Cobweb Review: A Slight, But Shockingly Fun Horror Movie

The Web is a slow horror film, and thankfully spends most of its 88-minute running time building up the tension before settling into one of the creepiest and most heartbreaking third acts audiences will see this year. This is not a sketch movie by any means. The opening title card, tragically during its Internet debut a week before Halloween, makes that clear.

Directed by Samuel Bowden , The Internet is a film that candidly captures not only the beauty of Halloween, but also the energy that brings the sheer joy of watching a packed theater on October 31st. On the one hand, this makes the late July reveal a bit puzzling. On the other hand, the film's cheesy, chaotic tone and downright murderous gore make it likely to be another bachelorette night horror flick. That's not to say that The Internet is a great or particularly good movie, but it's a lot of fun.

The plot of "Web" is deceptively simple: 8-year-old Peter (Woody Norman) is awakened every night by a knock on the other side of his bedroom wall. Unfortunately, every time he tells his overprotective parents Carol (Lizzy Kaplan) and Mark (Anthony Starr from The Boy ) about his problems, they insist that it's nothing but his imagination. As the knocking in the night turned out to be a little girl's voice, Peter began to suspect that what his parents had told him was not true.

Chris Thomas Devlin's refreshing screenplay doesn't waste much time between various plot developments. In the first scene of the film, Peter is awakened by an invisible pounding coming from his bedroom, but 10 minutes later the pounding turns into an unexpected conversation between Peter and the little girl on the wall. Similarly, Peter's strange home life soon attracts the attention of his caring substitute teacher, Mrs. Devine (a deft Cleopatra Coleman), but also puts him at odds with his parents.

Kaplan and Starr, however, lean into the obvious shadows of their characters. Not once on the Internet does Bodine try to convince you that Carol and Mark are hiding nothing. Instead, the first two acts of "The Web" constantly make you wonder how poorly the film portrays the skills of parents and what they try to hide from their children. Kaplan, in particular, gives an intense and emotional role as Peter's mother, for a while it is unclear whether she is a narcissist or a mother unable to express her love for her son.

Of course, there are dangers in walking through slow-burning structures like spider webs . Even if the scare doesn't happen quickly or seriously, asking your audience to invest in your story is only worth it if you can reward their patience. A lot of horror movies have fallen short of their promises lately, but the Internet isn't one of them. While the first 40 minutes are tedious, familiar and at times understated, the film doesn't stop when the burning fuse finally reaches the end of the line.

In the third act of the Internet, the bombs don't go off, but a few of them might. The climactic embodiment of the film's unique high fantasy logic is inevitably reminiscent of recent horror classics such as The Conjuring and The Legacy . Behind the camera, Boden never approaches the heroic visual style of those films' filmmakers, but he packs a few charming gags, kills, and realistic visuals into the short-lived web .

The director makes full use of the film's central room in a subtle and useful way, especially when Peter is taken to his hiding place under the bed. The scene in question is not only shocking, but also dark and funny, and builds to a visual climax that oscillates between horror and comedy. As a result, the harmony of the third act of The Internet is the only thing that differs from the first two thirds of the film, as it fails to achieve such a coherent tonal balance.

For some, the internet can be too unbalanced, the characters are drawn too primitively and the action is overloaded. But for dedicated horror fans, the joys the internet offers are simple and thrilling. At times it feels like it was lifted from the pages of a 20th-century paperback horror novel—authors like Christopher Pike ( The Midnight Club ) and RL Stine ( The Far Street ) built their legacies on writing.

It's a cheap product with a good design, but it's not afraid to take risks. And he has at least one or two surprises up his sleeve that will shock even the most discerning of viewers. The film isn't as dusty or complicated as the title suggests, and its teeth are sharp enough to bite anyone who takes their time. Just hiding something isn't always enough, as the stupidity of the Internet proves. On the contrary, sometimes our secrets become stronger and more deadly when locked away in the dark corners of our minds.

The Web is now in select theaters

Editorial recommendation

His imaginary friend comes to life but kills all the bullies