Cobweb

Directed by Samuel Bodin, Cobweb follows a young boy (Woody Norman’s Peter) as he begins hearing voices from behind his bedroom wall. Filmmaker Bodin, working from Chris Thomas Devlin’s screenplay, delivers a deliberately-paced endeavor that fares rather poorly within its sluggish, uninvolving first half, as the movie’s been saddled with a generic slow-burn sensibility that grows more and more oppressive as the spare narrative unfolds – with the arms-length atmosphere alleviated, at least, by a smattering of compelling sequences and several top-notch performances. (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr, cast as Peter’s parents, bring an agreeable amount of menace and malevolence to their roles.) There’s little doubt, then, that Cobweb benefits from the inclusion of a decidedly unexpected twist that paves the way for a comparatively enthralling third act, with the unexpected development effectively infusing the proceedings with a burst of much-needed energy – which, when coupled with a relatively satisfying yet palpably padded-out final stretch, confirms the picture’s place as a woefully hit-and-miss endeavor that likely would’ve worked better as a short.

**1/2 out of ****