Spiral - Das Ritual

The idea of a gay character-led horror film appealed to me hugely as a gay man and avid horror fan. Identity politics aside; viewing 'Spiral' objectively, it lacks the promise of its potential. I'm a little over indie slow-burn, symbolic-heavy horror movies at the moment as the new generation of filmmakers are pumping them out faster than a David Lynch traffic light changes colours.

The majority of the film concerns itself exploring the topic of 'paranoia versus reality' which is taxing after about 20 minutes much less an hour and 20 minutes of this single beat repeated again and again and again. Additionally, I didn't think the paranoia brought anything new or interesting to the table and certainly wasn't enough to make me care for the characters.

Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman as the lead makes an effort to bring the level of intensity required to make his character work but unfortunately does not succeed. There are several plot holes within his character's backstory which results in the outcome of audience apathy for what he's going through.

Genre-wise this fails to achieve a horror tone. I can't honestly say there was a single moment when I felt horrified by any particular event. When the punchline finally arrived I stopped caring long before as the characters did not develop and the scenes didn't contain dialogue and conflict structured to sustain interest.

In the climax (no spoilers) the antagonist blatantly states the moral of the story, causing me to see weak writing rather than agreement for its existence. Sadly, I'm chucking this movie onto the pile of the hundreds of under-developed gay themed films that simply don't have the quality and/or budget to create a story of honesty, originality and significance.

The acting is ok. The cinematography, and sound are fine. Just a dumb story.

There is no horror. Maybe some suspense. The plot just grinds on with very little happening of interest until the end.

The character development is sparse. The motivations of the family and the neighbors is difficult to surmise. We learn very little about their pasts. Pretty hard to relate to or care much about any of them.

If they'd ended the film after the birthday party, I suppose it may have left a more interesting impression....But they junked up the ending with the same old same old.. Not a good watch. But... It does have a gay multi racial couple as leads. That's different. That's about the only thing interesting about it.

A mixed-race gay couple (and the one guy's daughter from a previous relationship) make the move as an alternative family unit to a small town where things are, and always have been, button down and traditional. At first, the couple feel excited that their plan to live a more down-to-earth life away from city stresses...but soon one of the guys begins to suspect that the community is hiding a sinister secret.

The set up is very familiar to horror fans and yet the first act of the movie plays out quite well. It's shot well, has convincing performances from the leads, and - with the help of a good sound engineer - effortlessly builds up the creep factor.

These plus points remain throughout the movie; however, the second act of the film drags and the third act seems to fall asleep at the wheel and veer dramatically from paranormal horror to Rosemary's Baby-esque paranoia, back again, then into some ham-fisted social commentary on both mental illness, racism, and homophobia before finally crashing headlong into the lovechild of Hereditary and Dracula.

As a result the ending feels unsatisfactory as a lot of the reveals feel tacked-on and limp. By the time it ended I felt like the writers tried to cover up a weak script by distracting the audience with some horror cliches and - if that didn't work - some clunky "message" that "racism is bad" and/or "homophobia is bad" and/or "mental illness is a shame".

Which is sad because if the film had had the courage of it's convictions a bit more I think it could have delivered way more effectively on what it set up in the first third. All in all, an okay-ish watch but that's being a bit on the generous side.

Not to be confused with the 2021 'Saw' spin-off movie also called 'Spiral', as I did.

Not only is Malik and Aaron a same-sex couple, but also an interracial couple, moving to a conservative small town back in 1995. With them is Aaron's daughter, Kayla. Soon after settling into their new home, they start noticing the townsfolk reacting weirdly. 'Spiral' is mysterious, creepy and foreboding.

'Spiral' is a psychological horror which becomes increasingly nerve-wrecking as the film develops, and one never really knows what to expect. Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman is very good as Malik, a black gay guy who soon feels out of place in their new home. Kayla also meets a young boy, Tyler, who seem to have a secret or two.

I really enjoyed the mystery, but the film falls apart during the finale. Without doing spoilers, all I can say is that there's way too much left unexplained. Who are these people? What are they? Why are they doing it? Why every ten years? I also couldn't help but wonder whether this might be homophobic propaganda. The film also does not have the ending I had hoped for. Pity. It started off so interesting...

Would I watch it again? No.

Same sex couple moves in a remote location in a small town and things just don't seem right. Why to watch this: 1-resembles the atmosphere of "Hereditary", which was pretty scary 2-interesting story development but with many gaps. 3-keeps you guessing what's going on 4-scary enough for halloween 6/10 , watch it if your out of things to watch.