Many non-fans tend to write off the Saw franchise as glorifying violence, but Spiral continues the series' legacy of being socially conscious. While there was a trend in horror during the 2000s of including extremely graphic torture/murder scenes seemingly for the sake of it, Saw never really deserved to be lumped in with that lot. Saw, James Wan's original movie, tells a gripping story with a devilishly clever twist at the end that gave the world horror icon John "Jigsaw" Kramer.

While the Saw sequels haven't equaled the glorious first film twist, they've embraced telling a complex story, turning the franchise into a fairly intricate crime thriller that just happens to have death traps. Sure, the amount of people secretly working for Jigsaw has strained credibility at times, but Saw's narrative philosophy is such a change from most horror series, which care way more about going for quick cash than establishing consistent continuity, character relationships that make sense, or surprising the audience.

Related: Saw: Every Character Who Survived A Jigsaw Trap (And What Came Next)

This cleverness and care doesn't just extend to Saw's story though. The writers, producers, and directors of the Saw franchise clearly try to work socially relevant topics into Jigsaw's adventures, and the new reboot Spiral has proven to be no different.

Spiral Shines A Spotlight On Police Misconduct & Violence

Chris Rock and Samuel L Jackson in Spiral

Spiral feels very timely – and would've felt just as relevant in 2020 when it was originally set to release. The crux of the motive Spiral's new killer William Schenk gives Chris Rock's Detective Banks near the end of the film is that the city's police force has become so corrupt and above the law they're supposed to enforce that all the bad cops need to be wiped out. As the city's seemingly only truly good cop, Schenk wants Banks' help with his cause.

While murder is obviously never the right solution to a problem, it feels like Spiral's focus on police misconduct and unneeded or unlawfully excessive use of deadly force is clearly meant to parallel the real-life prevalence of those contemporary issues. The 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis - and other subsequent deaths of unarmed Black people - may have ignited one of the biggest protest responses in American history, but the problem of bad cops flouting the law to serve their own needs and being overly violent is hardly new.

The fact that Spiral would shine a light on police abuse and corruption through a horror lens fits, as the franchise has never shied away from incorporating real-life social issues into its stories. That was especially true of 2009's Saw 6, which centered Jigsaw's test on an unfeeling health insurance executive who put profits above patients. That's sadly still a relevant topic today, but 2009 was right in the middle of the fight between Democrats and Republicans over the Affordable Care Act. Beyond that though, John Kramer sought to use his methods to cure Amanda Young's drug addiction, a common malady many characters in the series have shared, and which claims many real lives. The horrors of domestic abuse have also been worked into the plot multiple times, as has the danger of trusting lying authority figures. One wonders what such topic a possible Saw 10 might tackle.

More: When Spiral Fits Into The Saw Timeline