Spiderhole
Spiderhole
| 29 October 2010 (USA)
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They say squatting is dead - a term that takes on a sinister double meaning when four homeless art students decide to take up residence in an abandoned London House where a hidden terror lurks.

Reviews
Palaest recommended
ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Solomon Terra The tension and gore were enjoyable enough, but the ending just left me feeling, "WTF?" Perhaps the version I'd seen was "incomplete"? I dunno', but I had -no- idea what the ending was supposed to mean - and with that, let me state before I get into it that in this review, I -am- giving it away, such as it is, so don't read on if you still plan to see this claptrap.To think that some mutilated cannibal girl could so easily and completely overpower and obliterate a relatively young and healthy art student with no apparent health problems or major blood loss - it stretches the limits of even B-grade horror. It just made no sense whatsoever. And you can tell pretty much from the first few seconds of the film that you would be encountering the missing girl at some point. You knew right away who the "2 or 3 sets of clothes" had belonged to the moment they were found.The experience of the movie itself was enjoyable enough, but if you like your movies to make sense, the ending of this one just totally ruins it. Great watch if you don't care about that, though. Decent enough acting (not the best on all fronts, but not the worst, either), decent enough gore and such - just not the best plot resolution I've seen.
ravenheart94 The movie starts out with a news report about an unsolved case of a missing little girl who disappeared many years ago. A bunch of grungy, homeless art students in England decide to take refuge in a (seemingly) abandoned house at night. They discover scratch marks (indicating a past escape attempt) and bloodstained clothes. Yet they still choose to stay in the house.Smart move. They wake up the next day with all the windows boarded up and barred with steel. They come across a key & hidden holes in the wall.Main victims/deaths. I don't remember their names so I just gave them nicknames: Grungemaster (gets his eye cut out and is unintentionally beaten to death by BKS and SBG),British equivalent of Kristen Stewart (ends up being the last girl and cannibalized), Bitchy Grunge Chick (gets her legs sawed off), and sniveling blonde guy with bad teeth (gets his hand cutoff).Long story short, the house is secretly inhabited by this creepy old guy. Creepy Old Guy has a lot of medical equipment which he uses to torture, kill, and dismembers people for random body parts.(The motives behind this are hard to get and all the audience is given is that it has something to do with his father's experience as a soldier in WW2.) One by one everyone suffers some kind of torture and dies. The "last girl" out of the cast who was close to making an escape is eventually dragged by Creepy Old Guy into a dark, dingy room. A feral-looking young woman lurks in the corner, who then crawls over in an animalistic manner, and (it's implied) eats her alive. The shocking twist DUNDUNDUN is that the cannibal girl is the same one who was kidnapped and presumed dead for years, and that she was the one who had left the keys/tools for future captives to try and escape. I wasn't expecting a whole lot since this is a horror movie, but they could have tried harder. It's very low budget and the acting isn't very good. This could have been a little better if they put as much effort into the story, production, and the acting as they did into the "shock" factor.
amesmonde Four London Art Students squat in a derelict house to save money with the intention to live-free in a meaningful, creative and partying student lifestyle environment. However, they find themselves trapped inside a large house and their unlawful entry may come at a price, possibly their lives.Daniel Simpson's director / writer feature film debut is an exciting offering of a well-crafted film with an effective and expensive looking production design. The lighting is excellent, creating a dark and ominous atmosphere in the confinement of the empty building. He throws in enough camera angles, movement and cuts though-out to prevent events ever becoming static.Spiderhole begins customary enough with a carefree student Molly having a check-up at the doctors on a sunny London's day, but once she meets her three friends to go on a squatting adventure of free spirited living things take a turn for the worse and it becomes a claustrophobic nightmare.Simpson sets-up the perfect intro for a haunted house thriller, shadowy corridors, locked doors, complete with bangs and bumps. You almost feel you're in for a rework of 1962 The Haunting. Nevertheless, as the supernatural element is dispensed with and the 'torture porn' element begins with plenty of blood, mind-games and grime to get Saw-esque fans jumping in their seats. Executed with some excellent practical and realistic looking effects and blood.Although the characters are thrust into the horror very quickly the Brit slang dialogue is naturalistic enough to keep the tension on track. George Maguire's performance as the edgy sculpture lover is notable and Molly character is written logically and cleverer than most heroines of this genre and is wonderfully played by Emma Griffiths Malin. Both Amy Noble and Reuben-Henry Biggs are more than adequate in the supporting roles and a nod goes to John Regan's subtle performance as The Captor.Jason Cooper & Oliver Krauss score and the sound design is pounding, nauseating which fittingly adds to the on screen action, touching nerves and senses, evocative of the feelings stirred by Marco Beltrami & Marilyn Manson's RE (2002) score.Some plot and style elements are reminiscent of Creep, The Collector, Severance, REC, Catacombs, Hostel and Saw 2 to name a few, however, there's enough originality, mystery, twists and a surprise ending to satisfy the casual horror viewer. Overall, if you enjoy blood, torture and captivity Spiderhole is made for you.
twomansoloband I'm not much of a horror film fan, as they tend not to frighten me in the least (is it wrong to expect to be frightened?). But this was a disaster. After convincing (dragging, may be a more appropriate word) my extremely scare-able friend to watch a horror film in the independent cinema with me, I was devastated when to find her laughing more at the film than I was. That film was Spiderhole.Of course I have taken into account the low budget, the inexperienced cast, etc.. But that is not where the problems lie in this film. I had no problem with the actors (save one), the cinematography was fine, good, in fact. The problem was that it just plain wasn't scary. Problem number two was that the script was poor. And number three; the plot was AWFUL. It was like it took random excerpts from umpteen horror films and just stuck them together in one big incomprehensible mess.I try not to slate films as I ask myself, with my inexperience, could I do better? Well... this time the answer is a crystal clear yes.