A movie like Cobweb reminds me of Barbarian where you think it’s going one way but it goes in many different directions. This sometimes works. But if you’re going to pull it off, you better damn well make sure it works.
To be honest, I’m getting tired of horror movies that are mostly set in the dark or in shadows. I want to watch movies, not just hear them. You can overdo enough of this aesthetic that it becomes annoying. The cinematography by Phillip Lozano does create a nice ominous tone with the Bulgarian scenery to make it look like you’re normal American small-town in October. The first half of this movie is not bad. It’s just that the second half ends up being a major letdown because it has to resort to a lot of graphic violence and gore.
Peter (Woody Norman) is a bullied 8-year-old who lives in an older house with his overbearing but emotionally distant parents Mark (Anthony Starr) and Carol (Lizzy Caplan). They seem to be stuck somewhere in the latter quarter of the 20th Century. I noticed that neither Mark nor Carol have a cell phone. Carol wears long dresses and blouses that cover most of her arms. Peter thinks he hears scratching and knocking from within the walls that Mark just dismisses as rats so they set out rat poison.
However, at night, Peter thinks he hears a young girl’s voice. But he can’t get Carol or Mark believe him. At school, he gets a substitute teacher, Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman), who takes interest in him, a little too much that is never really explained. She just seems to do it for the convenience of the plot. One day, she comes to the house to show Carol a drawing Peter made of himself in bed hearing the voice saying, “Help me!” Carol mistakes it for Peter asking for help and gets on to him.
Later, he gets some payback on his bully, Brian (Luke Busey), that resorts in Peter’s parents withdrawing him from school and punishing him in a way that suggest they may be more sinister. But there’s a twist I won’t mention mainly because it really makes no sense because there’s nothing leading up to it. I know some people can live sheltered lives and be forgotten, but Carol used to be a teacher. For the twist to make sense, people must have been around her before she became reclusive. It’s implied that Mark works but he has to interact with people. I find it impossible in 2023 that a family like this can live so off the grid and be technology inclined. If so, why do they send Peter to a public school?
This feels like a movie that had a great idea but couldn’t think of any logic past the first half. At one point in the movie, Brian shows up with his cousins on Halloween night. I doubt they’d walk around a house the way they do without turning on one single light. And while at first Starr and Caplan seem to be working very well but after the incident between Peter and Brian, they both overact to the point that you’re expecting it to lead somewere. But it doesn’t.
Chris Thomas Devlin is credited as the writer. He wrote the not-so-great Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel in 2022. The director, Samuel Bodin, is a first-time feature director, but he has experience on TV. This shows that he may make a better horror/thriller some day. But I just couldn’t get into this movie enough to give it due credit. Norman gives a good performance as Peter and I think Caplan was ok somewhat as a wife who is expected to be subservient to her husband.
But there’s so many wasted opportunities in this movie. Peter’s bully is never really addressed until he fights back. Does the school district have something against Carol? Why does Miss Devine never call 911 when she thinks something bad is happening? Why is she a substitute when it appears she working for weeks? Is the regular teacher out on maternity leave? There’s a mention of a young girl down at the end of the street who went missing on Halloween years earlier but it doesn’t work out the way you’d think. Also, the ending leaves more questions can answers. Surely, someone called 911 then.
Cobweb opened on July 21, the same weekend everyone was going to see Barbie and Oppenheimer. If there was ever a time for an uneven movie to get lost among the bigger movies, this was the time.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 