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?
Synopsis
‘Cobweb’ is a terrifying new movie starring Woody Norman, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, and Cleopatra Coleman (in a grounded role). Peter (Woody Norman) is our protagonist that has been haunted by a constant noise inside his bedroom wall, and he can’t seem to figure out who or what it exactly is. As the movie moves along in the first act, we notice how increasingly terrified and concerned Peter is becoming about his situation, starting to suspect that his parents have something to do with the noise that is coming inside of his bedroom walls at night. ‘Cobweb’ starts to pick up steam, and we’re shortly introduced to Peter’s new teacher Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) who ultimately sees the worry in Peter’s eyes and behaviors. After Miss Devine suspects that something may be going on at Peter’s home she drops by and introduces herself to Carol (Lizzy Caplan) who is constantly struck with confusion as to why a teacher would be dropped by their household.
After that first encounter with Miss Devine and Carol, we see Antony Starr (in a commanding performance that demands your attention) who plays Mark, Peter’s father. How ecstatic and angry Mark gets should be appalling to the crowd watching the movie as it is a sudden knee jerk reaction; it startles Peter so badly you can immerse yourself with his reaction. All these scenes work at building mysterious tension throughout the film while we’re trying to figure out what is going on behind the scenes of this family. Once Peter receives his punishment he gets sent away to the basement, this is where the atmosphere of the film starts to build up its darkness in layers.
Once Peter is in the basement, we start to see him having conversations with the voice inside the walls, we’re starting to wonder at this point if it is just imagination. The voice begins to question why his parents don’t want to go out for Halloween with him, intending us to get cautious and skeptical about Mark and Carol, it works as one of Peter’s bullies from school comes to pay Peter a revenge visit for getting him in trouble. After that ‘Cobweb’ turns on its head and gives us a great supernatural ending that should give us another annual movie to watch during the Halloween season. Without trying to give too much away this movie is best viewed with knowing as little as possible. Samuel Boldin makes a terrific directorial debut with the producing team of Point Grey (Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) behind it. It is well worthwhile at the theaters.
Overall Grade: 4/5 Stars
