SAW WEEK: Spiral - From The Book of Saw (2021)

 

Taking a leaf from the original Saw movie, Spiral is primarily a gruesome police procedural, but here we have a Jigsaw "copycat" killer taking out corrupt members of a city police force.

While not a target for any of his traps per se, the killer seems to have a special interest in the department's one good cop, a hilariously over-the-top, almost parody of the lone wolf stereotype, Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock).

There are definitely moments when the dialogue and actions of characters - and not just Rock's Zeke - are so wild and melodramatic - while hammering home perceived clichés of the Mel Gibson/Lethal Weapon-style of renegade cop who always gets the job done, no matter the cost - that Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger's script plays like a send-up of the genre.

After one "off-the-books" solo mission too many, Zeke's boss, Captain Angie Garza (Riverdale's Marisol Nichols) insists he partner up with rookie detective William Schenk (The Handmaid's Tale's Max Minghella) when a call comes in to investigate the death of an apparent homeless person in the subway.

If only Zeke had been days away from retirement, Spiral would have ticked every cliché on the genre bingo card. In fact, I'm slightly disappointed that neither he nor his dad said: "I'm getting too old for this shit!"

Zeke's father - the former police chief Marcus Banks (Samuel L Jackson) - mysteriously disappears before he is able to discuss the case with his son, causing the already stressed Zeke additional concern.

We are treated to some glorious flashbacks of Jackson sporting a wonky fake moustache that just made me giggle childishly.

However, the exaggerated police drama is balanced against the bloody "tests" that the killer puts their victims in. 

While they seemingly abide by John Kramer's rules that the person must have a chance of escape, the chances appear to be very thin... and failure results in a bloody mess for the police to pick through.

Honestly, you don't have to be a detective to figure out the identity of the killer if you pay attention to the way some scenes are shot and how one particular murder is handled, but the confirmation of their true name in the final act is when the film truly comes into its own.

Actually, the concluding scenes of Spiral save the film, retroactively explaining some moments from earlier in the narrative (as Saw movies are won to do), but, as with the later films in the original Saw franchise, this killer simply isn't as original or layered as John Kramer (the original Jigsaw).

I think I was expecting a very modern reimagining of the Saw franchise, but - despite the big names and presumably bigger budget - Spiral ultimately plays out like just another by-the-book entry in the franchise.

But I guess the clue was in the title.

SAW WEEK: Jigsaw (2017)

It's seven years since the last Saw movie was released (Saw: The Final Chapter) and, in the universe of the franchise, a decade since John Kramer (Tobin Bell) died... but his 'games' appear to have begun again.

Once bodies start appearing, bearing the hallmarks of Jigsaw victims, hardboiled detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and his new partner, Keith Hunt (Clé Bennett) refuse to believe that Kramer has risen from the grave, even though the forensics are pointing them in that direction.

Instead their suspicions fall closer to home when they start to look at pathologists Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore), a widower and single parent suffering PTSD, and Eleanor Bonneville (Hannah Emily Anderson), an adrenalin junkie with a sick obsession with the original Jigsaw murders.

Meanwhile, five people are being put through a series of life-threatening "games" in an isolated farm location, distinct from the usual urban settings of the previous franchise entries.

However, when they fail, their corpses turn up in public places around the city for Halloran and Hunt to find.

Jigsaw definitely leans more towards the original police procedural approach to the mystery of who is committing the crimes.

Yet, while the film throws us a few curveballs, it doesn't really do a good enough job of obfuscating the trap-setter's true identity.

Once you've figured this out early on you spend the rest of film mentally batting away the red herrings that try to drag you in a different direction.

Also, come the final act, one of the protagonists - the closest the film comes to having a hero, you may have thought - simply disappears from the action completely.

Genuinely atmospheric and the first of the franchise since the original to look really cinematic rather than like a blood-spattered  TV show, Jigsaw has a more contemporary veneer than the mid-franchise sequels.

Conversely, the traps - while elaborate - have a grittier, and less extravagant, feel to them, probably because of the rustic locale they have been constructed in.

The script, by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, is solid, and, as is common with this franchise, messes around with the concept of non-linear narrative, twisting the plotlines into a complex bundle that even fills in more 'blanks' in John Kramer's very industrious backstory.

I'll confess I love the way everything meshes together across all the movies, making them, in essence, one single narrative.

It does appear though that from the moment Kramer learned of his cancer diagnosis, he started building an array of massive "games" around the area, without anyone noticing, and recruiting several loyal acolytes to assist him... none of whom gave even a hint to anyone else they were involved in these massive undertakings.

Which, again, brings me back to the inescapable conclusion that polymath (engineer/architect/philosopher etc) John Kramer - aka Jigsaw - would have made an incredible Batman villain, from the panache he brings to building deathtraps and his ability to attract devoted henchmen to the way his 'games' continue to unfold 10 years after his death.

In fact, by this stage of this non-supernatural horror franchise, you're almost convinced that if anyone could find a convincing way to return from the dead it would John Kramer.

I purchased the eight Saw movies as a 'box set' bargain in the Sky Store, for just £20, and while wading through some of the middle-period - more 'torture porny - sequels I started to wonder what I had let myself in for.

But, by the end of Jigsaw, my interest was definitely piqued by the prospect of seeing Spiral: From The Book of Saw.

SAW WEEK: Saw - The Final Chapter (2010)

The ironically named Saw; The Final Chapter (there are already further movies and possibly more, I guess) was full of surprises.

The biggest being that I came away from this gory offering with great admiration for the tight plotting of the whole franchise to date.

This episode had ties to numerous events - but possibly not explained - in previous chapters, and I like to think was all planned from a very early stage.

Of course, this also further compounds the feeling I mentioned the other day that the on-going saga - which is seven parts of a single story - as much like a blood-spattered  HBO series as a horror movie franchise.

While occasionally looking like a cheap '80s cop show, and sometimes hampered by some hilarious overacting from key players in the story, Saw: The Final Chapter (aka Saw 3D aka Saw VII) manages to cram so much into the first hour that you think the credits are about to roll, and then a whole new development unfolds.

The film also brought back Cary Elwes as Dr Gordon, from the original (and best) Saw flick, which I wasn't expecting 

The first big Jigsaw trap takes place in broad daylight in a storefront window, which seems too public for a classic Jigsaw trap and appears to serve only to later reintroduce the survivors as members of a support group.

The main trap-driven plotline of the movie, which was presumably all set up before John Kramer (Tobin Bell) died (he appears in a telling flashback scene), centres around testing Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery, of Young Indiana Jones fame).

Bobby has made a name for himself on the self-help circuit (which is where he crosses paths for the blokes from the storefront trap) after publishing a book documenting his supposed survival in one of Jigaw's games. Only it's all bullshit.

So Jigsaw has Bobby kidnapped and then runs him through a series of tests, with the life of one of his friends and confidantes in the balance each time.

Let's just say Bobby isn't very good at these games.

Meanwhile, the police are closing in on Jigsaw's surviving accomplice, Mark Hoffman (Costas Manylor), who escaped the "reverse bear-trap" that Kramer's ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) put him in at the end of the last movie.

Hoffman is now on the hunt for Jill, who turns herself over to the authorities seeking protection and immunity.

I have to say, while it eventually all comes together very satisfactorily, I haven't been impressed for a while about how the franchise got hijacked by Hoffman's story.

As becomes increasingly clear in this chapter, he's just a deranged mass murdering serial killer, without the code of ethics (and superhuman engineering skills and limitless resources) of the more charismatic - but deceased - John Kramer.

I keep coming back to the conclusion, even though killing off the main villain and then continuing his deeds posthumously is a brilliant twist, that John Kramer's Jigsaw would have made an archetypal Batman villain... and I'd have loved to have seen a gritty crossover with the Christopher Nolan era Batman movies. 

While the planned sequel to Saw VII never got made, as box office interest in the franchise was waning, I'm looking forward to finding out how this all ties in to 2017's Jigsaw... and then Spiral: From The Book of Saw.

SAW WEEK: Saw VI (2009)

Picking up from the end of the last chapter, but with numerous flashbacks to weave the narrative into earlier episodes in the franchise, Saw VI concerns itself with the FBI closing in on Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) while John Kramer (Tobin Bell) gets to play one 'final' game from beyond the grave.

Hoffman is still trying to shift the blame onto the late Agent Strahm, but his injured partner Perez (Athena Karkanis) is back on the case - with Agent Erickson (Mark Rolston) - and she clearly has doubts about Hoffman from the get-go.

Although the opening "pound of flesh" sequence of Saw VI leans heavily towards gratuitous torture porn, the remaining 'tests' adhere more to the old school appeal of the original couple of entries in the franchise.

John - aka Jigsaw - has arranged for the man who refused his insurance cover, William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), of Umbrella Health, to be put through a series of 'games' which involve life-and-death situations for members of his staff.

This whole sequence is one of the best exemplars of the point that Jigsaw has been trying to make, and while I could never condone his methods, the perverse nature of America's health insurance system never fails to boggle my mind (coming from a country rightfully proud of its National Health Service).

Taking place in what appears to be an industrial maze under an abandoned zoo, there are elements of Freddy's boiler room in the atmosphere of these scenes, and eventually - that is, until the final twist (because there's always one) - you almost begin to feel sorry for William.

That storyline ends in gross death, but, for once in this franchise, it manages to go so over the top as to cross into the dark humour of Grand Guignol.

Meanwhile, the other plotline continues to fill in John's backstory, putting more of the plot in the hands of his ex-wife, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), as we learn the contents of the mysterious box that John bequeathed her in his will (in Saw V).

I was also pleased to see the return of the first of John's accomplices, Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) in these flashbacks, as she was always more charismatic - even if totally bonkers - than the oily and unlikeable Hoffman.

Her unmasking as one of Jigsaw's team was a shock, whereas Hoffman might as well as having walking around with a placard on his chest proclaiming his guilt. 

I have to confess that after the uncomfortable nature of the last film, Saw VI is something of a redemption - at least for the moment - for the franchise as, by having the traps set up by John and 'operated' by him posthumously, it moves back towards the modus operandi that made the first film a surprising hit.

SAW WEEK: Saw V (2008)

The intricate - and convoluted - timeline of the Saw franchise continues to be simultaneously continued and further complicated with 2008's Saw V.

Picking up from the end of Saw IV (which is also the end of Saw III!), FBI agent Strahm (Scott Paterson) finds himself unceremoniously dumped from the Jigsaw investigation, even as he starts to realise that the cop being hailed as a hero, Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) was actually Jigsaw's protégé all along.

Flashbacks help explain how Hoffman made such a dramatic switch from law officer to sidekick to a supervillain, even as we watch another of Jigsaw's games unfold (set in motion around the time of his death), featuring five people being forced through a succession of tests.

Barring the initial torture device shown in the film (and we later learn why), Saw V sees the various gruesome traps reverting to the true ethos of John Kramer, these are devices that - with an application of intelligence and a level head - a person is meant to escape from, even though they will possibly be injured in the process.

It's all about the learning process.

That said, there's definitely a steady increase in the gruesomeness of the traps (the whole 'hand-and-spinning blade' shtick, for instance), and a nasty sadism creeping into some of the lingering camera shots.

As with the previous entry in the series, parts of Saw V's story run in tandem with earlier films, filling in gaps and explaining elements we might not have picked up on previously (or made incorrect assumptions about).

While this is definitely more coherent than Saw IV, it's harder to feel the modicum of empathy for Hoffman that we might have felt for Kramer who - up until the whole 'creating killer traps' stage of his life - seems to have been an okay fellow. 

Increasingly, the interlocking plot elements and story strands give the franchise the feel of an ongoing television show, rather than a series of movies.

Not only does the timespan of the contemporary events across all the films so far feel very compact, but it also feels as though crucial 'clues' are being left out, simply so they can be addressed (or retrospectively backfilled) in a later film.

This transition to a serialised television formula also got me thinking about how I would use a villain akin to Jigsaw as an antagonist in a roleplaying game.

Initially, I would ensure that the player-characters were never the targets of the villain's traps, rather they would be the investigators coming upon the aftermath.

I guess I'd possibly consider having them burst into a room and finding a person trapped in one of the "Jigsaw" devices and try to save them from it, but, personally, I wouldn't put my players in a situation where a character of theirs could die (so graphically) in a trap, just because they couldn't figure it out.

To my mind, player-characters are supposed to be "heroes", rather than victims. Unfortunately, playing it straight by the Book of Saw, there aren't really any true heroes per se in these stories (not that survive more than a couple of films, anyway), which is why the story set-up needs to be tweaked with a bit.

Unless, of course, you're playing some version of Call of Cthulhu - or a similar hardcore horror game - where the player-characters are often considered expendable anyway.

SAW WEEK: Saw IV (2007)

Even though Jigsaw - aka John Kramer (Tobin Bell) - is well and truly dead (the film opens with his gruesome autopsy), his 'games' continue, thanks to a message on a wax-covered microcassette found in his stomach.

Obsessed SWAT officer Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) is led around the city through a series of challenges that he believes will help finally free long-missing cop Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) and Rigg's friend, detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Manylor). If he can reach them in time.

Meanwhile, FBI agents Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis) believe Jigsaw had a third accomplice, as well as Amanda Young, and that's driving their investigations.

This leads them to Kramer's ex-wife, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) and, through a series of flashbacks, we learn a major chunk of Jigsaw's "origin story", his motivation, and get to witness his first "game"... which turned out to be less than successful.

There is a twist in the third act (isn't there always), but in the process the plot gets twisted beyond breaking point, with the story ultimately feeling like an abandoned William Burroughs cut-up experiment as it mucks around with non-sequential storytelling techniques.

Saw IV does tie in with the previous episodes in the franchise, interlocking its various puzzle pieces with the narratives of episodes one through three, but I'm still not convinced it isn't without plot holes.

There are definitely elements of later events hinging on fortuitous outcomes in earlier traps that could never have been predicted so far ahead of time.

However, among the things I have grown to appreciate about the Saw franchise, well the few opening salvos, at least, is (a) Jigsaw's code of conduct (he is testing people, and he wants them to save themselves) and (b) given Jigsaw's failing health, his ability to attract followers to his growing "cult".

Unfortunately, as the series has gone on, and its become clear that people other than Kramer are rigging his traps, innocent people are starting to suffer as collateral damage.

Because his acolytes don't adhere to his rigid guidelines, those moments of random violence simply for shits and giggles - as I said before - are when the franchise lurches over the line from horror-thriller to torture porn.

There's a danger these are becoming more in style of Eli Roth's Hostel flicks, simply challenging the endurance of the audience, and running the risk of drowning out the "learn to appreciate your life" message with buckets of fake blood. 

The interesting part of this entry in the on-going saga of Jigsaw was the development of Kramer's backstory, what pushed a decent man to become a Riddler/Joker-level trap-builder and torturer. 

This is the last entry in the series to be directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, until Spiral: From The Book of Saw.

However, the scriptwriters of Saw IV, Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan, also penned the following three chapters (Saw V, Saw VI, and Saw 3D) - which were all directed by Kevin Greutert - so it'll be interesting to see what kind of continuity there is through these latter entries in the story of Jigsaw.

As a brief aside, given their simple sequential sequel titles, I feel the film makers missed a trick with Saw IV by not having some play on "i.v." as in an intravenous drip. But maybe that's just me.

SAW WEEK: Saw III - Extreme Edition (2006)

Saw III continues the story of Saw II, by showing us the final fates of Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) and Kerry (Dina Meyer), and even bringing back Adam (Saw III scriptwriter Leigh Whannell) for a curtain call.

But, with Darren Lynn Bousman again in the directing chair, this episode in the franchise deliberately veers into torture porn territory as Jigsaw's deranged protégé and Julia Louis-Dreyfus lookalike Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) takes the reins on designing some of the elaborate traps.

She doesn't exactly play by Jigsaw's rules, enjoying the power of putting her captives into death-traps that have no escape route and throwing some Hellraiser-level shit at people purely out of sadistic glee.

One of the set-pieces in particular ("the rack") is so over the top that it transforms into Grand Guignol, having raced so far past good taste that it has emerged on the other side as grim humour.

With the police investigation dismissed early on, the main thrust of Saw III is the kidnapping of depressed but brilliant surgeon Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh).

She is forced by Amanda to operate on her mentor's brain tumour while simultaneously a vengeance-driven grieving father, Jeff (Angus Macfadyen), is put through a maze of tests.

Lynn is told that she must keep John Kramer (Tobin Bell) - aka Jigsaw - alive for the duration of Jeff's "game". If he dies, or she tries to escape, the collar fitted around her neck will blow her head off.

Once again, the plot builds to grand twist, and while very cleverly engineered it somehow lacks the impact of the magnificent reveals from the pervious two chapters in the story of Jigsaw.

However, especially with the resolution of Adam's arc, you also realise that the three films could easily work as a single epic movie (James Wan, while not directing, returns to assist Whannell with the story).

The ending clearly shuts the door on one major plot thread (or does it?) and I'm fascinated to see how the franchise will be milked for five further sequels... and a soft reboot.

SAW WEEK: Saw II - The Director's Cut (2005)

The Saw saga continues in the creatively named Saw II, where we meet disgruntled, corrupt, cop Eric Matthews (Blue Blood's Donnie Wahlberg), who is the latest police officer drawn into the twisted machinations of Jigsaw.

Called to a crime scene by his ex-partner, Kerry (Starship Trooper's Dina Meyer), clues on the victim's murderous torture device lead Matthews to an old warehouse, where he finds the wheelchair-bound, dying Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) .

But before Matthews can arrest the criminal mastermind, Jigsaw - who says his name is John - reveals  that Matthews' brattish son Daniel (Erik Knudson) is imprisoned in a booby-trapped house with half-a-dozen other people... and it is slowly filling with poisonous gas. 

Jigsaw has, essentially, invented the modern "escape room" genre.

Although not directed by James Wan, Saw II's director Darren Lynn Bousman wisely homages many of Wan's stylistic quirks (particularly the use of a flurry of fast, disorientating cuts) to cement the continuity of the franchise.

Once again, we have the parallel storylines - the captives in the house trying to figure their way to safety before the gas kills them, and then the police officers interrogating Jigsaw to try and find the location of the house.

However, while Bousaman co-scripted the film with the first movie's writer Leigh Wannell, this chapter severely ups the ick factor, leaving less to the imagination and rubbing our faces in more of the gore.

In fact, there was one sequence in particular - involving a woman in a pit - that I found almost unbearable to watch, as it triggered one of my medically-recognised phobias.

Squirm-inducing moments aside, thanks to some marvellous scriptwriting and plotting, Jigsaw is a Batman-level villain (he really reminds me of my favourite Bat-rogue, The Riddler, for the trails of clues he leads).

And John very clearly conforms to the old maxim that all great villains believe they are the heroes of their stories. Jigsaw definitely believes he is making the world a better place through his twisted "games". He actually wants people to survive, because he believes they will come out the other side as stronger personalities.

As in the original, the film climaxes with a brilliant twist, where all the clues were right in front of us (and Detective Matthews) but we were all constantly chasing red herrings and misdirects.

The traps are nastier in this one, because we see them more in action rather than enduring the tension of wondering what would happen if they were set off, but we learn a bit more about Jigsaw, his illness, and his cunning plan to defeat it.

Further confirming the overlap in the Venn diagram of 'comic book superheroes' and 'the Saw franchise' check out this delightful article on Bloody Disgusting about Six Comic Book Death Traps That Would Be Right at Home in the ‘Saw’ Franchise.

Which also makes for inspirational reading for RPG gamesmasters looking for some devilish traps to throw player-characters into.

SAW WEEK: Saw (2004)

Liberal use of the derogatory term "torture porn" is often used to throw Saw under the bus, lumping it in with lesser works of lower quality.

However, in truth, director James Wan has managed to pull off some Texas Chain Saw Massacre level sleight of hand that makes people remember seeing something that was far more gruesome than is actually shown on screen.

Sure, there's some nasty torture devices shown in Saw, creations of the enigmatic Jigsaw Killer, but the terror invariably comes from the suggestion of what the devices could do to their victims rather than graphically depicting it.

Saw is really a dark police procedural, striking a similar vein to Seven.

Here the mysterious antagonist is imprisoning people he believes are wasting their lives and, in his own sick way, is trying to make them appreciate what they have... or die trying.

Even the police's nom de guerre for the antagonist is a misnomer, as Jigsaw doesn't kill people in the film, rather he puts them in situations where they often end up killing themselves.

The bulk of the contemporary action in Saw centres around a pair of strangers - Adam (Saw scriptwriter Leigh Wannell) and Dr Lawrence Gordon (The Princess Bride's Cary Elwes) - waking up in a seedy bathroom with no idea of how they got there or how to escape.

Both are chained to strong pipes on opposite sides of the room and there's the corpse of a man, who appears to have blown his brains out, on the floor between them.

They soon realise they will have to work together to try and solve the puzzle they are trapped in.

As the story begins to introduce flashbacks into the men's lives, we are also drawn into the second main plot thread, that of the hunt by driven cop David Tapp (Danny Glover) to unmask the Jigsaw Killer... and his increasingly obsessive belief that Dr Gordon is his man.

Events culminate in one of the most memorable twists in modern horror since M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.

You can only fully appreciate this the first time you experience it, but it's a masterstroke from director Wan and writer Wannell in both simultaneously laying out all the clues and totally misdirecting their audience.

Revisiting the film, you will then see all the Easter Eggs.

Definitely not the faint-hearted, Saw is as much a mystery movie as a game-changing horror.

Taking the maxim 'less is more' to heart, James Wan - in his first mainstream directing gig - gives viewers just enough for their imaginations to fill in the rest, cutting away before actually showing anything truly gruesome.

Those films that followed and sought to emulate its style often focussed too much on realising the suggested brutality and not enough on the mystery angle, but Saw still stands up 17 years later as a powerfully engaging crime thriller.

Insidious (2010)

Starting out as a good old fashioned 'haunted house' movie, Insidious spins off into Lovecraftian pseudoscience horror as a family find the ghostly manifestations have followed them to a new house.

Soon after the Lambert family - school teacher Josh (The Conjuring's Patrick Wilson), musician Renai (Rose Byrne) and their three kids - move into a new home, son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into a mysterious coma and his mother starts to see strange apparitions around the house.

Eventually, she gets so freaked out the family moves house - but the paranormal phenomena follows them!

Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hersey), puts her daughter-in-law in touch with medium Elise Rainier (the legendary Lin Shaye) and her team of comedic psychic investigators, Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

They quickly deduce that it is not the house that is haunted, but comatose Dalton, a gifted 'astral projector' and dreamer, whose soul has gotten lost on his night-time dimensional travels, leaving his body open to potential possession by otherworldly beings.

Things get a bit silly in the latter part of the third act when there's a journey into the ghost-dimension known as The Further, but Insidious scores bonus points with me for one of the most wonderfully over-the-top séance scenes I've ever encountered in a horror movie.

There are a number of telegraphed "jump scares", but the film works best when it's relying on atmosphere (which is why the "monster movie moments" towards the end don't gel quite as well).

Created by the same team that brought us the original, inventive Saw, writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan, Insidious establishes a solid supernatural mythology that now, several sequels later, was obviously setting up its own franchise from the off.

The Last Exorcism (2010)

The Last Exorcism comes tantalisingly close to being one of those rare, perfect horror movies, an intelligent blend of The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project (two of the most unnerving, pure horror movies ever made, in my opinion), until it derails into silliness for the final sequence.

I can understand and see what the filmmakers were trying to do in these closing scenes because, in all honesty, up until that point, no matter how good the film was, it wasn't really saying anything new, but it was such a sudden lurch in focus that it didn't quite work.

The film - shot on hand-held camera as a documentary - follows the charismatic and charming Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a former child minister grown into a performing preacher, disillusioned with the idea of exorcisms, who agrees to bring a film crew along on his last exorcism to expose the practice as fakery.

Rev. Marcus and the camera crew travel to an isolated farm in rural Louisiana, where widower Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) believes his teenage daughter, Nell (Ashley Bell), is possessed by a demon and is slaughtering his cattle at night.

For the first half-hour of this comparatively short (83 minute) movie nothing out of the ordinary happens as we get to know Cotton, his family, his motivations and his beliefs and the groundwork is laid for future events. But after his 'phony' exorcism things start to get creepy and then escalate in wonderfully unpredictable ways as it becomes clear there is a real demon at work (one disappointment is that the scene on the cover of the DVD doesn't appear anywhere in the movie!)

In this era of Grand Guignol torture-porn it makes a refreshing change to see a horror film that uses intelligence, magician's misdirection and subtly to unnerve it audience. I was completely taken in by the fact that I couldn't guess what was going to happen next during the core of the movie and believed in the actors one hundred per cent.

All the performances are spot-on, but particularly powerful are Patrick Fabian as the 'con man' forced to re-examine his cynicism and Ashley Bell as the unnerving innocent victim, twisting her demon-wracked body in all sorts of contortions  (without the aid of special effects, I am led to believe).

Compared to, say, Cloverfield the shaking, hand-held camera isn't too intrusive and there are moments (mainly when Nell steals the camera in the night) that the film couldn't have worked any other way.

This isn't a film that relies on sudden shocks to get it scares - although there are a couple - rather it relies on suggestion and psychological manipulation, dropping hints along the way as to what's really going on, although the chances are you won't piece everything together until the credits are rolling.

For the most part, The Last Exorcism relies on subtle, edge-of-the-seat tension (in the style of The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project, as I've already said, which is why it was a shame that the ending veered off into pseudo-Lovecraftian territory with a set-up that sadly reminded me of both Hot Fuzz and K-9 And Company: A Girl's Best Friend, neither of which exactly rank as the pinnacle of horror cinema.

Stylistically, the shaky-cam/faux documentary approach certainly carries the movie, adding an air of Truth that helped sell the discrete horror, but it also rather undermined the ending - not that we needed to see everything that was going on, but frankly it made the audience all the more aware of how ridiculous the scenario was and somehow managed to undo the carefully stitched verisimilitude that director Daniel Stamm had created.

It's as though the ending actually showed too much and was almost unnecessary, which is a massive shame because, although produced by Eli Roth (and it was his name used to, rather misleadingly, sell the film), The Last Exorcism is the total antithesis of the gore-splattered horror - in the vein of Saw and Hostel - one usually associates with Roth's work.

The Monkey (2025)

Having been abandoned by their father, twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn (both played by Christian Convery) are searching through the junk he left behind and discover a creepy-looking, wind-up, drum-playing toy monkey.

Very quickly the young boys realise that by turning the key, and setting the monkey drumming, random people in their environs start to die in statistically improbable ways.

Unfortunately, one of those people is their mother, Lois (She-Hulk's Tatiana Maslany), which drives the final wedge between the constantly-feuding twins.

Twenty-five years later, the monkey returns to plague Hal's (Theo James of The Time Traveler's Wife) life, but now - even though he has cut himself off from pretty much everyone - he fears this force of evil might harm his own son, Petey (Colin O'Brien).

Petey is being raised by Hal's ex-wife (Project Blue Book's Laura Mennell) and her new husband, self-help guru Ted (Lord of The Rings' Elijah Wood), who is going to adopt Petey and excise Hal from the boy's life completely.

Thus, Hal has a final week to spend with his son before losing him to Ted.

Learning that the aunt who raised him and Bill after their mother's death has also died in a "freak accident", Hal hopes to track down the monkey - and finally destroy it - when he returns to her house, with Petey in tow, to deal with the disposal of the estate.

However, this just sets in motion a series of violent events around Hal that end up in a reunion with his twin (also played by Theo James).

Bill has been driven insane by his involvement with the cursed monkey, and now sees its magical power as a route to a kind of immortality, regardless of the cost to others.

Based on a Stephen King short story, produced by James Wan (of Saw and The Conjuring fame), and written for the screen by director Osgood Perkins (who also wrote and directed Longlegs), The Monkey is a gloriously gory dark comedy and meditation on the randomness - and inevitability - of death.

Except for its drumming, the mysterious monkey is never seen moving (Bill claims it "teleports") which gives this absurdist Grand Guignol a distinct flavouring of the Annabelle movies blended with the Final Destination franchise.

The very definition of weird fiction, there are no easy answers to explain the enigmatic animatronics' origin or abilities, and no pat resolution to Hal's troubles... but that's rather the point. 

Full of mesmerising, bizarre and creative kills, The Monkey clearly aims to challenge its audience whether to laugh out loud or squirm and wretch as it segues from set piece to set piece.

More shocking than scary, this wonderful film is an over-the-top, blood-soaked rollercoaster that doesn't let up for its 97-minute duration. 

Child's Play (2019)

Single-mum Karen Barclay (Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza) works on the returns desk of ZedMart in Chicago, and brings home a faulty Buddi doll as an early birthday present for her deaf son Andy (Gabriel Bateman).

The Buddi doll is a robotic companion for children, capable of adapting to their owners, syncing with smart technology etc

Only this Buddi, which says it's name is Chucky (voiced by the legend that is Mark Hamill), has issues.

Once it has bonded with Andy, declaring him his new "bets friend", he becomes psychotically protective, taking punitive measures against anyone, or anything, that it feels has slighted Andy.

Written by Tyler Burton Smith and directed by Lars Klevberg, Child's Play is a brilliant, clever, reworking of the original Child's Play from 1988.

Voodoo possession has been replaced by the vengeance of a pissed engineer in a Vietnamese sweat shop/toy factory, and 2019's Child's Play has great fun with the modern penchant for "smart homes", integrated devices etc

Its resemblance to the original is purely superficial, and that's a great thing because this Child's Play is very much its own thing.

Andy even acquires his own, rather Stranger Things-like, gang of amusing and entertaining young friends, who both help and hinder him in his growing troubles with the overly possessive android (perhaps letting Chucky watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 wasn't the best call?).

As bodies start to drop in the neighbourhood, local police detective Mike Norris (Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry), whose mum, Doreen (Carlease Burke) lives down the hall from Mike and Karen, gets involved.

Matters come to a head at a midnight launch for the Buddi 2 doll at ZedMart, when Mike thinks he has his culprit.

The climax of the movie is a gruesomely over-the-top splash of Grand Guignol, that skirts Saw-sensibilities to lean more into Evil Dead II (but without any supernatural involvement).

A heady blend of suspense, excitement, creative kills, dark humour and a top-notch cast, Child's Play is one of the strongest new mainstream horror flicks I've seen in ages.

While I love the whole voodoo shtick of the original Child's Play franchise, I think rooting the new movie firmly in the realm of modern technology was a stroke of genius.

Not only is there a tongue-in-cheek lesson here about society's rapid embrace of inter-connected technology, but the pathos Mark Hamill brings to Chucky makes the killer doll almost sympathetic.

He's just responding to societal stimuli to do what he thinks is right to look after his "best friend".

But he doesn't know any better. To paraphrase Brian Conley: "It's just a doll!"

The Toll (2020)

A jet-lagged traveller from Chicago, Cami (Jordan Hayes, who has a look of Kate Mara about her), lands at Hamilton International Airport in Canada in the middle of the night.

She has flown up to visit her dad who lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, but her flight was delayed by a storm, so she now has to hail a rideshare to complete her journey.

The overly chatty and socially awkward driver, Spencer (Max Topplin, who has a bit of Tim Key, from recent Alan Partridge series, about him), kind of gets on Cami's nerves, but she really starts to freak out when his GPS sends them off down a dark road she has never travelled before.

However, checking Spencer's route, Cami accepts that this is an alternate way to her dad's place.

Only shortly after that, when they are heading down a pitch black country road, they are suddenly spooked by someone seemingly stepping out in front of the car.

But when they check, there's no one there.

Unfortunately, getting back into the car, Spencer discovers it won't start and they are stranded.

Both he and Cami, separately, decide to walk and look for help, but whichever direction they go, they end up back at the car.

That is just the beginning of their night of terrifying weirdness.

All credit to writer-director Michael Nader, The Toll does a phenomenal job of slowly building tension, then easing off, then escalating matters once again.

Nader's track record has primarily been with short films, and while this certainly has the feeling of a well-contained short horror film, it doesn't drag its heels or feel padded.

Beginning as a very modern psychological horror, with Cami's growing paranoia about being 'trapped' in a car with a peculiar stranger, the story then takes a dramatic supernatural turn that increasingly reminded me of the unusual occurrences in As Above, So Below.

For the first half an hour, of this 75-minute movie, we're just with Cami and Spencer, and the strained atmosphere feels so unnervingly real.

It's the early hours of the morning, they're alone in some dark, spooky woods, without phone service, with only Spencer's bow and arrow for protection (he's a bow hunter, who keeps his equipment in the boot of his car, much to Cami's initial horror). 

It isn't until they cross paths with a local that they learn they have somehow been drawn into the parallel world of The Toll Man, a paranormal entity who - attracted by a scent of death around our protagonists - demands a payment in blood before he will let them resume their journey.

There's maybe one or two minor jump scares, but mainly The Toll relies on the psychological weapons in its arsenal, as well as such tricks as shadows moving around in the darkness behind the main characters.

Increasingly they are pulled through a series of surreal nightmares that seem determined to undermine the couple's recently developed confidence in each other, trying to force one to kill the other.

These mind-games are a supernatural spin on Jigsaw's challenges in the Saw franchise, testing the mettle of Cami and Spencer, served up by an unseen - and unheard - antagonist à la Death in the Final Destination franchise.

The dynamic between the two main characters swings back and forth, eventually going to a very dark place at the climax of the film.

While other characters do pop up, largely in the nightmare sequences, it's Jordan Hayes and Max Topplin that carry this great little Canadian fright feast.

And after watching this: I'm never getting in an Uber ever again!

Malignant (2021)

Retro movie poster by Laz Marquez

After her abusive husband is killed and she miscarries her latest pregnancy as the result of a brutal home invasion, Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis) begins to have horrific visions of subsequent murders committed by the intruder.

Once the police are convinced there is some connection between Madison and the attacker, an investigation begins that starts to unravel the troubled woman's concept of reality.

Following his mega-success with Aquaman, horrormeister James Wan returned to the genre he is most closely associated with, bringing a touch of superpowered magic to Malignant that elevates this bonkers flick above the norm. 

Most definitely a film best appreciated with as little foreknowledge as possible, writer-director Wan mixes the police procedural elements from Saw with an '80s grungy monster movie vibe (one particular franchise comes to mind, but I won't say any more).

The resulting violent, action-packed, ride wouldn't feel that out of place as a villainous origin story in a Venom comic book or film.

While Annabelle Wallis (Grace Shelby from Peaky Blinders) is the heart of this movie, major kudos to the well-written coterie of supporting characters, particularly Madison's sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson), and the main police detectives, Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White).

I tend to find that when it comes horror films, the less I write about them in a review the more I've enjoyed them because there's less to take the piss out of and I'm keen not to spoil any genuine surprises for the reader. 

All I'll say is: Malignant is gloriously over-the-top and bonkers, gruesome, insane, and yet truly inspired and rather clever.

I really appreciated the fact that the script was full of crafty, well-earned, misdirects and red herrings, sending the plot in directions I certainly didn't expect (because I'd managed to avoid all spoilers from its cinematic release in 2021).

Malignant is a must-see for fans of the more pulpy end of the well-made horror movie spectrum.