Chris Rock reinvents the horror morality tale for the BLM era

The ninth installment in the grisly serial killer franchise holds few surprises.

A sequel that hopes to court Saw fans and mainstream audiences alike, Spiral: From the Book of Saw is likely to alienate them both.

Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson give a lift to the latest film in the 'Saw' gross-out franchise.

The film merely picks up the central ‘trap’ theme and transplants it into the narrative structure of a CSI episode

The Saw franchise is basically a police procedural with heightened gore and tortuous riddles (CSI: Marquis de Sade Escape Room). While corrupt cops have been Jigsaw's targets in the past, in Spiral: From the Book of Saw, it's an entire department that is systematically being plucked off. Chris Rock plays Metro Police Detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks, an honest

Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson star in Spiral, the ninth movie in the Saw series, and the sixth installment since original villain Jigsaw, played by Tobin Bell, died. The movies have always been about deathtraps, bloody shocks, and narrative twists, but this latest installment, which returns Darren Lynn Bousman to the director’s chair, shifts the focus toward the cops investigating the latest Jigsaw follower. It’s a reasonable idea, but executed poorly and without commitment. In theaters May 14.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is pretty bloody, but it's also uninspired and dull.

Aspirations toward a mid-brow, David Fincher feel in Spiral, the latest in the Saw series, were guided by none other than Chris Rock, who serves as star and executive producer

A few laughs from a master comedian can’t justify more torture porn from the played-out franchise.

We’re 17 years into the Saw franchise, and the formula is still going nowhere fast. This time, however, not even Jigsaw has turned up