Cobweb Review

Cobweb review.

Cobweb is doomed to be lost in the Barbenheimer hype. While screens around the world are full of two of the most anticipated movies of the year…Cobweb deserves your attention.

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

Cobweb

Directed by Samuel Bodin

Written by Chris Thomas Devlin

Starring Lizzy Caplan, Anthony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman, Woody Norman and Luke Busey

Cobweb Review

I had to drive to another county to see Cobweb.  It isn’t the first time that’s happened…and it won’t be the last.  Earlier this year the only place showing lo-fi hit Skinamarink remotely nearby was a run-down theater a long drive down the thru way away.  I’m old enough to remember what movie theaters looked like in the 80s…long before comfortable reclining seats and massive screens.  The theater showing Skinamarink predated my memory of old theaters.  I was the only person at the screening.  To say this set-up elevated my enjoyment of the film would be an understatement.

Cobweb played at a modern theater.  The only one for three counties that found a screen for it amidst all the showings of Barbie and Oppenheimer.  Barbenheimer, as the internet has coined the simultaneous release of the films, has become a cultural phenomenon.  Discussion about the two movies is set to dominate the weekend.  This leaves little room for another new release to make a cultural imprint.  After taking the long drive back from a showing of Cobweb…I can confidently say that this is a damn shame.

While the first half of Cobweb holds your attention with find acting and a patient, steady build…it’s the second half of the movie that makes Cobweb worthy of a place in the public discourse.  Right at the halfway point of the story…the movie changes into something completely different.  Something wilder, more fun, and more entertaining.

Lizzy Caplin and Antony Starr play the strange parents to a bullied young son, Peter (Woody Norman).  New teacher Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) worries about Peter’s safety when he appears to draw a picture asking for help.  In truth, Peter is passing on a message from the voice in his wall.

Cobweb builds a supernatural atmosphere that you slowly suspect is something far more real and sinister.  As Peter begins to understand the truth about the voice in his wall Caplin and Starr push their eccentricities further.  Miss Devine becomes more convinced that something is wrong at Peter’s home after meetings with his parents.  At the 45-minute mark you know where Cobweb is heading.  The truth is that a lot of the first half of Cobweb feels unfocused.  It’s a bit too sloppy for what it is obviously building towards.  Then it goes in a completely different direction.

Cobweb saves all the fun for the second half of the movie.  We wouldn’t dare spoil what the movie becomes…but we will say that it is worth the wait.  Everything we’ve seen is recontextualized by its endgame.  Wisely, it reveals the secret buried in its walls early enough to let the madness run wild.  The patient, slow burn to an obvious end gives way to something more thrilling.  A house full of secret doors and skeletons in the closet.  Or…more accurately…backyard.

All the fun does come with a price, however.  Cobweb doesn’t end so much as it stops.  For as clever as the script sets up its twists and turns…it had no idea how to end the story.  It almost feels like it turns into a montage of a possible future instead of wrapping up the story properly.  The theme it presents in the end makes sense…it just does it in such a jarring and brief way that it doesn’t land with the weight that it should.

But that’s not a deal breaker.  Cobweb gives us a haunted house movie that turns into roller coaster.  Both halves of the film are entertaining in different ways.  All the tension of the first half explodes into a cacophony or chaos in the second.  This is a movie that should be seen and discussed by horror fans the way that mainstream cinephiles are this week’s other two releases.  Consider making this a Cobbie or Webenheimer weekend.  Or…if you have nothing but time…try to pull off a Barbwebheimer.  It’s worth the drive.

Scare Value

While Cobweb feels a little too loose and a lot too unfocused…it isn’t without purpose. When things do come into focus halfway through the story…Cobweb soars. It becomes a different movie…escalating the craziness after a long, slow buildup. Performances are strong throughout. Just when you’re sure you’ve figured out what’s happening…you find out you don’t know anything.

3.5/5

Cobweb Link

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Cobweb Trailer

If you enjoyed this review of Cobweb, check out other new releases: Quicksand, The Breach, We Might Hurt Each Other and The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster.