A tired premise drives this horror movie: newcomers to a seemingly idyllic town learn that things there are far from what they seem. Still, familiarity need not be an automatic disqualification, and writers Colin Minihan and John Poliquin have given the plot some twists that, when coupled with solid direction from Kurtis David Harder and an able cast, almost revive the formula.
The family that comes to the small town in 1995 is one that would have been thought unorthodox a quarter-century ago—a gay, biracial couple, Aaron (Ari Cohen) and Malik (Jeffrey Bower-Chapman), along with Aaron’s teen daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte). Aaron is the breadwinner and Malik the homebody writer, while Kayla will attend high school.
There are some vaguely disquieting moments at first, as an elderly neighbor (Paul McGaffey) issues a warning about the newcomers’ house before suddenly dying under mysterious circumstances. Marshal and Tiffany (Lochlyn Munro and Chandra West), the couple across the street, are welcoming, but something in their manner seems slightly off, although their handsome son Tyler (Ty Wood) bonds easily with Kayla.
The focus turns to Malik, still traumatized by a gay-bashing incident he experienced with a previous lover. He finds a homophobic slur written on the wall of their home, just the beginning of what he thinks might be some sort of organized activity targeting them. Aaron believes his partner is exaggerating, but Malik’s worst fears are realized when someone interferes with his computer to make it appear that he has been unfaithful.
The resultant split with Aaron leads him to investigate the town’s history and conclude that sinister goings-on occurs every ten years. When he resorts to violence to avert a disaster from befalling Aaron and Kayla, the forces he’s fighting—which, as it turns out, are broader in scope than one might expect—may prove too powerful for him to overcome, though a coda indicates that he has at least left a warning to future newcomers just in case.
The horror is more implied than explicit in Spiral, though one scene is meant to be shockingly disgusting (and would be if it were not for the cheesy handmade effects). And though Bower-Chapman plays to the gallery in the latter stages, he does anchor the film nicely as the audience’s surrogate. Neither terribly scary nor particularly surprising, this is a medium-grade horror movie with a fairly predictable plot, and the addition of some shallow social commentary fails to make it more than a strong optional purchase.