Cobweb: When Horror Followed the Actors Home
After the credits roll, many films come to a definitive end, while others linger, haunting the people who worked on them and will not finish the job. Cobweb, directed by Samuel Bodin and released in 2023, is reputable for being a small, unnerving horror gem. As is the case with many mini-horrors, it tailored the lives of the actors who brought its faintly creepy world to life. From being a grim tale about the unspoken fears of childhood and the secret guardians posed a challenge, it, during off the screen, became a real life pivot for the actors involved.
The Story Beneath the Walls
For the initial part, Cobweb seemed to be just another case of a haunted house thriller. However, the real horror of the narrative comes from the complexity of the question of evil, and the stubborn refusal of the narrative to provide a final answer. This complexity is essentially centered on its main-character, a silent, sensitive Peter, who is played by Woody Norman. Owing to the nature of the genre, ominous sounds, and Peter’s parents, who are played by Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr, who try to calm- down Peter by more or less saying it is all in his head, there is sufficient caution to build reasonable doubt.
Every family has secrets. Some are simply strange. Some, as in this case, are horrifying. Family tales can begin in one way only to end in a starkly different way. What may start as a narrative about the supernatural can quickly plunge into a deeper, profoundly psychological exploration of repressed guilt.
Bodin is famous for his other atmospheric series, Marianne. He has a unique ability to evoke dread without the presence of blood. Instead, he utilizes the absence of sound, the presence of shadows, and the feeling of being watched.
Norman is a young actor for whom fear is a feeling of the past.
For young Woody Norman, Cobweb was a defining test of maturity. Already praised for his nuanced performance opposite Joaquin Phoenix in C’mon C’mon (2021), Norman had shown emotional intelligence beyond his age. But Cobweb demanded something different — sustained terror.
Playing Peter meant channeling the confusion of a child who loves and fears his parents at the same time. Norman’s ability to switch between innocence and paranoia gave the film its emotional heartbeat. His piercing eyes and fragile silence did what dialogue never could.
Norman explained that working on a horror film changed his perspective on acting. “It’s weird,” he explained in an interview, “you start off pretending to be scared, but then your body forgets you’re acting.” He frequently remained in character during breaks, whispering to himself in a muted tone, as his character had to maintain a state of constant anxiety.
Norman’s career shifted into a higher gear after he starred in Cobweb. He was no longer seen merely as a talented child actor, but a young actor who could carry darker, more challenging roles. He was approached by several indie filmmakers with projects on trauma and coming of age, though his family and management have been careful about letting him accept too many projects in a row.
It is undeniable, however, that in the time since Cobweb, Norman’s performances have become more polished and more introspective. It’s as If the film didn’t just scare audiences, but aged him a little, too.
Lizzy Caplan: From Charmer to Cold-Blooded
Lizzy Caplan took a more calculated risk for Cobweb. While in the film she is portraying a more threatening character than in the roles she is well-known for, such as in Mean Girls, Masters of Sex, and Party Down, the role of Carol requires a more sinister approach where she plays a mother who hides terrible secrets.
Unlike a stereotypical horror character, Caplan’s Carol isn’t dreadful because she’s doing what’s best. This complexity with the role made it emotionally arduous. In an interview, Caplan stated that the kitchen confrontation scene where Peter questions her sincerity left her “contaminated.” “There’s something very primal about pretending to hurt your own child,” she stated. “You walk away from the set, and you still feel contaminated.” She explained, “It was a very heated scene, and it was very hard to put down mentally and emotionally.”
She was still thinking of darker roles when she completed her work on Cobweb, leading to the series Fatal Attraction (2023), her next assignment, which perfectly aligned with that darker focus. This role, which dealt with another cycle of obsession, betrayal, and emotional decay, was the continuation of what the audience and critics have been calling her “shadow era.” In this period, contrasted to her earlier roles, she was moving from light and charm to more complex and darker roles.
Caplan noted that Cobweb had a peculiar side effect: it softened her off-screen. “You spend months pretending to be monstrous,” she laughed, “and you end up being extra gentle with everyone afterward.”
Antony Starr: Haunted by Duality
If one actor carried the psychological weight of Cobweb, it was Antony Starr, best known as the brutal anti-hero Homelander in The Boys. In Cobweb, he plays Mark, a father who’s all smiles on the surface — but those smiles curdle quickly. Starr brought a disturbing restraint to the role, mixing affection with something sinister and unreadable.
Many fans expected him to replicate Homelander’s flamboyant villainy, but Starr took the opposite route. His performance was subdued, almost eerily calm. “I didn’t want Mark to scream evil,” he explained. “I wanted him to whisper it.” Off-screen, Starr’s own life was undergoing a quieter transformation. The relentless fame from The Boys had made him a household face of menace, something he found both rewarding and confining. Cobweb gave him a different outlet — a chance to show the quieter, sadder side of fear.
The film’s bleak atmosphere, it has been stated, continued to affect him even after it had finished. Cast and crew members described how Starr would spend considerable time apart from the others on set, even keeping his headphones on in between shooting sequences. He once quipped that Cobweb was “the kind of movie that makes you sleep with a light on – even if you made it.”
When Fiction Bled Into Reality
Even the production of Cobweb was intense in comparison to the story. Most of the film was shot in Bulgaria, where the crew constructed an entire replica of the family home on a soundstage and controlled the light and sound environment. The production design – creaking wooden floors, narrow hallways, and walls that echoed with hollow thuds – wasn’t merely for aesthetics, it was psychological warfare.
To evoke a sense of entrapment amongst the cast, Director Samuel Bodin did not provide a complete overview of the set’s layout. The actors came across new rooms only on the days of shooting. “It kept everyone uneasy,” Bodin explained. “They were living in the same confusion as the characters.”
Less well-known are the sounds Peter hears within the walls. These sounds were not added in the post-production. The sound design team’s use of muted sounds during the recording of the film – soft taps, dragging, and faint whispers – were intended to capture the authentic performance of Woody Norman. This choice, however, was at times very distressing to Norman, which is why Caplan and Starr would comfort him after each take.
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