Cobweb
Cobweb
Starring Woody Norman, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman
Directed by Samuel Bodin
Peter (Woody Norman) is a bullied eight-year-old who lives with his distant, odd-acting parents Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr) who doesn't seem to care that he hears knocking and a voice in the walls of their home. His only confidant is substitute teacher Ms. Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) who knows something is off but Peter's parents keep blocking her attempts to find out what. Soon the voice in the wall tells Peter to do terrible things for his own survival, but is the voice to be trusted, or is there a more nefarious purpose in mind?
The Good:
The designs of "Cobweb" is insane, especially Peter's house. It reminded me of the "Hereditary" house with its larger-than-normal rooms with minimal lighting and a dollhouse like quality that adds a sense of unease to the festivities. The backyard is equally unnerving as its littered with rotting pumpkins for no good reason, and the outside itself looks like a home that hasn't been inhabited in for years. Kudos to the set design department for giving a spooky setting for this by-the-numbers horror.
Normally I hate child actors because they get on my nerves, but Woody Norman gives an adequate performance - adequate because I didn't hate the kid. Sure, he is your stereotypical bullied loner child, but he doesn't over-perform and make it melodramatic: he's believable as a kid who needs help, and you actually want to help him out.
The parents in the film also perform exceptionally, especially Lizzy Caplan as Carol. She's unhinged and a bit loopy, but you can sense there's some parental love in there somewhere. She is nurturing to Peter but as events unfold you see her slowly lose grip on reality. For me I can't get over seeing Antony Starr as anyone other than Homelander from "The Boys" so here his performance needed to be above reproach, and while it wasn't stellar, he did a decent enough job to make me not picture him frying Peter with his laser eyes.
The story itself is, as "Beauty and the Beast" goes, a tale as old as time. Bullied kid hears voices that seem to want to protect him but makes him do terrible things only in the end for it to be revealed that the voice wasn't as nurturing as once thought. You know the beats before they're hit, but it doesn't take away from the little excitement to be had in them. It's not frustrating to see characters acting like they're supposed to act even though their motives don't make sense (such as with Peter. If he was so worried about his parents, why didn't he just leave the house? He wasn't locked in there and there wasn't some supernatural force field preventing him from leaving).
The kills are intense and gruesome, which came as a surprise because it felt like "Cobweb" was one of those middle-of-the-road family friendly horror films that could've been watched by children and adults to serve as a cautionary tale for listening to your children when things go wrong - and then the beheadings begin.
The Bad:
Some side characters are never flushed out, especially Cleopatra Coleman's Ms. Devine. She comes across as the generic teacher with a heart of gold who knows something is wrong but can't act on it, which honestly doesn't make sense in today's day and age. When she talks to the principal about her concerns, he scoffs them off when any normal principal would be investigating if not for the sake of keeping their school safe from a future lawsuit. Ms. Devine's character exists solely to be the champion, and you don't really know anything else about her other than that.
There's numerous side stories that never go anywhere, such as the story of a girl that goes missing in their town on Halloween which isn't mentioned again, or the bully Peter encounters at school who goes to his house later with his older brother and his friends who merely exist to pad up the kills. Again, like with Peter's decision to just not leave the house, these moments don't feel warranted in the already short film.
Much like with "Smile," once you see the creature it eliminates any fear and you're left laughing at the terribly awful CGI work. The creature in "Cobweb" is a hot mess to say the least, who looks as terrifying as looking at yourself in the mirror after you first wake up - at first you gasp, but then laugh at how silly you look.
The Summary:
Lamenting over the terror that could've been, "Cobweb" gets caught in its own web of predictability, bland storytelling, and lackluster effects that'll have you cleaning it out of your mind not long after it ends.
The Score: B-
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