From Jeremy Kibler

Most children can hopefully feel protected by their own parents when they have a bad dream or find themselves in actual peril. Director Samuel Bodin confidently turns that idea on its head with his first feature coming off Netflix’s French horror series Marianne. Made from breadcrumbs of 1989’s Parents, 1991’s The People Under the Stairs, and 2022’s Barbarian, Cobweb gooses and bumps as its own grim and twisted horror fable with a classically creepy garnish.

Sensitive 8-year-old Peter (Woody Norman) is awoken each night by a tapping noise on the wall of his bedroom. His parents, Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr), insist the literal bumps in the night are just part of his wild imagination. But come on, the old house they live in looks like a complete fixer-upper or a creaky haunted house with a rotten pumpkin garden out back. Or, are Peter’s parents actually just the lesser of two evils? Either way, Peter’s new substitute teacher Miss Devine (an impossibly kind Cleopatra Coleman in the “Miss Honey” role) is keenly aware of her student’s withdrawn behavior being a cry for help, and she’s about to find out what’s actually going on at home. 

For the first half of the film, Cobweb toys with the idea of whether or not Mom and Dad are actually to be feared, or if there is a fiendish secret hidden away in the wall, or if Peter really does just have an overactive imagination. Chris Thomas Devlin’s script is so streamlined without any time for filler, or even a nuanced metaphor for child abuse, and shaved down to the bare essentials. The narrative simplicity works, but thematically, it does leave one wanting for deeper ideas. Stylistically, though, the film is immaculate.

Setting around the story around Halloween, there’s no wasted opportunity for atmospheric production design (and the family’s home still looks spooky the other 364 days out of the year). Director of photography Philip Lozano makes deliciously dramatic use of shadow and has a playfully dynamic yet disciplined way with the camera — did we mention this is a stylish-looking movie? In scare sequences, there are a few visual influences from Mike Flanagan’s Oculus and J-horror (primarily Ju-On or The Grudge) that still make their own startling impression, and something akin to Rapunzel’s long hair upends that fairy tale princess’ long beautiful locks. 

Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon) excels being front and center as Peter, finding a convincing balance between childlike savviness and outright fear. Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr make sensationally wicked villains as Carol and Mark, even if they don’t get nearly enough to play. The roles are one-note, but they give the actors a chance to be effectively kooky and menacing. Starr is intimidating, and switching from a bright smile to a stern look that could kill, Caplan is able to find a little more offbeat complexity, plus she’s afforded her Wendy Robie moment.

Cobweb is tautly constructed and entertainingly macabre. The last half hour is a little more standard but still spooky, gnarly, and bloody, an extended attack on Peter’s bully and his reinforcements who get to face a tangible monster. All it needed was a stronger ending, but before then, this is an elegantly mounted, rat-poisoned bedtime story not for the kiddies.

Cobweb hits theaters on July 21, 2023. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Follow Jeremy at @JKiblerFilm