Film Journal 2023: Cobweb

Film Journal 2023: Cobweb
Directed by Samuel Bodin


Such a fascinating film to unpack on both a technical and experiential level. Full disclosure: I don’t think I fully appreciated the ending. Given the journey this film takes us on (and it’s a journey), it doesn’t really bring that to a satisfying conclusion. At least on an initial viewing. That might change on a rewatch knowing what this story is and where the story goes

But I found the journey itself to be wholly interesting and engaging. While the central character is a young boy with, as it states, a “big” imagination, so much of this film revolves around how the Ditector positions his parents. Their presence is meant to ground the film on one hand while keeping the whole thing just ever so slightly off kilter at the same time. It employs a slow burn approach, which means a good half of this film operates in this largely undefined space built on a lack of clarity when it comes to who this family is and what the heck is going on. We get a smattering of traditional horror notes along the way, but, by design, this is meant to unsettle us with a sense of uncertainty regarding the potential threats out there and the threats lurking on the inside. What we know for certain is that there is something tangibly off with the kid, which is played through his less than ideal schoolyard experiences as well as his chronic nightmares/experiences at home. What we are meant to feel though, if undefinable in the moment, is that something is off with the bigger picture.

It is around the halfway point that things begin to come into view with a bit more clarity. Its here where the Director really begins to flex his horror muscles with some genuinely effective and creepy sequences. Loved his attention to the practical effects and the way he uses the camera movement to play with differing points of perspective. MSome really impressive work for a debut.

Taken together, these two halves do ultimately table some key questions regarding the larger story’s interest in the source of the horror. This is where the ending I think falls a bit short. The clarity of the second half needed to speak more directly to the experiences of the first half. It almost felt like the Director was so eager to get where he wanted to go that the journey itself becomes an afterthought. This leaves those questions swimming around with nothing concrete to attach itself to. Perhaps most notably this is felt with the ultimate development or transformation of the young boy, who struggles with the real world and translates this to the fears residing in his imagination. The pieces are there to break open his story and anchor it in a larger sense of reality concerning how it is that we both face and shape these fears, especially where it intersects with the trauma of our past,, but they are never fully pieced together.

Even with those imperfections this is nonetheless an exciting project that unearths an exciting new voice in the field of horror.