Spiral: From the Book of Saw, which technically marks the ninth film in the Saw franchise, turned the focus onto the cops of the precinct trying to solve the string of new "traps" set up by the Spiral Killer. While Tobin Bell's infamous Jigsaw was nowhere to be seen, director Darren Lynn Bousman maintained the spiritual connection between John Kramer and the newest mastermind.
One link was in Jigsaw's spiral calling card. This was the symbol taken up by William Schenk, played by Max Minghella (The Handmaid's Tale), which served as the reason for the horror film's name. Fueled by an injustice committed before his very eyes decades ago, William made it his mission to enact vengeance on its enablers - Samuel L. Jackson's ex-police captain Banks and a new captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols, Riverdale) among them. The only cop he thinks might be on the right side of morality is Zeke (Chris Rock), leaving the door open for future movies in this continuity.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw arrives on Digital July 13 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand July 20 from Lionsgate. With the crime thriller's home release coming, Bousman spoke to Screen Rant about the creative process that led to Spiral's final form and the collaboration on set with the franchise's biggest stars.
Screen Rant: When was it decided that you would be returning to the world of Saw, but with a twist? And how did you collaborate on the new Spiral story?
Darren Lynn Bousman: I think Mark [Burg] and Oren [Koules], the producers were very much wanting to reinvent it and not make a carbon copy of the film that came before it.
I've been trying to come back in the franchise for years now, and my whole mantra was, "Let's do something unexpected." I think that the unexpected part of this was going to a completely different audience, first off. It was getting away from the gimmicky violence - this is, in my opinion, one of the least violent of the Saw films. Then it was putting [in] two icons, two titans, like Chris Rock and Samuel Jackson.
As a fan of horror, that's something that I never saw coming or would have expected. I think that it just classed the movie up and let the audience know right off the bat that this is not going to be like the other Saw films you've seen.
Speaking of Chris Rock, I read that he actually went to Lionsgate first hoping to get into horror.
Darren Lynn Bousman: Yeah, he was a fan. I get so many meetings where people say, "Oh, I love horror," or whatever. And they don't; they're lying. But with Chris, you could hear it in his passion and voice, his ideas; the way that he would reference movies with me.
His take was, "I bet a Saw film would work a lot better if there was just one or two jokes. Just one or two, that's it." And that's how it started. That seedling of an idea turned into what Spiral was.
How did you approach the film, not just in terms of balancing the comedic side with the torture side, but also literally making it so much brighter? You're outside, out of the studio, and there's plenty of light.
Darren Lynn Bousman: It was the first thing that I talked to Jordan Oram, the cinematographer, about. I met him because I was a huge fan of Drake, and there is a video of Drake's called "God's Plan." I had it on in my office, I looked over to my assistant, and I said, "Find out who the cinematographer was on 'God's Plan'." Ironically, Jordan happened to live in Toronto, which is where we were filming, two blocks away from the production office.
He came in and met with me. I said that one of the things that I really wanted to do was something Spike Lee does a lot in his movies, where he'll take the hottest week of the summer. I just love that look, because I think you can create tension outside of horror. Tension can be created by claustrophobia, but it can also be created by heat; it can be created by cold.
I said, "Let's look at setting this in a very hot week, when air conditioners are broken, the sun is beating down on everyone, and the windows are all blown out." And that's the look that we went with. I think that gave Spiral its own unique kind of identity.
I really loved the dynamic between Marcus and Angie, and I really wanted to know more about Article 8 and what they did in the past. I was wondering if you had any thoughts about doing a prequel of sorts or any other material following that up?
Darren Lynn Bousman: The idea was that Saw would continue in numerous aspects. There might be a Saw IX, and that would be the continuation of Saw VIII [Jigsaw]. That means Tobin Bell and the character of Logan, who was revealed to be the last serial killer. There could be a Spiral 2, and in that Spiral, it's a whole different group of characters. And then there would be a TV series.
The idea is that there's numerous things all taking place at the same time, and that's what we hope to do. The hope is that there'll be more; you will see more of each one of the offshoots.
This might be a morbid question, but do you have a favorite "trap" or murder sequence from the film?
Darren Lynn Bousman: The one that I liked the most, because of the beauty of it - that's a really messed up word to say, I know - is the wax trap with Angie. It was just so simplistic. It's, for lack of a better word, waterboarding someone with hot wax. And to me, that is something that is so horrible and shocking. The idea that it's smothering you, you're drowning in hot wax, and it's singeing your face - to me, that is my favorite.
I spoke to Marisol about that scene, and she mentioned wanting to make sure her character wasn't just a victim and was fighting back. That was really clear in the wax scene, so it sounds to me like the environment was very open to collaboration. What was it like from your perspective?
Darren Lynn Bousman: You have to be. I go back to my favorite of the Saw franchise, which was Saw III. That was literally Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith and I sitting in a room, just beating out all of our ideas. Accumulatively, together, they would just improve and elevate the script so much. I think that you have to do that when you're going into a film like this.
And you don't want to fall into those clichés. You don't want to fall into the meek, weak female who is a damsel in distress. Because then you're just being misogynistic, and it doesn't make sense, and it's just kind of lame. One of the things we tried to do is to really make sure the characters work and they're not caricatures.
I loved how William explains his personal connection to the spiral symbol, and how it's a metatextual link between him and John Kramer. How did you guys decide on that particular link, and did you have to reduce it from what there might once have been?
Darren Lynn Bousman: Yeah. Originally, the film was called "Organ Donor," and there was a whole sequence about how he called himself the Organ Donor. We thought that was so far away from what Saw was. So, we were looking at iconic images from the Saw franchise, and the spiral has been there from the very beginning. It just became a no-brainer to use the spiral. There was about it.
I hate saying this, because everyone's gonna freak out and want to see it - and I don't know if it even exists - but I'm gonna guess there's probably 45 minutes to an hour of unused footage. That doesn't mean it's better; it just means that I cut stuff out that didn't work. So, yeah, there was definitely a lot of other stuff.
Tobin Bell's voice is an iconic part of the Saw franchise, so hearing the computer-generated voice for the Spiral Killer was disconcerting to me at first. It makes sense by the end because you would give away the game otherwise. But I was wondering what stages you went through to get to that choice.
Darren Lynn Bousman: Yeah, that was a nightmare. It took forever for us to figure that out. We went through 55 different voices. We had Max's voice, we had kids' voices, we had elderly people's voices, and we had Tobin copycat voices. At the very end, we again said, "Let's just go completely different than what we've done before. Let's not rely on trying to be like Tobin." And so we came up with that computer-generated voice.
This was the biggest budget for a Saw production yet, I believe. Was that a set from the start, and did it open any doors for the film?
Darren Lynn Bousman: You know, it was not as much as people think it was. But I really, really pushed to open the world up. When you know that you have Rock and Jackson, you want to push the world; you want it to not be stuck in one location. When we drafted the script, it was a lot more contained. But I just kept pushing and pushing. "Let's go outside. Let's go in these big, open air environments."
The thing I love about the Saw franchise that you don't get in other films is that we have a studio who believes in it and needs it as well, because it's a huge franchise for them. So, they help in making sure that we do get the tools that we need. In a lot of films. you don't. It's like, "You want that crane? You don't have any money, sorry." Lionsgate is like, "You want that crane? Ouch, that's gonna hurt the budget, but we'll figure a way to make that happen." I think that's what's great about doing films like Saw and Spiral.
The film was also very timely, in terms of the state of distrust towards police and government bodies. Some people might be understanding of Schenk's vendetta to a degree. Did you feel any moral obligation or responsibility in terms of how you approach that material?
Darren Lynn Bousman: Yeah. We all had a conversation about the politics in the film, and I don't think any of us would have ever realized how political it would become and how timely it would become.
If you go back to the first Saw films, they're making statements about corrupt officers; they're making statements about corrupt insurance companies. Those things are in there. And I think that, for me, what makes a great villain is that have a message. I want villains that actually are saying something, and I think Tobin Bell says something. That was something else we carried over: we had to have a message.
Again, none of us could have realized at the time of making this that we would be in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement or the George Floyd protests. But the longer it sat on the shelf waiting for COVID, the more timely it became.
Given that the home release is coming shortly, are there any parts of the film or characters you'd want audiences to pay more attention to in a rewatch?
Darren Lynn Bousman: There's a lot of double entendres in the film and I always dig double entendres. Someone says something that the audience will misrepresent or misunderstand. So, if you listen to a lot of what William says, it's all double entendres.
Upon a rewatch, you're gonna realize that he's telling you from the very beginning that he is the killer and that he's targeting Sam Jackson. I just love the writing and intelligence of these double entendres that the writers came up with.
I can definitely see a whole new set of films and experiences with, I would hope, both Zeke and William. Are you hoping to keep Chris Rock involved?
Darren Lynn Bousman: Absolutely. Chris was so great. I would 100% want him involved.
I know that you really wanted the film to come out in theaters, which I think is really great it's amazing on the big screen. But I'm sure it was a long and arduous process to make sure that happened. Why was it so important for you?
Darren Lynn Bousman: Because movie theaters are sacred to me. You can never get the theater experience in your home, and I have a great home theater system. I have a big screen with a projector and surround sound, but I also have dogs and cell phones and lawnmowers, and my wife and kids and people coming to the door. I think that you're always distracted at home.
But when you're in a movie theater, it forces you to be present. It forces you to be watching the screen, and you can't rely on these distractions. I just wanted people to see it in the most dynamic way possible, and that was in a theater.
What is next for you, outside of Spiral? What are you working on?
Darren Lynn Bousman: I can't tell you the exact thing, but I'll tell you that I'm in Egypt right now. I'm in Egypt doing a film here, so that's gonna be crazy. I actually got to go to the Great Pyramids yesterday and the Sphinx while doing location scouting. I'm literally in my hotel room in Cairo.
Spiral will be available July 20 via 4K UHD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, DVD, and On Demand.