Chris Thomas Devlin: Last News

In the vast realm of horror films, Cobweb emerges as a new addition inviting audiences into a world where appearances deceive and secrets hide beneath the surface. Directed by Samuel Bodin and written by Chris Thomas Devlin, and starring Lizzy Caplan, Woody Norman, Antony Starr, and Cleopatra Coleman, the movie’s strengths lie in the established atmosphere of intrigue and suspense. However, it can’t sustain that as it grapples with some missed opportunities and a lackluster conclusion that fails to bring closure to its narrative. 

Dennis Harvey Film Critic If “Barbarian” handily won as last year’s premier monster-in-the-basement movie, 2023’s prize might well end up going to “Cobweb” — a less inspired effort, but one decently creepy enough to get the job done. Chris Thomas Devlin’s script feels like a composite of some prior horror conceits, and there is not much depth to the narrative or characters. Still, 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. Lionsgate is releasing the U.S.-produced feature (which was apparently shot in Bulgaria in 2020) to limited theaters on July 21.  It begins with the familiar device of a child having night terrors that are probably not entirely in his or her imagination. Eight-year-old Peter (Woody Norman, from “C’mon C’mon”) is a sad loner, bullied at school, who’s woken from sleep by noises seemingly behind his bedroom wall — it sounds like something or somebody is moving around back there. When he taps on the wall, “it” taps back, which sends him screaming to his parents. But they dismiss it as an old house’s bumps in the night.