Saw Reboot Spiral Earns R Rating for “Grisly Bloody Violence and Torture”

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is going to be Rated “R”. That should come as no surprise to any fan of the franchise, as its pretty much impossible for a Saw movie to exist outside of an R-rating. However, Spiral is the next Saw spinoff to come after Jigsaw in 2017, and fans understandably expect that this new film will offer something somewhat new and novel. However, the reason that Spiral, has earned its R-rating sound pretty much like your classic Saw experience: That is to say plenty of the sadistic and gruesome acts that helped Saw define the “Torture Porn” era of 2000s horror.

Here are the official reasons for Spiral: From The Book of Saw‘s R-Rating: “Sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, pervasive language, some sexual references and brief drug use.“

Now here’s the official synopsis for Spiral:

“Working in the shadow of an esteemed police veteran (Samuel L. Jackson), brash Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks (Chris Rock) and his rookie partner (Max Minghella) take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past. Unwittingly trapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer’s morbid game.”

Longtime Saw fans have already dug into the first trailer for Spiral and have made some interesting connections to the earlier installments of the franchise. The main connection is that the trailer shows Samuel L. Jackson’s police veteran character arriving at the same factory location where the events of Jigsaw began.

That connection has invited speculation that Spiral is the continuing story of Logan Nelson, the very first apprentice of John Kramer, the original Jigsaw killer. The big reveal of Jigsaw is that Nelson’s own traumatic experience playing one of John’s earliest games inspired him to become a very different kind of Jigsaw killer. Because of the tragic murder of his wife, and the connection to some dirty cops, Nelson was targeting a police detective, with no-win-scenario games that violated Kramer’s code.

It would be easy for Spiral to pick up that story thread with Nelson now extending his reign of terror to other cops that may or may not have something to do with the corrupt police ring that detective Halloran (Nelson’s intended target) ran with. There are other scenes in the Spiral trailer that suggest detective Zeke Banks may not be the most sparkling clean officer of the law. In true saw fashion, this could all turn out to be a twisted timeline, with Spiral occurring either before or concurrently with the events of Jigsaw.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw hits theaters on May 15th.