Facts About Spiral (Saw Sequel)

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is a 2021 horror film written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Josh Stolberg, and Peter Goldfinger. The ninth entry in the Saw film franchise. Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson feature in this thriller about police attempts to arrest a copycat Jigsaw murderer. Executive producers include the series' original creators, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, as well as Rock and series veteran Kevin Greutert.

After the release of Jigsaw in 2017, Chris Rock expressed a desire to go into the horror genre, prompting speculation of a new Saw film. Jigsaw's directors, the Spierig Brothers, were interested in returning for another feature but ultimately opted against it. In May 2019, the project was formally unveiled, with Rock polishing a screenplay written by Stolberg and Goldfinger. The remainder of the cast joined in July, with shooting in Toronto taking place in July and August.

Spiral, originally set for May 2020, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and released on May 14, 2021 by Lionsgate. The film garnered mixed reviews from reviewers, who applauded the franchise's new approach but weren't sure whether it properly reinvented it.

Spiral's storyline



Detective Marv Bozwick, who is not on duty, chases a thief down a sewer drainage pipe during a Fourth of July parade. Bozwick is attacked from behind by a person wearing a pig mask. When he wakes up, he is hanging by his tongue in an active subway tunnel. A recorded message tells him he has two options: cut out his tongue and live, or stay until the next train comes and kills him. Bozwick is killed by the train because he couldn't get out of the trap in time. The next day, Captain Angie Garza of the police department gives Detective Zeke Banks a new partner: William Schenk, a young officer with a lot of good ideas. Banks and Schenk look into how Bozwick died, and Banks realizes that this is similar to how the now-dead Jigsaw Killer did things.

Meanwhile, a murder investigator called Fitch is kidnapped and put in a trap where he must pull his fingers off to prevent electrocution in a filling water basin; he too fails to escape and dies after ignoring a backup call from Banks some years previously. Because of his relationship with Fitch, several police assume Banks is to blame. The station is then visited by a package carrying a pig puppet and a portion of Schenk's tattooed flesh. A little vial inside the box leads the cops to a butcher shop that was originally a hobby business frequented by Banks and his father, retired chief Marcus Banks. When the squad arrives, they find a recording recorder and a skinned body identified as Schenk. Marcus decides to seek out the murderer himself and heads to a warehouse, where he is kidnapped. Garza is abducted and put in a trap in the precinct's cold storage, where she must slice her spinal chord with a blade to stop hot wax from a conduit from spilling down her face. She fails to do so, and when Banks finds her corpse, she dies from her injuries caused by the boiling hot wax.

Banks gets apprehended while following a lead and awakens in the warehouse, shackled to a pipe with a hacksaw nearby. He contemplates chopping off his arm, but escapes by using a bobby pin. He then finds shackled Peter Dunleavy, his old colleague who was sacked and imprisoned after Banks disclosed a murder he committed. A massive glass-crushing machine in front of him has been modified to swiftly fling shrapnel towards him. A tape recorder states that Banks has the option of either releasing him or leaving him to die. Despite his efforts to rescue Dunleavy, Banks is unable to get the key in time. Banks then discovers Schenk in another area, where it is revealed that he faked his own death by using the skinned body of the robber who lured Bozwick into the tunnels, and has been the copycat all along. He reveals that his surname is Emmerson, and that he is the son of Charlie Emmerson, whom Dunleavy shot and murdered because he consented to testify against a corrupt officer. He also explains that Marcus, as chief, purposefully sheltered corrupt cops in order to sweep the streets of crime more effectively under Article 8.

Emmerson gives Banks a last test, showing him Marcus suspended in the air and drained of blood. Emmerson phones 9-1-1 and says he's being chased by a gunman, so a SWAT squad is sent to his area. He provides Banks a handgun with one cartridge and gives him the option to rescue Marcus but let Emmerson escape or murder Emmerson and let Marcus bleed to death. Banks fires the target to free his father, lowering him to the ground, then fights Emmerson. The SWAT squad enters and accidentally trips a tripwire, pulling Marcus' shackles again. Marcus' arm displays a pistol, so SWAT kills him thinking he's the shooter. Banks sobs as Emmerson flees.

Who are the actors in Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)?



Detective Zeke Banks was played by Chris Rock.

The role of Detective William Schenk / Emmerson was played by Max Minghella.

Young William was acted by Leonidas Castrounis.

Marcus Banks was played by Samuel L. Jackson.

Captain Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols.

In the role of Detective Marv Bozwick, Daniel Petronijevic was excellent. Richard Zeppieri played Fitch. Peter Dunleavy was played by Patrick McManus throughout the series.

Ali Johnson played the role of Officer Jeannie Lewis in this production. Zoie Palmer played Kara Bozwick. Dylan Roberts was Morgey Silva. Inspector Drury was played by K. C. Collins. Edie Inksetter played Debbie Kraus.

Nazneen Contractor was Chada.

Thomas Mitchell starred as Detective Tim O'Brien in the series.

Benny Wrights was acted by Chad Camilleri.

Speez was played by Christopher Ramsay. Charlie Emmerson was played by Frank Licari.

Genelle Williams played Lisa Banks.

Officer Pat Jones was played by Trevor Gretzky.

Because Tobin Bell, the actor who portrayed John Kramer / Jigsaw in the previous Saw films, did not return for this one, Spiral (2021) is the first in the series to not include Bell or the Jigsaw persona in any way other than through images. Bousman indicated that the film's murderer is a Jigsaw copycat, not the real Jigsaw, and stated that he will not replace Bell in the famous role of the killer. When Billy the Puppet's origins were discussed, Bell indicated an interest in returning as Jigsaw.

Chris Rock's participation in the film Spiral: From the Book of Saw



Chris Rock went to Lionsgate with his idea for Spiral as a way to bring the Saw franchise and his own career back to life.

According to Chris Rock, the idea for Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) came from a chance meeting with Lionsgate's vice chairman, Michael Burns, at a friend's wedding in Brazil, and he thought doing something in the horror genre would be a new direction for him to go in his career, though he planned to include some comedic elements in the film. When Rock contacted Lionsgate with his plans to expand the series, the studio was enthusiastic. Rock's concept was totally respectful of the material's past while reinvigorating the brand with his humor, creative vision, and enthusiasm for this legendary horror property, according to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake. According to industry reports, Lionsgate has started talks for a ninth Saw film in January 2018, however the Spierig Brothers would not be returning. In an interview with Screen Rant, the filmmakers stated that their movie paved the way for future sequels. Twisted Pictures and Jigsaw authors Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger were working on a sequel as of April 2018.

Following the release of Jigsaw, Stolberg and Goldfinger were pitching a new Saw film to series veterans Mark Burg and Oren Koules, focusing solely on John Kramer / Jigsaw rather than any of his established apprentices, but Burg and Koules called the duo to inform them about Rock's ideas for a new film, and Rock contacted them shortly after to discuss his concept. Other writers had tried and failed to sell their ideas for the next Saw picture to Lionsgate, while Stolberg and Goldfinger had come up with eight distinct versions of the film until Rock came and blended his concept with the duo's. Burg and Koules gave the pair the task of creating a proposal for Rock. Stolberg and Goldfinger did just that, and their proposal was accepted by both Lionsgate and Rock, prompting them to compose their first draft, which was greenlit only a week after it was submitted. During the writing process, Rock assisted Stolberg and Goldfinger, reworking the tale as needed.

In an early draft of the script, Rock's character was related to David Tapp, played by Danny Glover in the first movie. Stolberg and Goldfinger didn't go this way because it didn't smell right. In May 2021, Bousman said that he and Costas Mandylor had talked about the possibility of Mark Hoffman coming back in a future movie. Up until the last day of filming, Bousman and the crew talked a lot about having Tobin Bell play Jigsaw in the movie. However, they thought that if they brought Bell back, the movie would feel more like the ninth installment of the Saw series than like a separate movie, which is what it was meant to be. Since Jigsaw died in the third movie, Bousman thought that the previous movies did not do Jigsaw justice by using flashbacks to bring him into the story. He didn't want to make the same mistake in Spiral (2021), nor did he want to take away from Bell's iconic performance. Bousman thought about putting Bell in Spiral (2021) by having him sing a cover of Johnny Cash at the end, but he decided against it because he thought it was too gimmicky.

Why was Tobin Bell absent from Spiral: From the Book of Saw?



Spiral (2021) is the first Saw film without Tobin Bell as Jigsaw.

Despite discussions taking place after the first test screening and throughout post-production, Stolberg stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that Jigsaw was never included in any drafts for the screenplay of Spiral (2021) because they felt that including Jigsaw would change the foundation of the story they were trying to achieve, not to diminish the character but to move the franchise in a new direction. Stolberg also believed that, given the franchise's timeline, any possible connection John Kramer might have had with William Schenk / The Spiral (2021) Killer should have occurred when the latter was still a child, given his portrayer's age; Stolberg and Goldfinger proposed at one point to have an after-credits sequence in which Kramer met a young Schenk after the murder of the latter's father and bonded with him, possibly giving him the puppet he later uses as the S

As the film's murderer is a Jigsaw copycat, Billy the Puppet was substituted with Mr. Snuggles so the new killer cannot be compared to the original. Reusing Bell's voice for Mr. Snuggles could have created questions about the relationship between both killers; an early draft featured Jigsaw's voice only to be revealed a digitally altered version of his voice; the story originally had all the speeches as being past recordings of Jigsaw's voice using words in a different order to show that the Spiral (2021) Killer had digitally rearranged the words. The directors tried to replace Bell's lethal voice. Bousman tried women's, children's, and men's voices before deciding on the computer voice. The final voice was picked two days before the sound mix.

Spiral (2021)'s set



The film started pre-production on May 16, 2019. Darren Lynn Bousman, who previously directed the series, will direct the feature, with Burg and Koules serving as producers. In addition to developing the plot concept, Rock served as an executive producer on the film.

James Wan, Leigh Whannell, and Daniel Heffner, who made the original Saw, are now executive producers for Rock. Stolberg and Goldfinger were confirmed as screenwriters.

Rock revealed in his statement that he has been a fan of Saw since the original picture was released in 2004. He was thrilled by the chance to take this to a new level of intensity and twistedness.

After Saw IV, Bousman said he wouldn't direct another one. When Rock asked him to direct a Broadway show in New York City, he turned down the offer.

Burg and Koules said that the way Rock handled Saw was similar to what Eddie Murphy did in 48 Hrs. with buddy cop movies. This gave the Saw series a completely new look. Also, Bousman said that Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) had less violence and gore than the other films in the series. He said that gore and violence were his "gimmick" when he first started working on the Saw movies, but that they now serve the story, which is more about the characters, tension, and fear.

Stolberg also indicated that the ninth film would be in the same canon as the previous eight and not a reboot or direct sequel to Jigsaw.

Spiral's casting selections



Rock played Detective Zeke Banks. As Rock pondered what he would do if he were the original Saw protagonist Dr. Lawrence Gordon and was forced to chop off his own foot, Stolberg and Goldfinger agreed that it would be fascinating if Rock portrayed a policeman who had been outcast by his colleagues.

Samuel L. Jackson agreed to play Chief Marcus Banks because he wanted to do something he had never done before, like the scene in the end where his character is hung up like a marionette. Captain Angie Garza was played by Marisol Nichols. The part was originally written for a man, but the producers ended up giving it to Nichols. Nichols, who liked the Saw movies, chose to prepare for the role by watching David Fincher's Seven instead. After years of acting on stage, Patrick McManus tried out for the role of Detective Marv Bozwick in the movie, but he was called back to play Peter Dunleavy instead. Dan Petronijevic was cast as Bozwick.

Max Minghella took on the role of William Schenk/The Spiral (2021) Killer because he wanted to be in a movie with a simple plot like the buddy cop movies he watched as a kid, like 48 Hours. When he read the script, he felt like it was both a buddy cop movie and a Saw movie.

What was it like to film Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)?



Under the working title of The Organ Donor, principal shooting started on July 8, 2019, in Toronto, Ontario, with Jordan Oram acting as cinematographer. The picture will feature Rock, Jackson, Minghella, and Nichols, among others. According to Lionsgate CEO Joe Drake, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock, as well as Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols, will make this picture wholly unique in the Saw canon, and they can't wait to share this surprising and scary new narrative with fans of the series. On full blast, this was the next level of Saw. On set, Rock contributed rewrites and entirely reworked his character's introductory sequence. According to Bousman, a sequence with a trap was deleted from the film because it was too gruesome.

Filming ended on August 28. Dev Singh edited post-production.

What was Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s marketing strategy?



The film originally titled The Organ Donor until January 22, 2020, when Spiral and Mongrel Media were released to the press. The first teaser poster and video, published Feb. 5, 2020, established Spiral: From the Book of Saw's title.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw's theatrical and streaming releases



Spiral: From the Book of Saw was initially set to be released on October 23, 2020, by Lionsgate Films in the United States. It was pushed ahead to May 15, 2020 in July 2019. Because to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's release date has been pushed back to May 21, 2021, replacing John Wick: Chapter 4. As cinemas started to reopen, it was rescheduled for a week earlier release on May 14, 2021.

On May 25, 2021, Lionsgate announced that Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) would stream exclusively on Starz beginning October 8, 2021 in the US. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) was launched on Canadian PVOD June 1, 2021.

Was Spiral praised or scolded?



Darren Lynn Bousman says that the Motion Picture Association gave the movie an NC-17 rating 11 times before they cut enough scenes to get a R rating.

What was the total box office take for Spiral?



As of March 3, 2022, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) had made $23.2 million in the U.S. and Canada and $17.3 million in other countries, for a total of $40.6 million around the world.

Spiral (2021) was released in the United States and Canada with Those Who Wish Me Dead, Profile, and Finding You, and its opening weekend was expected to make $10–15 million from 2,811 screens. The film grossed $3.7 million on its opening day (including $750,000 from Thursday night previews), bringing the total to $9 million. It went on to gross $8.8 million, topping the box office for the sixth time in the series' history but marked the franchise's lowest opening weekend. The audience reported on was 56% male and 75% under the age of 35, with a favorable reaction occurring more often near the United States' East Coast. It stayed #1 the next weekend, despite plummeting 48 percent to $4.6 million.

How did reviewers rate Spiral: From the Book of Saw?



Film reviewers commended Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s efforts to shake up the series template, but claimed it ultimately falls short of providing Saw with the significant push it needs to restore relevancy.

On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, 37 percent of 221 reviewers gave the film a good review, with a 5.1/10 average rating. Spiral: From the Book of Saw proposes a fascinating new approach for the Saw series, even if the gruesome whole is less than its pieces, according to the site's critical consensus.

Based on 33 reviewers, Metacritic awarded the film a score of 40 out of 100, indicating mixed or mediocre reviews.

CinemaScore audiences rated the picture a B- on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak said 63% gave it a good review and 43% would certainly recommend it.

According to one reviewer, "the picture takes an unexpected twist or two," yet given that it's a thriller about police immorality, "the film handles that subject in a strangely untopical, even garishly generic fashion."

A different film critic thought the script captured the grizzled cop movie tone and drew some memorable characters, but the storyline was rote, the mystery was frustratingly predictable, and the imaginative deaths were less imaginative than ever. For the sake of respectability, Spiral (2021) made a trade-off in entertainment value, but it didn't quite succeed.

Many film reviews deemed Spiral to be a truly terrifying, albeit unevenly paced, detective thriller, while also criticizing its writing for failing to communicate the possible tensions between the father-and-son relationship of its primary protagonists.

Some film critics praised the acting and Spiral's straightforward but compelling premise, but they also commented on the voice of the mysterious killer, saying that he sounded like Kermit the Frog, and they stated that the screams and the gore aren't things that this movie's real audience has to put up with. They are, in fact, the selling point.

A film reviewer rated the film one star and called its finale hasty, half-assed, badly written, and uninteresting. His evaluation concluded with "game over."

In his review of the picture, which received one and a half stars, a different film reviewer called it "downright unreadable" since it lacked tension, a narrative, and movement in the storyline. He criticized the film's tone as well as the direction that it was given by Darren Lynn Bousman.

A separate film reviewer complimented the opening sequence but called it the film's sole redeeming feature, noting that the idea is dishonest at best and fear mongering at worst. This film, like Jigsaw's easy puzzles, is not as brilliant as it thinks it is.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw, according to one reviewer, is a sequel that aims to please both Saw fanatics and general moviegoers, although it's more likely to offend the latter group. An emulation of the series that fails to achieve its most basic standards in terms of visuals and story. It's also a terrible movie in general, which attempts to present a socially important narrative that it can't seem to grasp. His criticism of Spiral (2021) also focused on the film's lack of ties to the Saw franchise, noting that Spiral is just a Saw film for a short moment, and not at all like the previous Saw movies. Artless and tactless, it also plays like the most formulaic police procedural pilot episode rejected by the studio.

Spiral (2021), according to Decker Shado. It's Spiral, the next Saw film from Chris Rock and the Book of Saw, which will be released in late 2021. A murderer on the prowl is testing his victims with mechanical contraptions that are as frightening as they are brilliant. After a whole SUMMER OF SAW, you should be familiar with the plot. At least, that's the gist of it. Several traps have a lot to live up to, as well as the methods and the objective of the traps. You may learn more about it in his analysis.



Another film reviewer said that it is not a complete waste of a notion in any way. However, the franchise does not need a new take on the concept in any way. After a promising beginning, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) just becomes a pretty okay Saw movie with some bigger names than usual; one whose jaundiced lighting and procedural storytelling are most reminiscent of David Fincher's Se7en than anything else. This is despite the fact that Rock's involvement in the film brings some new blood to it. Whether the point of the game was to test if a new spin on a long-running property could make it through being chopped up and reassembled by the sequel factory, then consider the game to be over.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) fumbles through its fundamental riddle without elegance, flair, or even much thinking, according to a film reviewer who gave it a bad review. Even the death traps lack imagination. He recognized the picture's promise, claiming that the most aggravating aspect of Spiral is that a better, wiser film lies behind all the foolishness. There are just too many rapid cuts and sequences when the tempo ramps up. It's irritating to hear poor speech blasted at full volume. Spiral (2021) is ultimately a picture about corrupt, even deadly officers suddenly having a reckoning, and material like this has the potential to be both subversive and current for a Hollywood film, yet it's been remarked that Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) is almost infuriating in how little it appears to care about any of this. It merely want to lose a great deal of blood, which it does.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)'s sequel?



Saw X, a sequel film, was revealed to be in production with Twisted Pictures in April 2021. However, Bousman remarked that the announcement was made too soon, which startled him and the film's producers. He said that simply because they produced Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), the Saw series does not cease to exist. Just though Spiral (2021) has arrived does not rule out Saw IX. This is not the ninth installment in the Saw series. Jigsaw may easily be followed by Saw IX. I believe they're waiting to see how Spiral: From the Book of Saw plays out and how viewers react to see what happens next. Josh Stolberg confirmed that the script was completed in December of that year.

Will Spiral be the subject of a television series?



During an interview with Deadline Hollywood in April of 2021, Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs revealed that the company has begun discussions with Mark Burg and Oren Koules' Twisted Television productions to develop a television series based on Spiral (2021).

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