At night, eight-year-old Peter (Woody Norman) hears noises coming from behind his bedroom wall, but his mother and father (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr) say that it is the result of an overactive imagination -- or rats. Eventually a voice reaches out to Peter from behind the wall, warning him to be wary of his parents.
There are three things about Cobweb that should make me hate it: the lead character is a young kid, the pacing is extremely slow-burn, and the 'monster' is one of those scuttling, creepy, lank-haired women that have proliferated horror ever since The Grudge and Ringu. However, I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, despite the somewhat derivative plot (I'm not at all surprised that it's from the producers of Barbarian and IT) and one major niggle*.
Woody Norman is actually very good in the central role -- not the least bit irritating and very believable -- and he is given able support from Caplan and Starr as Peter's very strange parents. Director Samuel Bodin maintains a very deliberate pace but ensures that there is enough going on to keep the viewer engaged, with a particularly shocking scene involving soup. Things eventually get crazy in the final act, when we finally get to see what is lurking behind the walls, Bodin delivering plenty of scares and a smattering of gore.
While it's not what I would consider groundbreaking, what it does it does well. 7/10.
*If the 'monster' is strong enough to tear people in half, surely it could break a hole through the wall and escape from its prison.
There are three things about Cobweb that should make me hate it: the lead character is a young kid, the pacing is extremely slow-burn, and the 'monster' is one of those scuttling, creepy, lank-haired women that have proliferated horror ever since The Grudge and Ringu. However, I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, despite the somewhat derivative plot (I'm not at all surprised that it's from the producers of Barbarian and IT) and one major niggle*.
Woody Norman is actually very good in the central role -- not the least bit irritating and very believable -- and he is given able support from Caplan and Starr as Peter's very strange parents. Director Samuel Bodin maintains a very deliberate pace but ensures that there is enough going on to keep the viewer engaged, with a particularly shocking scene involving soup. Things eventually get crazy in the final act, when we finally get to see what is lurking behind the walls, Bodin delivering plenty of scares and a smattering of gore.
While it's not what I would consider groundbreaking, what it does it does well. 7/10.
*If the 'monster' is strong enough to tear people in half, surely it could break a hole through the wall and escape from its prison.