La Maison du mal

Director Samuel Bodin's first theatrical feature is atmospheric, and departs from stock slasher conventions just enough to make for an entertaining if unexceptional scarefest. Cobweb feels like an incomplete collection of horror ideas that aren't explored to their full potential, but it fairly succeeds thanks to the second act where the real terror awakens.

There's no sugarcoating Cobweb's flaws, from pacing to convoluted editing, and at times with crappy CGI that actually scares more than the movie. It might not be a particularly memorable horror film, but it's still decent enough with it's jump scares that engages us. The climax/conclusion was lousy though, which somehow ended in a jiffy rather than taking it slow.

My Rating:6/10.

"Cobweb" is a slow-burning thriller that builds tension from ordinary events to eerie happenings, culminating in a series of abnormal occurrences. The director skillfully develops the characters' backstories, and the leading actors deliver convincing performances, particularly in their portrayal of semi-psychopathic characters. The story is engaging and keeps the audience captivated without resorting to cheap tricks.

However, the film's ending falls short of expectations. In an attempt to create a frightening atmosphere, the final scene is shot in near darkness, making it difficult to discern what is happening on screen. Rather than being scary, this lack of visibility is frustrating and detracts from the overall impact of the film, which is a shame because otherwise this could have been an outstanding film.

Overall, "Cobweb" earns an exact score of 58 / 100 from me. Fans of the genre may find it worth watching, but others may want to give it a miss.

The first hour of Cobweb was properly scary in places, built some great tension and benefited from great acting from Caplan especially. The direction was very effective even though it did rely on jump scares a little to much.

So far so good. However, the last twenty minutes or so really stretch the levels of believability to breaking point. The strength of Cobweb is its ambiguous nature at the start. What happened to the girl? Who really are the mum and dad? And who is the voice behind the wall? Are all questions that we really shouldn't have had answers to.

Unfortunately it seems that the director to the excellent French spook series on Netflix Mariane has caved to the less esoteric American style of of happy endings with everything and cover it with layers of cheese.

Still very watchable though.

Cobweb is certainly a flawed film, but has enough going for it to keep me heavily invested and having a good time watching.

The camera work is sleek, the house is horrifying, the performances are good enough, and being honest: in a theater this was actually quite spooky with some well crafted scares. The third act is very odd, structurally. It even turns into a slasher movie for a minute there. But I actually enjoyed the bonkers nature of it, though I understand it won't work for everyone.

As I mentioned, there are flaws. The relationship between Peter and his parents could have used some setup (has their relationship always been this weird?), and a few aspects of the ending had me very perplexed and don't seem to hold up if you think deeply about them. The last 60 seconds felt like it could have been stretched a little more for better closure, but I guess they wanted to keep it more open-ended?

I highly recommend Cobweb for more forgiving horror fans- which sounds like a knock on it, but it's really not. Certainly prefer this flawed but imaginative work compared to studio involved schlock.

If there's something Samuel Bodin knows how to do, it's create tension and suspense, waiting for the right moment to terrify us. After "Marianne," he does it again in "Cobweb," which uses a very well-crafted script throughout two acts to build-up a story that may seem similar to many others but has its originality later revealed. There are chilling moments, and it takes unexpected paths, always supported by excellent performances and a highly imaginative camera work.

It's a shame that some small details don't live up to the rest of the work - yes, the typical "why did you go there and didn't call the police" kind of thing - including a hurried conclusion that should have provided more answers and a more convincing resolution.