Getting Caught Up In 'Cobweb'//October 67th, 2023

 2023 has been an interesting year for Halloween-themed/set horror. Several notable movies were released this year and I hope to get around to talking about them all here, when I eventually have the time. However, one particular movie has truly stuck out to me this year: 

A movie called Cobweb.

You can view the trailer here.

Cobweb is the story of a young boy named Peter, who lives with his very eccentric, very tightly wound parents, Carol and Mark. Peter is bullied in school and seems to always be tense at home, until one night when he begins to hear a strange tapping on his bedroom wall. Peter becomes obsessed with figuring out the source of the tapping, while his parents seem a strange mixture of unbothered and terrified. Soon the source of the tapping begins whispering to Peter, though, offering the friendship that Peter so desperately craves within his lonely existence.

At school, Peter meets a new substitute teacher, Miss Devine, who takes a special interest in Peter and his sensitive, timid nature. After a conversation about Halloween being on the way, Peter returns home and tells his parents that he wishes to go trick-or-treating this year, and celebrate Halloween like the other kids in his class. His father, Mark, then tells him the story of a little girl who vanished while trick-or-treating, a few years before Peter was born. Are they being overprotective, though, or hiding something?

As the voice in the wall begins telling Peter more and more cautionary tales about his family life, he begins to question his reality. Does he even know his parents at all? They're certainly not traditional.

First of all, I have to commend Cobweb for the atmosphere it creates. As a child who grew up a scaredy cat, and was also bullied in school, I identified with Peter straight away, from being afraid of noises in the walls (I once woke up my parents in the middle of the night thinking there was a monster in the wall; turned out it was a mouse.), to being the child that dreaded recess. His tension throughout the movie is very palpable, and if you were ever a child who was afraid of anything, you will most likely feel this, too. 

This movie also does a phenomenal job of keeping you on the edge of your seat, guessing. The first time I watched it, there were a million different scenarios in my head as to how it was going to end, and what was really going on. The way Mark and Carol are portrayed...tense, old-fashioned, frantic, extreme...you really question their motivation throughout. What sort of parents ground their child by locking him in a basement, or punish him for a scary drawing prompting a teacher's intervention? Are they simply abusers? Did they murder the little girl that Halloween? Is Peter kidnapped? I could probably write a separate post on all of my theories alone. 

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****

The truth turns out to be terrifying. The voice in the wall is none other than Peter's own sister, Sarah, born deformed and violent, and lying in wait until Peter was old enough to be of use to her. Mark and Carol locked her away in the wall after she escaped the home one Halloween night and killed the neighbor girl. Sarah grew feral within the wall, becoming more of a monster as the years passed, teaching herself to climb and bite, very much like a humanoid spider. She convinces Peter, though, that their parents are the killers, prompting Peter to poison them and attempt to get both himself and Sarah out of the house and to safety. Sarah, however, attacks the second she is set free, killing nearly everyone in her wake. Peter manages to escape with Miss Devine, but not before Sarah reminds them that he can never truly escape her, or at least the memory of her. He will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder, wondering when if and when she will return. 

This particular ending also struck me, as not only an interesting way to end the story, but a statement on trauma and fear and anxiety, and how some things can never truly be forgotten or laid to rest, once a door has been opened. We all spend our lives looking over our shoulders once a traumatic event has occurred, do we not?

I do, of course, have some questions, such as, why not just kill Sarah once she became murderous? Why take things out on Peter so much, rather than just a find a way to tell him what had occurred? I suppose, everyone deals with these things differently, but why would you keep such a dangerous being in the house, especially after having another, healthier baby? I understand that she was still their child, but still. To be so overprotective and allow that to go on under their roof? They couldn't possibly have believed that Sarah would never make a move against Peter, or even them, could they?

*****END SPOILERS*****

All in all, Cobweb is a great, atmospheric horror with amazing Halloween imagery and an ending that makes you think about life in general. If you've ever been a kid with fears, or were lonely as a child, I think it will resonate with you. Every time I watch it, I can see myself again, sitting up in my childhood bedroom, afraid of what may be lurking in the darkness. It's also worth watching for the autumnal and Halloween imagery. It's visually stunning in addition to being so tense and ominous, and it also has some good statements on life and people buried within it.

Hopefully soon I will be able to talk more about some other spooky movies I enjoyed this year, but Cobweb was and is, hands down, my favorite and my newest go-to. I'm actually watching it for the second time today as I write this. Have I found my newest comfort movie?

Stay spooky, my friends!