Yesterday we got our first full look at Spiral: From the Book of Saw. The movie seems to be an interesting take on the Saw franchise, combining the grisly and sadistic mutilation games that the series is known for with a Se7en inspired detective story. This twist comes courtesy of actor and comedian Chris Rock, who reportedly came up with the concept and got this new production moving.
As we saw in the trailer, Rock will play a detective investigating a grisly series of murders targeting police officers. Common to all the crime scenes is an ominous red spiral, immediately familiar to horror fans as being from the cheeks of Jigsaw’s puppet Billy. Your first reaction is to naturally suspect that Jigsaw is back and taking out his murderous desires on the police. The thing is, though, Jigsaw – at least the original one, played by Tobin Bell – is definitely dead. We even got to see his on-screen autopsy, which probably rules out a proper return for the character.
So, it’s intriguing that we’re now hearing from our sources – the same ones who said Bill Murray is coming back for Ghostbusters: Afterlife and that a new Scream movie is in the works, both of which are now confirmed – that the original Jigsaw will indeed appear in Spiral. This will apparently happen through flashbacks, showing that the character continues to have an influence on the world long after his death.
Perhaps a more likely candidate for the film’s villain is Matt Passmore’s Logan Nelson then, who took over the mantle in Jigsaw. Then again, that seems a bit too obvious. My suspicion – based on almost nothing but familiarity with the genre – is that Samuel L. Jackson’s character is secretly the killer. Jackson is too big an actor to be relegated to ‘just’ the hero’s dad, and these films almost always have some kind of big twist in the final act.
Fortunately, we don’t have too long left to wait to find out, as Spiral: From the Book of Saw hits cinemas on May 15th.