Produced by comedy scene heavy-hitters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Samuel Bodin's feature debut horror film Cobweb was inexplicitly released into American theatres alongside the box office and cultural phenomenon behemoths that were Barbie and Oppenheimer, giving this future cult classic genre entry little to no chance to find its audience that it is now likely to find in the years to come.
A likely candidate for a future Halloween pick of choice amongst those that explore the depths of cult film fandom, Cobweb is a creepy little low budgeted affair centred around Woody Norman's bullied young boy Peter whose quiet life at home with his slightly off parents Carol and Mark (the underrated Lizzy Caplan and The Boys breakout star Antony Starr) isn't as idyllic as he would like it to be as he begins to suspect there is something/someone living in the walls of his family home.
Not afraid to get very dark and very weird, Bodin's film at times follows familiar tropes of the horror world but at the same time there is enough unpredictability and surprises in store here to ensure that even the most hardcore of genre lovers are going to find things in Cobweb they didn't expect to find/see and even while the film loses some of its intrigue and eerie charm in its later stages, there's still fun to be had from this film that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty.
One of those films that I would suggest heading into without watching trailers or reading deep dive synopsis into, Cobweb is enlivened by its odd pivots and narrative paths that cover up a lot of its weaker script work and curiously unexplored story arcs/happenings and with both Caplan and Starr having a gleefully demented good time as parents you wouldn't want to call your own, Cobweb is the type of B-movie delight that the likes of Wes Craven and John Carpenter would've been proud to be fans of.
Arguably not reaching its full potential or possibilities Bodin and screenwriter Chris Thomas Devlin's tale might have reached had it managed to refine its concepts and deliveries further, Cobweb is an entertaining quickfire genre entry that will likely find a life outside of the Barbenheimer whirlwind it found itself in during its initial release.
Final Say -
Far from highbrow viewing and not a film worthy of inspecting too deeply, Cobweb is nevertheless a fun and often surprising Halloween infused horror that provides its fair share of genre goodness around some of its more questionable elements.
3 long overdue haircuts out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)
A likely candidate for a future Halloween pick of choice amongst those that explore the depths of cult film fandom, Cobweb is a creepy little low budgeted affair centred around Woody Norman's bullied young boy Peter whose quiet life at home with his slightly off parents Carol and Mark (the underrated Lizzy Caplan and The Boys breakout star Antony Starr) isn't as idyllic as he would like it to be as he begins to suspect there is something/someone living in the walls of his family home.
Not afraid to get very dark and very weird, Bodin's film at times follows familiar tropes of the horror world but at the same time there is enough unpredictability and surprises in store here to ensure that even the most hardcore of genre lovers are going to find things in Cobweb they didn't expect to find/see and even while the film loses some of its intrigue and eerie charm in its later stages, there's still fun to be had from this film that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty.
One of those films that I would suggest heading into without watching trailers or reading deep dive synopsis into, Cobweb is enlivened by its odd pivots and narrative paths that cover up a lot of its weaker script work and curiously unexplored story arcs/happenings and with both Caplan and Starr having a gleefully demented good time as parents you wouldn't want to call your own, Cobweb is the type of B-movie delight that the likes of Wes Craven and John Carpenter would've been proud to be fans of.
Arguably not reaching its full potential or possibilities Bodin and screenwriter Chris Thomas Devlin's tale might have reached had it managed to refine its concepts and deliveries further, Cobweb is an entertaining quickfire genre entry that will likely find a life outside of the Barbenheimer whirlwind it found itself in during its initial release.
Final Say -
Far from highbrow viewing and not a film worthy of inspecting too deeply, Cobweb is nevertheless a fun and often surprising Halloween infused horror that provides its fair share of genre goodness around some of its more questionable elements.
3 long overdue haircuts out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)