to save Dunleavy, he cannot get the key in time. Moving to another room, Zeke then finds Schenk, who is revealed to have faked his own death by using the skinned corpse of the thief who lured Bozwick into the tunnels, and has been the copycat all along. He explains that his last name is actually Emmerson, the son of Charlie Emmerson, who was the man Dunleavy killed because he had agreed to testify against a dirty cop. He also reveals that Marcus, during his time as chief, deliberately protected corrupt officers to "clean" the streets of crime more efficiently under Article 8.
Believing that Zeke can be an ally, Schenk presents him with a final test, revealing Marcus suspended above the floor and slowly being drained of blood. Schenk calls 9-1-1 and claims that he is a civilian being pursued by a shooter, resulting in the dispatch of a SWAT team. He hands Zeke a revolver with one cartridge, and offers him the choice to either shoot a target that will save Marcus but allow Schenk to escape, or to kill Schenk and let Marcus bleed to death. Zeke shoots the target to save his father, causing his restraints to loosen and lowering him to the ground, and then begins to fight Schenk. The SWAT team arrives and inadvertently triggers a tripwire, causing Marcus's restraints to yank him upward again. The movement reveals a gun affixed to Marcus's arm, leading the SWAT team to mistake him for the shooter and kill him. Zeke screams in despair as Schenk escapes.
Cast
Production Development
According to Chris Rock, the origins of Spiral came from a chance meeting with the vice chairman of Lionsgate, Michael Burns, at a friend's wedding in Brazil, and he felt doing something in the horror genre would be a new avenue to take in his career, though he planned to include some comedic elements in the film. Rock approached Lionsgate with his ideas of extending the Saw franchise, who became very interested in the concept. Lionsgate's CEO Joe Drake said that Rock's idea was "completely reverential to the legacy of the material while reinvigorating the brand with his wit, creative vision and passion for this classic horror franchise". In April 2018, Twisted Pictures was beginning development of a sequel with Jigsaw writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. Hannah Emily Anderson had originally signed on to reprise her Jigsaw role of Eleanor Bonneville in two more films, none which materialized.
Following the release of Jigsaw, Stolberg and Goldfinger had been pitching a new Saw film focused solely on John Kramer / Jigsaw rather than on any of his established apprentices to series veterans Mark Burg and Oren Koules, but then Burg and Koules called the duo to inform them about Rock's ideas for a new film, with Rock contacting them shortly afterwards to discuss his concept. Prior to that, other writers had pitched their ideas for the next Saw film to Lionsgate, but none of them had succeeded, while Stolberg and Goldfinger had come up with eight different versions for the film before Rock arrived and merged his idea with that of the duo. The producers had intended to tell another story focused on John Kramer / Jigsaw for the next Saw film, which would later materialize into Saw X, so when their plans were put on hold by Burns, they proposed to bring Spiral closer into the Saw universe by adding Jigsaw to the story, but Lionsgate convinced them to make Spiral a stand-alone movie. Burg and Koules instructed the duo to come up with a pitch for Rock. Stolberg and Goldfinger did so, and their pitch was approved by both Lionsgate and Rock, leading them to write their first draft, which was greenlit a week after being turned in. Rock aided Stolberg and Goldfinger during the writing process, rewriting the story when necessary.
An early iteration of the script had Rock's character related to Danny Glover's David Tapp from the first film. Stolberg and Goldfinger opted not to go in this direction as it "didn't pass the smell test".
Tobin Bell, who played John Kramer / Jigsaw in all previous Saw films, did not return in the film, making Spiral the first film in the franchise which does not physically feature Bell or feature the Jigsaw character beyond photographs. Director Darren Lynn Bousman explained that the film's killer is a "Jigsaw copycat", not the original Jigsaw, stating his intention to not recast Bell in the iconic role. Bell had expressed interest in returning as Jigsaw if the story delved into the origins of Billy the Puppet. Having Bell appear as Jigsaw in the film was widely discussed by Bousman and the crew until the last day of filming, but they felt that by bringing Bell back, the film would feel like the ninth installment of the Saw franchise rather than a separate film like it was intended to be. As the Jigsaw character was killed off in the third film, Bousman felt that previous films did a disservice by using flashbacks to bring Jigsaw into the story and he did not want to repeat the same mistake in Spiral nor to disrespect Bell's iconic performance. Bousman considered having Bell sing a Johnny Cash cover during the ending sequence. Bell recorded the cover, but Bousman dropped the idea as too gimmicky.
Although discussions took place after the first test screening and through post-production, Stolberg stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw was never included in any draft for the screenplay of Spiral, as the filmmakers felt that including him would alter the "DNA" of the story they were trying to achieve and their desire to take the franchise in a new direction. Stolberg also felt that due to the franchise's timeline, any possible connection between John Kramer and William Schenk/the Spiral Killer would have been when the latter was still a child. Stolberg and Goldfinger proposed a post-credits scene in which Kramer bonds with a young Schenk after the murder of the latter's father, possibly giving him the puppet he later uses as the Spiral Killer. While this would create a relationship like those depicted in the first seven films, it was ultimately decided to abandon the idea.
In a further effort to differentiate between the two storylines, Bousman decided to replace Billy the Puppet with a new puppet, Mr. Snuggles. Deeming Bell's voice as too iconic, filmmakers feared that reusing it for Mr. Snuggles could have raised questions about the relationship between the killers; an early draft actually featured Jigsaw's voice, which would then be revealed as a digitally altered version. The story originally had all the speeches taken from past recordings of Jigsaw's voice using words in a different order. The filmmakers struggled to find a new voice for the killer to replace Bell's, testing numerous voices of women, children, and men. They finally settled on the computer-generated voice heard in the final film only two days before finishing the sound mix.
Pre-production