Before coming to Starz in October and just less than a month after it was released in theaters nationwide on May 14, the ninth installment in the blood soaked Saw franchise has hit Amazon Prime and is now available on demand for $19.99. Darren Bousman's franchise relaunch Spiral: From the Book of Saw certainly contains enough blood and carnage to appease even the most avid of gore hounds but was released to average to poor reviews, continuing the trend of most of its Saw predecessors.

While some critics did praise the fresh take on the franchise and the acting from Chris Rock and Samuel. L Jackson, most were in agreement that it wasn't enough to elevate the movie beyond anything the public wouldn't have seen already. Chris Rock, as well as acting in the movie, helped 'polish' the script and work on the story which was written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. Once again, there is an evasive killer on the loose who is intent on dishing out their own unique, twisted form of justice. Only this time around, it's a corrupt police force who seem to be the killer's focus, giving the story a little extra poignancy, given the current climate.

The movie did go on to top the box office on its release, albeit with far smaller returns than expected. It was released alongside Those Who Wish Me Dead, Profile, and Finding You and was projected to gross $10-15 million in its opening weekend. However, it only made $3.7 million on its first day causing experts to lower projections to $9 million. It went on to debut with an even lower $8.8 million for the weekend. It is the sixth movie in the series to reach the top spot at the Box Office but it also has the lowest opening weekend of the franchise and is currently the lowest grossing overall. It was enough, however, to push the total worldwide gross for the stomach-churning franchise over the $1billion mark.

There had already been talks of a sequel in production so it will be interesting to see if this goes ahead in light of the mixed reviews and lacklustre box office performance. There also seems to be some confusion as to where this latest entry should sit within the Saw cannon. Should it be considered a reboot or as simply Saw 9? It was announced on April 2021that a sequel titled Saw X had been confirmed and was in development with Twisted Pictures. However, Bousman, himself, seemed a bit taken aback by the announcement, and went on to say:

"Just because we made Spiral doesn't mean Saw ceases to exist. Just because Spiral is here, that doesn't mean there won't be a Saw IX. This is not the ninth film in the Saw franchise. There easily could be a Saw IX that follows Jigsaw. I think they're waiting to see how [Spiral] goes and how audiences respond to determine what happens next."

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is available as a VOD rental on Amazon in 4K for $19.99 and will later stream exclusively on Starz, starting on October 8, 2021 in the United States.