''Spiral'' is a 2019

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

horror thriller film, directed by Kurtis David Harder.Clark Collis
"The neighbors are scary as hell in clip from horror film Spiral"
''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'', October 18, 2019. It stars

Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (born October 21, 1984) is a Canadian actor, model, and television personality. He is known for appearances in films and television, most notably as Jay in the Lifetime dark comedy-drama series ''Unreal'' (2015–2018) and ...

and

Ari Cohen Ari Cohen (born in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian stage and television actor. He was a cast member of ''My Babysitter's a Vampire''. He is from Winnipeg and attended the University of Manitoba, where he was an alumnus of the Black Hole Theatre ...

as Malik and Aaron, respectively, a same-sex couple who move to a small town with their daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte), only to suspect that their initial welcome from their neighbors Marshall (

Lochlyn Munro Lochlyn Munro (born February 12, 1966) is a Canadian actor. His most notable film roles include ''A Night at the Roxbury'' (1998), ''Scary Movie'' (2000), ''Freddy vs. Jason'' (2003), ''White Chicks'' (2004), '' The Predator'' (2018) and ''Cosm ...

) and Tiffany ( Chandra West) may conceal something sinister. It premiered August 25, 2019 at Arrow Video Frightfest and was screened at other horror and LGBTQ film festivals through late 2019 and early 2020. It premiered on

Shudder Shudder may refer to: *Shivering * ''Shudder'' (album), a 2008 album by American band Bayside *Shudder (streaming service) Shudder is an American over-the-top subscription video on demand service featuring horror, thriller and supernatural fic ...

in September 2020.

Production

''Spiral'' was filmed during a 21-day period in 2018, in one of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

's small towns (

Irricana Irricana is a town in the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. Surrounded by Rocky View County, it is adjacent to Highway 9, approximately northeast of Calgary. The name of the town is a contraction of the words "irrigation canals", ...

), on a relatively low budget.

Critical reception

The movie received generally positive reviews. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: "''Spiral'' explores the tension between otherness and conformity with a well-acted horror story that chills even if it doesn't outright terrify." Phil Wheat of ''Nerdly'' called it "an interesting look into the pressure of being minority" and believed that Bowyer-Chapman's performance was "the very epitome of tour-de-force." ''His Name is Death'' editor Albert Nowicki praised the movie for its undertones and subtextual plot and applauded Harder for "finally giving gay characters the right to speak and tell their stories." He also stated the movie is "brave" and has "a lot of empathy."

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Spiral
' at Library and Archives Canada 2019 films 2019 LGBT-related films 2019 horror thriller films Canadian horror thriller films Canadian LGBT-related films English-language Canadian films LGBT-related horror thriller films Gay-related films 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films Films shot in Alberta English-language horror thriller films {{2010s-Canada-film-stub