The upcoming ninth film in the legendary SAW franchise finally has its first trailer, just three months ahead of its slated May 15th release. After much hype and ballyhoo among the fanbase, the officially-titled Spiral: From the Book of Saw has a colorful marketing campaign, as evidenced by the first teaser poster that released on social media in coordination with the trailer.
The trailer plays out with a vibe reminiscent of the classic Nineties horror-mystery Se7en, with much more of an investigation mystery feeling, rather than the gory, trap-laden feeling of the previous films in the franchise. Rock plays Zeke, a detective charged with looking into a recent string of murders of his brothers in blue. A red spiral is seen in several shots of the would-be crime scene, a symbol that echoes the memories of the long-gone John “Jigsaw” Kramer.
Of course, a trailer for a film co-starring Samuel L. Jackson wouldn’t be complete without his favorite word, as he asks an off-screen figure, “You wanna play games, motherfucker?” Likewise, a SAW trailer wouldn’t be complete with a couple of traps highlighted, one of which appears to have Zeke in a situation similar to the infamous shit room of the first film, with a shackle around his wrist and a hacksaw in hand.
As I’ve mentioned in prior coverage, I first balked at the announcement of Rock and Jackson in the lead of this latest iteration. But it’s SAW. Save for some missteps in the two most recent films, they’ve always put out good to great to holy shit! films. I will at least give this one a fair shake, especially with so many of the original crew returning for this film, including Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed three of the films. Now if writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger can redeem themselves from the wonky-at-best ending plot twist in 2017’s Jigsaw, then Spiral could be just the cog that the franchise needs to set in motion a new life for the highest-grossing horror franchise in written history.
