SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW (18)
“PREPARE to be underwhelmed,” says Chris Rock’s hot-headed maverick detective to Max Minghella’s earnest rookie on his first day on the job.
This is the only memorable line in the genre-hopping ninth instalment of the Saw horror franchise and it sums up the enterprise so perfectly, they could have put it on the poster.
In a spin off from Saw’s “torture porn” series, this is a rip-off of David Fincher’s 1995 serial killer classic Se7en. So instead of concentrating on the victims as they try to think their way out of the stomachchurning traps, we see the murders in the minds of the cops as they pore over the crime scenes and work out what happened.
As Tobin Bell’s killer Jigsaw has been killed off, here a mysterious copycat called Spiral is targeting corrupt police officers.
A shouty, over-acting Rock is Detective Zeke Banks who has been mostly working alone after breaking ranks to expose a dirty cop 12 years earlier.
But the outcast is forced to babysit detective-in-training William Schenk (Max Minghella) shortly before landing the Spiral case.
Saw fans will find the new killer’s traps disappointingly straightforward and repeated flashbacks to key incidents deeply patronising.
The early films not only churned the stomach, their devilish puzzles engaged the brain. Since directing Saw II to Saw IV, Darren Lynn Bousman seems to have lost faith in his audience.
The cop drama elements aren’t much better. Se7en had a tight plot, a director with visual flair, a surprising twist and engaging lead actors. As Spiral has none of these, we’re just left with a gruesome, extended episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
■ In cinemas now