When Social-Justice Horror Goes Wrong

This story contains spoilers for the film Spiral: From the Book of Saw.

Saw, that undying paean to torture porn, finally started running out of stamina when its eighth—eighth!—entry hit theaters in 2017. The once-popular Lionsgate series had gotten predictable; the death traps were rusty, the box-office returns waning. Even B-listers hadn’t joined the cast in years. It needed a new star and a new purpose.

As it turned out, the studio could kill two birds with one Chris Rock. Joe Drake, a Lionsgate executive, says he bumped into Rock at a wedding, where the comedian lobbied “in” of law enforcement. “We were all in,” Drake . “Chris conceived this idea, and it will be completely reverential to the legacy of the material while reinvigorating the brand with his wit, creative vision, and passion.”