Saturday is Horror Day #136 - Cobweb

 Cobweb

Peter (Woody Norman) is a shy, introverted boy with no friends, who is constantly bullied by is peers, especially by Brian (Luke Busey). When he hears tapping in his room at night, his parents, Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr) tell him he just has an overactive imagination and refuse to take him seriously. Even after he tells them someone is speaking to him.

Peter has a substitute teacher, Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) who is concerned for him, especially after she sees a picture he painted which she interprets as a cry for help. She goes to the family home and speaks to Carol, who assures her that her son is fine, just imaginative. But the voice Peter hears continues, and encourages him to do things, one of which gets him expelled. His angry parents ground him, but not in his room. Instead, they make him stay in the dark dank basement.

Miss Divine, very concerned by now, comes by the house once more, ostensibly to give Peter his last paper, but she has written her phone number on it so he can reach her. The voice tells Peter that she is his sister and he must rescue her! And she says their parents have committed murder. In the meantime, Brian the bully decides, with the help of his older cousins, to get vengeance for what Peter has done to him. On Halloween night, of course.

I thought this film had possibilities at first. The idea of knocking on your wall in the middle of the night is terrifying, if handled well. But that isn't the case here. The titular character of the sister reminds me of a spider-like version of Samara, the girl from The Ring. There are definitely things that don't make sense here, such as why the parents chose to distance themselves from their oldest child, rather than help her. The sheer inhumanity of what they did to her is mind-boggling. From the beginning, they seemed off in their attitude toward Peter and to the world at large. A lot of the plot feels cliché, from the stereotypical bullying to the strange parents. The ending is odd, with Peter and his teacher locking the sister up again and her threatening to haunt him forever. Are they actually going to leave her to die? I assume the mother had been taking care of her. Also, how are they to explain all this to the authorities? What will become of Peter then? Looks like room for a sequel. I honestly don't think it deserves it. I'll give this film 2 Stars.