Every Saw Film Ranked From Worst To Best

"Spiral: From the Book of Saw" strips the "Saw" franchise down to its basics. No more Jigsaw. No more twisted, convoluted continuity. It's just traps, a serial killer, a menacing puppet, some pig masks, and a mystery — one that, in this case, may be a little too easy to solve.

As a way of breathing new life into the franchise, "Spiral" is a huge success. In terms of filmmaking, this is the slickest "Saw" yet, and while its style isn't as aggressively edgy as the first movie's, its cast is bursting with star power. In addition, focusing on Chris Rock's scrappy detective Zeke Banks instead of the killer and their victims offers a new perspective on the ever-brutal "Saw" universe. The traps are much simpler than the Rube Goldberg-esque devices from the later "Saw" films, but they're still suitably uncomfortable, if somewhat less graphic.

The problem? "Spiral" isn't all that scary. By emphasizing the police investigation over everything else, "Spiral" plays more like a police procedural or a crime thriller. Sure, it's tense, and the trap scenes are still full of bloody "Saw" charm, but outside of a few (repetitive) jump scares you'd be hard-pressed to call "Spiral" a real horror flick. As a plain old movie, "Spiral" is likely the best, and most accessible, installment since the first one. Is it really a superior "Saw" experience, though? To diehard fans, probably not. Everyone else, well, your mileage may vary.