La Maison du mal

This movie actually delivered as a horror movie by actually starting off with a creepiness to it and kept that feeling through most of the movie. As with most horror movies, there are moments of "that was kind of lame" but it held my attention and I did enjoy the story line and the characters.

I was originally going to rate this movie an 8 but the ending left me staring at the screen thinking " was that really the end." You know how you feel the movie getting close to the end and are anticipating what will happen? This movie had me right there the whole time but the ending was bad. So bad where I sat there kind of annoyed haha. So I dropped my rating to a 6.

I liked this one! It's not ground-breaking innovative and it has its flaws. It's about two creepy parents living in a creepy house, something creepy is hiding inside the house and a bullied boy with nightmares. It's the perfect setting for a good old-school horror movie. Unfortunately, it's not that creepy but I enjoyed every minute of it, Except for the terrible ending. But you can't get everything can you. There is not much acting going on so I can't really comment on that other than the little boy is doing fine. The parents are supposed to be unsettling and I think they do a desent job. Don't expect people or things will follow basic logic, because it doesn't. Just relax and enjoy the ride for what it is. It is occasionally bloody and gory but not a typical slasher movie - something I appreciated. Cobweb is definitely not a 1 star movie, nor is it a 10 star masterpiece. In my opinion 6/10 is what it deserves.

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.

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.

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.