"Spiral" is "Defund the Police: The Movie"
I spoke with the two screenwriters of the 2021 movie, "Spiral: From the Book of Saw."
In 2021, director Darren Lynn Bousman collaborated with screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger to create a self-contained “Saw” story. Each had worked on previous “Saw” movies, so they were well-suited to the task. Titled “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” and starring comedian Chris Rock and veteran thespian Samuel L. Jackson, the trio crafted a tale in which corrupt police officers are targeted by a mysterious murderer inspired by the so-called “Jigsaw Killer,” who kills his victims in sadistic, torturous “games.”
Like the best “Saw” movies (“Saw VI” and “Saw X”), “Spiral” uses the Jigsaw Killer concept to make a larger point about society and politics. For this reason, I availed myself of an opportunity to discuss this parable about police brutality with Stolberg, Goldfinger and the film’s editor, Kevin Greutert.
“It’s definitely an old school ‘70s cop movie in many ways, where you’ve got all these corrupt cops doing their thing and getting revenge and all that,” Greutert told me for Dread Central earlier this year. “I think that’s the funnest aspect of that movie.”
Greutert added, “I know Chris Rock was originally going to direct it, and then he got pulled away to do one of the seasons of Fargo, to star in it. He was still in ‘Spiral,’ but wasn’t able to direct it. They brought Darren back and did their whole thing, so by the time they contacted me, they’d already shot and edited the movie, but just wanted some additional editing work on it. So I did the old trek back to Toronto in the middle of winter, did my thing and walked away again.”
When I asked the screenwriters for their views on the film’s controversial political content, Stolberg explained that they “got away with” it by not over-emphasizing what they were doing.
“By not leaning into it too, too hard,” Stolberg explained when asked how the filmmakers avoided controversy. “Look, I think a lot of ‘Saw’ fans are very pro-police. A lot of the hardcore horror nerds that I meet online do not share my political sensibilities at all. But we share a love of horror, which is great!” He added that the movie does not support punishing all cops, but just corrupt ones.
“My issue with the police has always been that, this is a little bit what you get when you hire policemen, and I know that's a horrible thing to say, but that's an element that just comes in and… you put yourself in this position where for the police they just [have] this determination to stick together at all costs,” Goldfinger said. “It is really, for me, the biggest problem with the police. If they could just get past the idea that one bad cop being taken down, or exposed, or just they themselves exposing bad cops rather than waiting for them to be exposed and then defending them, it is really pardon effed up. It's an effed up system.”
He added that, although he doesn’t know how to fix it, he believes a big part of the problem is that “there's such a brotherhood of — I mean, think about the people that you knew that grew up to be cops. I bet some of them turned out to be really good cops. I'm not saying that they weren't, but it takes a certain kind of loyalty. They were always very loyalty-oriented, and it just breeds that kind of corruptness that I just wish there was an answer for, anyway.”
In response to these observations by Stolberg and Goldfinger, I pointed out that my brother-in-law and two close high school friends grew up to become police officers.
“They're all good men,” I said. “I agree with you, Pete, that the biggest problem is that the good men and the bad men seem to all be lumped in together. My argument is that a lot of that has to do with the police unions. And I'm very pro-union. I'm not bashing labor unions in terms of them getting high wages and benefits and autonomy for their workers. But I don't think a union should be allowed to get its workers away with murder. I do think that should be a line. I'm pro-union, but I don't think your union should be able to cover it up if you commit a murder.”
That’s the premise of “Spiral,” in a nutshell. I won’t dare spoil any more of the film. Instead I’ll conclude by saying that, if you want to watch a thought-provoking and scary horror movie that can be summed up as “Defund the Police: The Movie,” you should check out “Spiral.”
Back Seat Socialism
Back Seat Socialism is a column by Matthew Rozsa, who has been a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently, he is writing a book for Beacon Press, "Neurosocialism," which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.