Samuel Bodin directs Lizzy Caplan, Woody Normn and Antony Starr in this horror flick where an anxious young lad begins to realise all is not perfect about his house or family.

If you, like me, wished that Halloween III: Season Of the Witch was a smash and every year we got a Carpenter and Hill produced autumnal themed anthology release then Cobweb might be right up your street / a picture from a parallel universe. This is a really sincere, cartoonish, twisty pressure cooker of a mystery, set over the unmistakable last week of the October. The cast sells all the zigs and zags especially a game Lizzy Caplan who gorgeously recreates an early Sixties psychobiddy unravelling to a T. The visuals are creepily indelible, the second half has sequences that will unnerve and blindside you. The movie is smart enough to introduce some deserving victims the moment the cat is out of the bag and the slow burn is allowed to become a murder inferno. As unpleasant 2023 surprises go Cobweb is on a par with Talk To Me. Whereas that release is a little classier, this proves a lot more generous. Only the reveal of “the monster”’s actual form disappoints and that CGI mishmash is merely a few fleeting shots before the close.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Trick ‘R Treat (2007)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/