Spiral Review (Film, 2020) #31DaysofHorror
content warning: homophobia, gore, animal abuse, sexual content, pedophilia (implied), death by suicide (discussed)
Editorial note: this is a “convince someone they’re insane” horror narrative. The story, set in 1995, is incredibly homophobic by design, including falsified accusations of pedophilia against an adult gay male. While the word is not used, photos are doctored to show him with a young adult and someone warns him that the “folder” on his hard drive could get him in a lot of trouble. It is eventually explained by the concept, but whether or not it is actually justified by the concept is up to your tolerance for some pretty harmful stereotypes. -RG
Sometimes a horror film is clearly built around a concept. Think the cursed tape in the Ring series or exploring the paranormal investigations of the Warrens in The Conjuring universe. The specific plot is not as important as an exploration of theme and concept. These tend to be horror films driven by tone and worldbuilding, not linear storytelling.
Spiral is a concept horror film. The year is 1995. Malik and Aaron, a gay couple, move into a quiet suburban town with their teenage daughter Kayla. Malik is worried about leaving the safety of the city after surviving a vicious homophobic attack in his earlier years. Aaron thinks he’s worried for no reason, but Aaron’s not the one at home able to watch the neighbors lurking around the yard and even breaking into the home to vandalize it. Malik thinks he’s uncovered a dark history of violence and aggression lurking beneath the idyllic surface of the all-American town, but he can’t prove it without alienating his family.
There’s a lot more going on than that. Suffice it to say that this is a narrative about the perception of reality and gaslighting on a wide scale. There are things that just don’t make sense and they’re not intended to make sense. They’re intended to make you feel isolated and unable to trust what you see and in that the film succeeds.
Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman does excellent work as Malik. You want to trust him and what he sees so much. He just showcases his emotions so well in a horror film, a rarity for male characters, without allowing his performance to turn into pure camp. It’s sincere work that covers a lot of flaws in the film. This is ultimately the story of a caring father trying to do everything right to keep his family happy by taking on the burden of protecting them from the dangers of the world.
The screenplay and edit of Spiral are a bit too vague to be as effective as they could be. There’s an element of missing time in the story that hides just a bit too much of what’s actually happening. Every time there should be a significant scare, we get a jump cut and the realization that minutes, hours, or even days have passed in the blink of an eye. It’s an excellent concept that’s just a bit overused in the overall narrative. That kind of storytelling is usually more effective in small doses; by the second act of Spiral, it happens in every scene. It’s no different than overusing any other kind of scare. Horror thrives on variety and repeating the time skip gag over and over renders it dull by the end.
Spiral has a great tone and sense of suspense. The concept is solid, if pushed to some unfortunate extremes in its execution. The film looks good. The acting is good across the entire cast with great work from Bowyer-Chapman. The only issue is the concept stops large parts of the story from being told at all. Trying to have the audience share Malik’s frustration starts to steal some of the enjoyment from watching the story.
Spiral is streaming on Shudder.
