User reviews

"Cobweb" is a slow-burning thriller that builds tension from ordinary events to eerie happenings, culminating in a series of abnormal occurrences. The director skillfully develops the characters' backstories, and the leading actors deliver convincing performances, particularly in their portrayal of semi-psychopathic characters. The story is engaging and keeps the audience captivated without resorting to cheap tricks.

However, the film's ending falls short of expectations. In an attempt to create a frightening atmosphere, the final scene is shot in near darkness, making it difficult to discern what is happening on screen. Rather than being scary, this lack of visibility is frustrating and detracts from the overall impact of the film, which is a shame because otherwise this could have been an outstanding film.

Overall, "Cobweb" earns an exact score of 58 / 100 from me. Fans of the genre may find it worth watching, but others may want to give it a miss.

This movie actually delivered as a horror movie by actually starting off with a creepiness to it and kept that feeling through most of the movie. As with most horror movies, there are moments of "that was kind of lame" but it held my attention and I did enjoy the story line and the characters.

I was originally going to rate this movie an 8 but the ending left me staring at the screen thinking " was that really the end." You know how you feel the movie getting close to the end and are anticipating what will happen? This movie had me right there the whole time but the ending was bad. So bad where I sat there kind of annoyed haha. So I dropped my rating to a 6.

If there's something Samuel Bodin knows how to do, it's create tension and suspense, waiting for the right moment to terrify us. After "Marianne," he does it again in "Cobweb," which uses a very well-crafted script throughout two acts to build-up a story that may seem similar to many others but has its originality later revealed. There are chilling moments, and it takes unexpected paths, always supported by excellent performances and a highly imaginative camera work.

It's a shame that some small details don't live up to the rest of the work - yes, the typical "why did you go there and didn't call the police" kind of thing - including a hurried conclusion that should have provided more answers and a more convincing resolution.

Imagine being Eight years old, and hearing voices in your bedroom, that's the scenario for poor Peter, who can't even rely on his parents.

Once again, I was hooked by a trailer, but unlike the last few horrors I've seen, which have all been disappointing, Cobweb was actually a pretty good movie.

Let's be honest, it's far from perfect, but then again, what is, at times it was a little too dark, and I wish they hadn't shown the figure, I would have preferred the ambiguity. I didn't care for some of The CGI, had they toned her down a bit, I think it would have worked better.

The ending felt a bit rushed, I wonder if they'd cut a number of scenes out, that said it was nice to watch a movie that didn't run for three hours.

The plus points, quite a few of them, first of all, pound for pound, this had more jump scares than I've seen for quite a while, and when they came, they were really good, the moment with the mother coming down the corridor was excellent, plenty of tension and unease.

I thought the acting was terrific, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr and young Woody Norman were all on point.

Better than expected, I enjoyed it.

7/10.

I'm a huge horror fanatic especially these under the radar films. I went into this really not knowing much just the cool looking posters. The movie starts of amazing with great camera work and the main cast was really good (creepy) the star was the child actor and he was the star. I enjoyed what he brought to the film and was very believable. The movie didn't have any straight forward runs, every time you think you have it figured out it gave you a hard left (Barbarian) type style hard turns of the plot. It had me fully intrigued and committed as a horror fan. First half of the movie I couldn't figure it out but yet I thought I had it figured out. Now that last act was the let down. It could of been delivered so much better but it felt rushed and without a set conclusion, no actual closure. It was a tale of 2 half's and the first half was an amazingly done film the last half I don't know what happen, so disappointed but I'll say it's worth a viewing.

I liked this one! It's not ground-breaking innovative and it has its flaws. It's about two creepy parents living in a creepy house, something creepy is hiding inside the house and a bullied boy with nightmares. It's the perfect setting for a good old-school horror movie. Unfortunately, it's not that creepy but I enjoyed every minute of it, Except for the terrible ending. But you can't get everything can you. There is not much acting going on so I can't really comment on that other than the little boy is doing fine. The parents are supposed to be unsettling and I think they do a desent job. Don't expect people or things will follow basic logic, because it doesn't. Just relax and enjoy the ride for what it is. It is occasionally bloody and gory but not a typical slasher movie - something I appreciated. Cobweb is definitely not a 1 star movie, nor is it a 10 star masterpiece. In my opinion 6/10 is what it deserves.

Cobweb is certainly a flawed film, but has enough going for it to keep me heavily invested and having a good time watching.

The camera work is sleek, the house is horrifying, the performances are good enough, and being honest: in a theater this was actually quite spooky with some well crafted scares. The third act is very odd, structurally. It even turns into a slasher movie for a minute there. But I actually enjoyed the bonkers nature of it, though I understand it won't work for everyone.

As I mentioned, there are flaws. The relationship between Peter and his parents could have used some setup (has their relationship always been this weird?), and a few aspects of the ending had me very perplexed and don't seem to hold up if you think deeply about them. The last 60 seconds felt like it could have been stretched a little more for better closure, but I guess they wanted to keep it more open-ended?

I highly recommend Cobweb for more forgiving horror fans- which sounds like a knock on it, but it's really not. Certainly prefer this flawed but imaginative work compared to studio involved schlock.

Director Samuel Bodin's first theatrical feature is atmospheric, and departs from stock slasher conventions just enough to make for an entertaining if unexceptional scarefest. Cobweb feels like an incomplete collection of horror ideas that aren't explored to their full potential, but it fairly succeeds thanks to the second act where the real terror awakens.

There's no sugarcoating Cobweb's flaws, from pacing to convoluted editing, and at times with crappy CGI that actually scares more than the movie. It might not be a particularly memorable horror film, but it's still decent enough with it's jump scares that engages us. The climax/conclusion was lousy though, which somehow ended in a jiffy rather than taking it slow.

My Rating:6/10.

I saw the (very good) trailer for this on IMDB, saw it was being released, and decided I would like to see it. It was hard to find, only two theaters, both good distances away, were playing the film. I thought me and a friend might be the only people seeing this in the theater when we sat down in the nearly empty theater. However, later on people started trickling in, and it eventually got a decent crowd, but I guess this movie is not being well advertised at all.

I'm not surprised, to be honest. This is a dark - very dark - movie, and other words you could use could be bleak and dreary and depressing. It's pretty much a childhood nightmare come to life. A boy lives in an old house with hermit-like and very weird parents, and leads a lonely and friendless life, where he is picked on mercilessly by bullies at school. And there is no hope or goodness or relief from the darkness whatsoever...

That said, its very good in creating an oppressively menacing and eerie atmosphere, and there are some good scares sprinkled throughout. Very good acting as well, and atmosphere for a horror movie. I don't like the big "reveal" though, and as always, think CGI effects tend to be weak, and not very well done at all, and detract rather than add to most movies. That said, its very well directed for a horror movie. But definitely not for everyone, with its artistic but nightmarish vision.

Not a huge fan of this movie because of the massive pivot half way thru.

I won't spoil it but there's a point where they build up to something which I was looking forward to, and then the movie just devolves down the proverbial toilet bowl.

Some of the audience will enjoy the devolution after build up and then full toilet bowl down to bad writing/cgi and utter nonsense, but I personally wasn't a fan.

This is becoming a bit of a trend, where movies will drive you somewhere, but then make a hard turn into chaos, where the writing style and the entire build up was something of a ruse. This movie for me it didn't work, the first half was well acted and very creepy however. 5.5/10.

The first hour of Cobweb was properly scary in places, built some great tension and benefited from great acting from Caplan especially. The direction was very effective even though it did rely on jump scares a little to much.

So far so good. However, the last twenty minutes or so really stretch the levels of believability to breaking point. The strength of Cobweb is its ambiguous nature at the start. What happened to the girl? Who really are the mum and dad? And who is the voice behind the wall? Are all questions that we really shouldn't have had answers to.

Unfortunately it seems that the director to the excellent French spook series on Netflix Mariane has caved to the less esoteric American style of of happy endings with everything and cover it with layers of cheese.

Still very watchable though.

I went into Cobweb knowing nothing about it. It's the kind of movie that benefits from that strategy more than most. I had no idea what to expect. It made the process of going through the story that much more enjoyable.

This movie is awesome but also flawed. It's cool and different but sometimes generic. It subverts tropes but is sometimes tropey. For me, the good far outweighs the bad and I had a great time watching it. Every direction it takes made me happy.

I enjoyed Lizzy Caplan's performance. And I'm glad Antony Starr finally landed a leading movie role. He's so underrated and always does an amazing job. His screen presence elevates everything. I feel it here the same way I do when I watch Banshee and The Boys. Give him more roles, please!

I wonder why I had never heard of this until now. I saw a poster for it this past Wednesday and assumed it would be coming out in a month or so. I had no idea it came out this weekend. Why no marketing? So many people will miss this. And why in the world would you release it on the same weekend as the two most hyped movies of the summer? Hopefully word of mouth makes up for poor strategy.

(1 viewing, opening Saturday 7/22/2023)

The movie is well done, starts as a typical horror mystery and goes into a great second act peak. At this point I would rate the movie a solid 8-9. Unfortunately the final act gives us a few off screen deaths instead of going full gore and violence which would make for a great finale because the story elements fizzled out at this point. The movie does contain plenty of gore it just peaked too early.

On another point Lizzy Caplan deserves some more quality roles.

It's only 90 minutes, there's worse movies that are twice as long out there.

It's only 90 minutes, there's worse movies that are twice as long out there.

This started off well enough and kept me intrigued. Then it got a bit weirder, but still kept me watching, but please just as soon as the kid gets the keys to the little door.... time to turn off.

This film now goes total WTF??! REALLY??? SERIOUSLY YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT???!!!

It's gets laughably ridiculous with plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon, Kimberley diamond mine and the Mariana trench. Some films border on the ridiculous, this film goes so far over that border you'll think you've witnessed a whole film crew, writers, and some of the cast catch some collective mental illness all at the same time! How else can you explain how they can possibly carry on making the last half hour of this film?! I'm shaking my head and laughing in disbelief. I gave it 4/10 because of the first two thirds. At least you'll have a laugh if you decide to watch it all. And you'll probably have nightmares too... nightmares about the state of the film industry!!

Most of the cast, especially the parents and little boy do a fine job of acting by the way. They're not responsible for awful writing, gaping plot holes and some ridiculous scenes.

First off the bat I have to say, both caplan and starr are very good at playing the parents and the seeminly sinister tendancies too. It reminds me of the characters in smile and truth or dare. Peter is a middleschool kid. Theres the obligatory bully and a subsitute teacher named miss lavine, whos the only person thats nice to him in the entire movie. Peter one night hears a strange tap behind the walls of his bedroom. His parents say its all in his head but when he hears the voice of a young girl, pieces start coming together in his head. The cast were all good here and the creeps built up well. The only let down for me however was the ending.we needed to see the outcome of everything and I think the film needed that.

COBWEB (2023) **1/2 Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman, Woody Norman, Luke Busey, Aleksandra Dragova. Disjointed domestic horror film about a troubled boy (a fine Norman) who discovers a terrifying family secret when he begins to hear noises within his home's walls that unfold ultimately into a deeper, more disturbing web of lies and deceit. While the acting is uniformly strong and Samuel Bodin's affective direction is sturdy the screenplay by Chris Thomas Devlin ends its final act rather abruptly with far too many questions than answers. Echoes of BARBARIAN, MALEVOLENT and THE SHINING.