Spiral (2020)

Streaming Services: Shudder

Movie Name/Year: Spiral (2020)

Genre: Thriller

Length: 90 minutes

Rating: NR

Production/Distribution: Digital Interference Productions, Hadron Films

Director: Kurtis David Harder

Writer: Colin Minihan, John Poliquin

Actors: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen, Jennifer Laporte, Lochlyn Munro, Chandra West, Ty Wood, Thomas Elms, Paul McGaffey, David LeReaney, Darius Willis, Aaron Poole, Darius Savon, Megan Tracz, Jasmine Nagy, Lara Taillon, Michele Wienecke, Jaron Melanson

Blurb from IMDb: A same-sex couple move to a small town so they can enjoy a better quality of life and raise their 16-year-old daughter with the best social values. But nothing is as it seems in their picturesque neighborhood. And when Malik sees the folks next door throwing a very strange party, something shocking has got to give.

Selina’s Point of View:

I had some preconceived notions for this film and they were mostly wrong.

Before watching, I had not yet taken the time to view the new trailer. So, I was only operating off of the short clip I included in the Top 20 list. Based on that, I assumed what I was getting into would be a basic cult-centric film with some little tweaks that made the story more interesting. If you watch the clip, it won’t be hard to see why I got that impression.

In reality, what I got was a social commentary with a psychological thriller twist. It caught me off guard. Not in a bad way, though.

As it turns out, Spiral isn’t just a film meant to shock and horrify. It probes an important lesson that people seem to be mostly immune to. It’s a project meant to show the dangers of generalized fear and anger; especially in the form of ideas like homophobia and racism.

The story took place in the 80s, starting about two weeks before I was born.

Although people were more accepting than they had once been, homophobia still ran rampant in the 80s and 90s. Even as late as 1998 there were horrific instances of that kind of hatred exhibited in the USA, such as with the dead of Matthew Shepard. Even now, there are still people in many countries that could be killed for their sexuality.

I think it’s important to remember that we have come a long way, but that we still have a lot of road ahead of us.

But I digress.

Delving into such real-life hatred-based ideologies causes Spiral to hit home a little harder than it would have otherwise. It felt terrifying.

Only in the end was I able to discern exactly what was going on in the quiet town the main characters moved to.

Spiral went through so many plot twists that I didn’t know which way was up most of the time. A few scenes were super predictable, but that made the stuff I didn’t see coming hit even harder.

I did feel like there was a bit of a pacing issue, though. As much as I enjoyed the content and twisty-turny road to the conclusion, I felt nearly every single minute that passed by. It was a relatively normal length, but it felt SO much longer. That makes me wonder if I’ll remember it as positively as I do at the moment.

When all is said and done, I did enjoy the film. It was well written and directed, the actors were very good in their parts, and it had a phenomenal message. I’d recommend it.

Trust the Dice did get early access to this movie. If you are looking into seeing it for yourself, it will be streaming on Shudder 9/17.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 6.2/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4/5

Trust the Dice Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13

Movie Trailer: