Cobweb starts off strong. Audiences are sure to be on the edge of their seat.. until everything that works so well is upended and the film is ruined.
There is something special about a horror movie that is so intense, you are literally on the edge of your seat with your heart pounding as you try to figure out if what you are seeing is reality, or a figment of the main character’s imagination. That is exactly how Cobweb starts off.
For the first hour of the film, things are suspenseful. Young Peter (Woody Norman) appears to be hearing knocking coming from inside of his wall. Eventually he starts to hear a young girl calling for help. His parents, played by Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr, are strange to say the least. Even his teacher, Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) feels as if something bizarre is going on.
Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Cobweb would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.
Peter’s parents are very overprotective. Perhaps too overprotective, as they will not even allow him to go trick or treating on Halloween — claiming it is because of a girl who went missing in the neighborhood while doing so, years before he was born.
What Works In Cobweb
Let’s start off with the positive. Caplan and Starr deliver incredible performances. They are the right amount of creepy and caring. At times you can even, sort of, see where they are coming from. Norman is wonderful in the lead role as well. Together, the three feel like a messed up family.
The best part of Cobweb is the set up and the mystery. For the first hour of the movie, the audience has no real idea of what is going on. There are signs, sure, but nothing is ever proven. This ambiguity allows us to come up with all sorts of theories, and keeps us around so that we can find out if we are right or not.
The movie is dark and dreary, which is very deliberate. We follow around Peter, hoping he is the hero of the movie, but honestly having no idea. The moment that vagueness is ripped away from us, is the moment this movie fails.
What Doesn’t Work In Cobweb
The final twenty minutes of this movie absolutely destroys everything that came before it. Up until this point the film is smart and calculated, but then it molds into a typical horror movie that gives us a silly looking monster and a multitude of deaths that don’t ever feel earned.
The third act somehow takes away everything that worked so well in the first two. The reveal comes far too early, causing the movie to rely on it to be moved to the forefront. Which just, simply put, doesn’t work.
On top of all that, Cobweb ends abruptly, in a (not good) shocking way. Viewers are left with many questions that will never get answered, making it feel as if the entire movie was pointless.
Overall Thoughts
The first hour of Cobweb accomplishes what it sets out to. It is scary and intense. Suspenseful and creepy. Those watching are forced to come up with all sorts of theories while having no idea what is actually happening.
Anthony Starr and Lizzy Caplan are phenomenal and once they exit the movie, it completely falls apart. The worst thing about this all is that there is a good movie in here somewhere. Cobweb leans too heavily into the monster going on a rampage. We see too much of it and it ruins the thoughts of what it could look like that have been built up in our heads.
Top that off with an ending that comes out of nowhere, and this movie is almost not worth watching at all.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
NEXT: Barbarian Review (2022 Movie)
About Cobweb
Eight-year-old Peter is plagued by a mysterious, constant tap, tap from inside his bedroom wall – a tapping that his parents insist is all in his imagination. As Peter’s fear intensifies, he believes that his parents (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr) could be hiding a terrible, dangerous secret and questions their trust. And for a child, what could be more frightening than that?
Cobweb is playing in theaters now.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.