Cobweb (2023) Dir: Samuel Bodin
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As long-time readers of my reviews will know, I have a soft spot for the horror genre. Sometimes this means I'll watch something, even if I don't necessarily expect it to be good. This was, perhaps harshly, the case with this Samuel Bodin directed horror from 2023.
I'll focus first on the positives, because there certainly were some. I thought the initial suspense was decently built, if not superb. I was intrigued by the way the plot developed initially - the sense of mystery wasn't bad at all. I'd say the first twenty minutes were very solid, in that sense.
Unfortunately, things went downhill from that point onwards. The film was already battling some mediocre writing, but this only got worse and worse as things played out. The tropes got more egregious, the dialogue became borderline unbearable and the jump scares were so cheap.
These cinematography issues were typified by the use of crumby CGI, repetitive tricks and set pieces and some truly awful sped up sequences. It reminded me of the rather terrible 'The Boogeyman', which also came out in 2023. It felt cheap and lazy, especially when combined with a frustrating and contradictory story.
Woody Norman gave a fairly good performance in his leading role. Child actors in horror films tend to be either very good or very mediocre, but Norman was kind of in-between. He didn't excell, but I thought he did a fine job with what he did.
Lizzy Caplan had some good scenes, but ultimately felt like a parody of a horror character. I don't think it was necessarily her acting, but the direction and writing of her character which made her come across so disappointingly. Either way, this felt like a missed opportunity for her.
Anthony Starr, as a rule, tends to be very good at being intimidating and sinister - just watch 'The Boys' and you'll know. But while I do believe he showed some of that excellence here, like Caplan, he was held back by poor direction and writing, which ultimately made his character a let-down.
I felt that Cleopatra Coleman had some pretty compelling facial expressions, but ultimately failed to provide a wholly good performance. Again, she was most definitely hampered by the direction and writing, but unlike the others, I don't think she was able to supply much in spite of it.
Overall, while this film certainly exhibited some positive qualities, and showed plenty of potential, it got caught up in its own webs of mediocrity. With better writing, this could've been a memorable horror, but instead, it's just another cheap jump scare film that nobody talks much about.
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