Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)★★★★☆

It’s been a while since I’d watched a Saw movie. I was a bit worried - especially since the last one I watched was originally billed as the “final chapter” (though I did like that one).

Anyway, I guess this is technically a standalone story? With Darren Lynn Bousman returning to direct. And I was pleasantly surprised by it.

(Spoilers, probably)

The story itself isn’t super original (and I found it painfully obvious who the killer was pretty quickly), but it’s told quite well. I thought it was nicely paced, and mostly had the elements of a good Saw movie.

I also really liked Chris Rock in this. I genuinely cared about Zeke and whether he was going to figure things out and save people he cares about.

Oh, and you can’t go wrong with Samuel L. Jackson! And Marisol Nichols and Max Minghella to round out the cast.

There are a couple other newer Saw movies I’ll be watching next month, and I do worry my liking this one is only setting me up for disappointment with those…