Many were skeptical when comedy icon Saw movies, and actually approached Lionsgate about an idea for a new installment years before Spiral came to fruition. Considering his fandom, Rock's casting in the role of Detective Zeke Banks makes much more sense.
The story in the Saw sequel Spiral is also based on Rock's aforementioned ideas, meaning he had a far bigger hand in shaping the narrative being told than most lead actors. That said, Saw fan or not, there was certainly no guarantee that Rock's skills would translate to the horror realm, one in which he has almost no experience in professionally. Thankfully, Rock's performance seems to be going over just fine with those fans who enjoyed Spiral: From the Book of Saw, suggesting he could have a future with the franchise.
A bit surprisingly though, Spiral didn't really try to lean away from Rock's reputation for making people laugh, or his ability to do so. Instead, Rock's talents are a major part of his role — and are used to subvert audience expectations.
Spiral: Chris Rock Makes Fans Laugh, Before They Cringe
When people see Chris Rock, they're usually laughing — whether that be seeing him in one of his various films, his old sketch comedy days, his talk show appearances, or his sold-out stand-up tours. Of course, Saw isn't a very funny franchise, with the amount of humor generally kept to a minimum. After all, Forrest Gump, and in the first act of the film, gets many more hilarious lines likely to make theaters full of people crack up.
This might lead many in the audience to believe that Spiral will be a comedy/horror story, and while gory kills will happen, things won't get too serious. The genius of it all is that right around the time Rock's one-liners really get the viewer into an amused comfort zone, the story of Spiral ratchets up its intensity level, with bodies dropping in horrifying ways, Banks beginning to lose his grip mentally, and characters the audience has come to like not being spared terrible fates. From the second act onward, the humor fades almost entirely into the background, and Spiral gets just as gripping and suspenseful as any other Saw tale. Jokes about Forrest Gump are long gone, replaced with people getting their face burned off with hot wax. Rock may be a comedian, but Spiral isn't a comedy, and anyone seeing it as such is in for a rude awakening, in the best possible way.
