Cobweb (2023), directed by Samuel Bodin in his feature film debut, is a dark and stylish horror tale that taps into the primal fears of childhood—creaks in the walls, whispers in the night, and the haunting suspicion that your parents might be hiding something. Anchored by strong performances and a constantly shifting sense of dread, the film unfolds like a twisted fairy tale, where nothing is quite as it seems.
The story centers on Peter (Woody Norman), a quiet, isolated 8-year-old boy who lives in a gloomy house with his overbearing parents, Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr). When Peter begins hearing strange tapping sounds coming from inside his bedroom wall, his parents dismiss it as imagination. But the noises persist, and then a voice starts to whisper to him from the dark.
Peter grows increasingly anxious and withdrawn, unsure whether he’s being haunted—or manipulated. His parents' behavior becomes more and more suspicious. Why won’t they let him go outside? Why do they seem so scared of what’s inside their own home?
As Halloween approaches, Peter’s fear deepens, and he begins to suspect that the voice in the wall belongs to someone who needs help—someone his parents have locked away. But the truth, once revealed, is far more disturbing than anything he imagined.
Cobweb plays with classic horror tropes—creepy houses, secret passages, emotionally distant parents—but it reconfigures them into something fresh and genuinely unsettling. The film’s pacing is deliberate, creating a constant atmosphere of dread that slowly builds toward an explosive and terrifying final act.
Visually, the film is rich in gothic atmosphere. The house itself is a character—dimly lit, full of shadows and strange angles, a place where innocence and danger live side by side. The cinematography evokes a sense of claustrophobia and unease, amplifying the fear that something is lurking just out of sight.
Woody Norman gives a haunting, sympathetic performance as Peter, capturing the vulnerability and curiosity of a child stuck in a waking nightmare. Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr are chilling as the cold, strange parents—loving on the surface, but hiding something rotten beneath.
Cobweb isn’t about jump scares—though it has a few—it’s about slow, psychological horror and the trauma of childhood fear. It asks the terrifying question: what if the monsters aren’t just under the bed, but raising you?
A twisted bedtime story with a gut-punch of an ending, Cobweb spins a web of terror that tightens with each passing scene, until you're completely ensnared.
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