If you are a fan of “The Boys”, then you are a fan of Antony Starr, the actor who depicts John Gillman, alias Homelander, on the long series of Amazon Prime videos. More than any other actor or character, it was Homelander who has become the star of the show of the show (word game), appearing as he does in many memes and other ephemeral online. There is a good reason for that, of course, that Starr is as naturally magnetic as one of the most heinous superheroes in fiction, you just can’t leave it with your eyes. Starr’s performance manages to keep the observable character among the laundry list of horrible Homelander things in the series. It is not only a Breaking Bad in Walter White style; While Homelander makes his fair share of manipulation and abuse of others, he commits a sexual assault and even dates from a literal Nazi, for having shouted aloud.
With such a reputation because of its performance as a homelander, it would be assumed that Starr appear in a horror film would be a natural choice. Indeed, they would be right, because the only starr horror film to date, “Cobweb”, is an underestimated and neglected jewel which has been essentially buried when it was released in 2023. On the contrary, it has been underestimated and neglected in the past two years, but it has now changed, because “Cobweb” is burned the Netflix cards. This has only meaning, given how director Samuel Bodin gives the film, taking place on and around Halloween Night, a perfect atmosphere of the frightening season, something that would be Catnip to Netflix viewers when we head in October anyway. However, the presence of Starr, with the co-star Lizzy Caplan, makes the film even more special and memorable, which led to its growing popularity online.
“ Cobweb ” would not work without the performance of Starr and Caplan
As mentioned earlier, manipulation is one of Homelander’s specialties, and it is a quality that Starr can play perfection. This ability served him to play Mark in “Cobweb”, a film that does not only concern manipulative people, but which is and in itself manipulator of the public. In “Cobweb”, Mark and Carol (Caplan) are the parents of Peter (Woody Norman), 8 years old (Woody Norman), who finds himself more and more hectic about his family life. When Peter expresses the wish to do something or a treatment for Halloween, Mark and Carol are strangely strict in their refusal, citing the fact that another child in the neighborhood disappeared several years ago. Then, once Peter is starting to live the visits to a presence of another child who can live or not behind the walls of his house, Mark and Carol seem more and more sinister, hiding a secret that Peter and her friendly teacher, Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) become determined to discover.
“Cobweb” has a plethora of twists and turns that follow from there, reveals that I will not spoil here. It is enough to say that Bodin and the writer Chris Thomas Devlin chose an appropriate title for their horror film, because it is a small twisted fairy tale which weaves a complex canvas that you may not see before it is too late. What can certainly be seen is how much Starr and Caplan are as Peter’s parents and Peter’s gas lighting. Caplan transforms its role into a sort of live action version of another mother of “Coraline”, while the threatening patriarch of Starr remembers the work of Terry O’quinn in “The Stepfather” and, of course, the bad superlative father of Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” by Stanley Kubrick. If Homelander has already disturbed you, or if you want to see a recent Halloween film perfectly presented with memorable effects, bad mood cinematography and excellent performance, you should draw “Cobweb” on your Netflix account as soon as possible.
