Notable Cast: Woody Norman, Cleopatra Coleman, Lizzy
Caplan, Antony Starr, Luke Busey
At a brisk runtime of 88 minutes, Cobweb still took
at least 20 minutes for me to latch onto what it was doing. It was focused on
the 8-year-old protagonist, the acting for the family - including his mother
and father - felt four times larger than life, and the house they lived in felt
like an intentional set, particularly when compared to his school life outside
the home.
I had only seen the trailer once, but my assumption from the
trailer was that this film looked to capitalize on the “trauma horror” trend
currently running circles in the genre. Still, this - this opening of the film
all felt like it was two steps disconnected from reality in some heightened
way, and my brain was desperate to figure out the tonal intent. Twenty-ish
minutes in, it hit me like the clawed fingers of its spider-infested
antagonist. Cobweb is a fairy tale horror flick. Not some high-brow
artistic supernatural yarn. Duh.
Once I finally grasped what this film would be with its more
serious and realistic tone, I totally bought into it. Cobweb is a film
that embraces this other-worldly, Halloween-injected-fun-scare style, wrapped
in a fairy tale aesthetic, and is a tight, entertaining horror flick. It swirls
its audience into a kind of silliness not unlike James Wan’s Malignant did with
its blend and still manages to deliver just enough soul to sell the entire
thing. By the time the bonkers final act came ripping out, I was fully cocooned
in Cobweb - in all the best ways.