Cobweb

Cobweb is certainly a flawed film, but has enough going for it to keep me heavily invested and having a good time watching.

The camera work is sleek, the house is horrifying, the performances are good enough, and being honest: in a theater this was actually quite spooky with some well crafted scares. The third act is very odd, structurally. It even turns into a slasher movie for a minute there. But I actually enjoyed the bonkers nature of it, though I understand it won't work for everyone.

As I mentioned, there are flaws. The relationship between Peter and his parents could have used some setup (has their relationship always been this weird?), and a few aspects of the ending had me very perplexed and don't seem to hold up if you think deeply about them. The last 60 seconds felt like it could have been stretched a little more for better closure, but I guess they wanted to keep it more open-ended?

I highly recommend Cobweb for more forgiving horror fans- which sounds like a knock on it, but it's really not. Certainly prefer this flawed but imaginative work compared to studio involved schlock.

If there's something Samuel Bodin knows how to do, it's create tension and suspense, waiting for the right moment to terrify us. After "Marianne," he does it again in "Cobweb," which uses a very well-crafted script throughout two acts to build-up a story that may seem similar to many others but has its originality later revealed. There are chilling moments, and it takes unexpected paths, always supported by excellent performances and a highly imaginative camera work.

It's a shame that some small details don't live up to the rest of the work - yes, the typical "why did you go there and didn't call the police" kind of thing - including a hurried conclusion that should have provided more answers and a more convincing resolution.

Imagine being Eight years old, and hearing voices in your bedroom, that's the scenario for poor Peter, who can't even rely on his parents.

Once again, I was hooked by a trailer, but unlike the last few horrors I've seen, which have all been disappointing, Cobweb was actually a pretty good movie.

Let's be honest, it's far from perfect, but then again, what is, at times it was a little too dark, and I wish they hadn't shown the figure, I would have preferred the ambiguity. I didn't care for some of The CGI, had they toned her down a bit, I think it would have worked better.

The ending felt a bit rushed, I wonder if they'd cut a number of scenes out, that said it was nice to watch a movie that didn't run for three hours.

The plus points, quite a few of them, first of all, pound for pound, this had more jump scares than I've seen for quite a while, and when they came, they were really good, the moment with the mother coming down the corridor was excellent, plenty of tension and unease.

I thought the acting was terrific, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr and young Woody Norman were all on point.

Better than expected, I enjoyed it.

7/10.

I'm a huge horror fanatic especially these under the radar films. I went into this really not knowing much just the cool looking posters. The movie starts of amazing with great camera work and the main cast was really good (creepy) the star was the child actor and he was the star. I enjoyed what he brought to the film and was very believable. The movie didn't have any straight forward runs, every time you think you have it figured out it gave you a hard left (Barbarian) type style hard turns of the plot. It had me fully intrigued and committed as a horror fan. First half of the movie I couldn't figure it out but yet I thought I had it figured out. Now that last act was the let down. It could of been delivered so much better but it felt rushed and without a set conclusion, no actual closure. It was a tale of 2 half's and the first half was an amazingly done film the last half I don't know what happen, so disappointed but I'll say it's worth a viewing.

Director Samuel Bodin's first theatrical feature is atmospheric, and departs from stock slasher conventions just enough to make for an entertaining if unexceptional scarefest. Cobweb feels like an incomplete collection of horror ideas that aren't explored to their full potential, but it fairly succeeds thanks to the second act where the real terror awakens.

There's no sugarcoating Cobweb's flaws, from pacing to convoluted editing, and at times with crappy CGI that actually scares more than the movie. It might not be a particularly memorable horror film, but it's still decent enough with it's jump scares that engages us. The climax/conclusion was lousy though, which somehow ended in a jiffy rather than taking it slow.

My Rating:6/10.