Eight year old Peter (Woody Norman) is woken at nighttime by knocking sounds coming from inside the wall of his bedroom. Initially scared he finds the courage to try and speak to the source of the noise and discovers his parents are keeping a dark secret from him. 

Mother Carol (Lizzy Caplan) is initially protective of Peter, but becomes more frantic as her husband Mark (Antony Starr) begins to lose his patience with their son. Whilst substitute teacher Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) becomes concerned about the welfare of the quiet boy in her class who draws disturbing images. 

Cobweb has an incredibly strong opening hour in its 88 minute runtime. The film gives you some interesting ideas and threads to try and unwind in your head as to what the big secret might be hiding in Peter’s home. Is there an element of spousal abuse or child abuse? What happened to the young girl on the street who went missing on Halloween that everyone is scared to discuss? What is the source of the knocking? All the while you are also wondering if the events happening are in Peter’s head or literally happening. Lizzy Caplan is especially good at portraying the mother whose grasp on the situation seems to be slowly unraveling. 

Then, disappointingly Cobweb moves into its horror movie end game and I have to say I was thoroughly disheartened by the end result. If we ignore the completely unprofessional nature of the substitute teacher deciding to just make a visit to Peter’s home I felt the first hour was impressively building to something. Unfortunately what it built too was a really unsatisfying denouement that was frankly a bit silly. 

It plays as though it will be similar to The Babadook but ends as though it wants to be Malignant. The issue is that opening like one and ending like the other does not give the best of both worlds. 

A missed opportunity.