Cobweb

Well, this was a surprise! I went into this expecting to be let down, as I often am with horror movies, but I ended up genuinely enjoying it. Sure, I wouldn’t have minded a bit more gruesome detail. But I get it — the filmmakers were going for atmosphere over gore, and they mostly nailed it. The tension was solid, the young lead was tolerable, and it was great to see Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr again. The main villain definitely had a bit of that Eastern horror vibe, but it worked for me. After a long time, I found myself actually enjoying a horror film, and I had no hesitation in giving it four stars. / Lesson learned: When you need to demolish something, get some strong Black women with fireplace pokers. (08/20/2024)

It’s a shame that the evil is so divorced from reality due to its physical abilities and movements, while the film itself otherwise tries to remain firmly rooted in reality. And it’s also a shame about all of the strange and ill-conceived moments in the characters’ behavior and generally how they are set in the course of the scenes. Because otherwise, this “girl under the stairs from Holdenfield” very interestingly plays with genre clichés and is capable of surprising and delighting the viewer with delicious cinematography, editing and soundtrack treats. (11/06/2023)

Once again, we have delinquent youth behind bars. They should get a haircut and find a job. A slightly offbeat mother describes her son, whose young actor charmingly poorly tries to act being frightened, as someone with a "great, big, beautiful imagination." This is something the creators here lacked, and when the hairy creature with suction cups appears in all its glory, it becomes fully apparent. The result is a Halloween pumpkin that’s quite hollowed out and carved according to established procedures. (08/29/2023)

There hasn't been such a rich and dense mix of genres for a long time, and if someone did it even slightly differently, I wouldn't be afraid to give the film a Boo! rating with a shake of my head in disbelief at how someone could think of mixing these genres. But he creative team behind Cobweb is skilled enough to deliver a total mindfuck that in the first half is a depressing story about a weird family and the strange and harsh upbringing of their son, and in the second half it turns into a bloody body-count violent horror thing with perfect fantasy elements. The cinematography is brilliant, with dazzling angles and shots, the work with tension and music do a tremendous job of keeping the viewer in constant suspense and fear, and when the film switches genres halfway through it actually feels pretty natural and pretty damn impressive. Up until the last 10 minutes, I was convinced to give it a full score and attend a re-screening after tonight's home premiere, but the ending feels terribly unsatisfying and pretty much spoils all the build-up before it, and it fizzled out oblivion... (08/16/2023)

Except for the two luxurious scares (which had already been seen in the trailer), it wasn't such a WOW movie. It had a rather slow start, a good but somewhat predictable twist, and the ending didn't completely dazzle me either. Nevertheless, it's a decent horror movie, and I don't regret going to see it in the cinema. (08/15/2023)