Spiral: From the Book of Saw (R18, 93mins) Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman ** I wished this could have been this decade’s Seven. I hoped it might emulate 2018’s resurrection of Halloween. I prayed it would at least be more palatable than Ridley Scott’s Hannibal. Spiral is the disappointing Saw-homage we should have seen coming a mile off. Strip away the high profile acting trio of Chris Rock (who also apparently gave the “turd-gid” script a polish), Samuel L. Jackson and Max Minghella, and it’s the same thin gruel of extreme vigilantism laced with grim torture-porn scenes where there’s only ever one outcome. At least here, we learn a little more about our troubled “hero” and the deadly devices are used sparingly, but, at its dark heart, this is still just another ploddingly predictable instalment (No. 9, if you’re still counting) of a series that’s devolved from a smart, inventive opener to a succession of geek shows.