Filmed in Co. Kerry but set in London, Spiderhole tells the tale of four annoying art students who exercise their squatters rights by taking up residence in an abandoned old house with the aim of concentrating on their art without the hassles of paying rent. Not a bad idea. However, as the art students become so engrossed with the excitement of it all they neglect to search the entire house for strangers and much to their detriment opt instead for a night of decorating, drinking and debauchery (porn fans take note, it’s not that debauched). When they awake the following morning, our four intrepid art students find themselves locked into the derelict house with no way of escaping and so begins the age-old battle between cat and mice as each mouse finds itself subject to experimentation by a sinister looking old vet type.
Apart from the sinister vet type, there are four main characters; a swaggering impulsive good-looking potter, a nervous nerdy Malfoy (Harry Potter) lookalike who pulls impressive constipated type fear faces, a waif-like dreamer virgin type and a tart with a heart. Take a guess as to which order this bunch are butchered in and you’ll more than likely get it right.
There is much to dislike about Spiderhole; its name for a start. To me it implies something my 9 year old cousin would love...like The Spiderwick Chronicles or Spiderman. The dialogue and characterisations are weak, under-developed and cliched. The actual house in which the film is based looks like a badly painted set. However, the idea for the film is great. Some of the set pieces are good, and I must admit I jumped in my seat more than once. It utilises eerie music to good effect and there’s an interesting twist at the end. However, the story and screenplay could definitely have done with a bit more tweaking and time to elevate this film into the spheres of what it could have been – a genuinely decent horror film.
In its current incarnation, Spiderhole is way off the mark borrowing too easily from other horror films and franchises. When you look back at genuinely chilling films like Halloween or genuinely entertaining slasher films like the Scream films, what they both have in common is the ability to create characters audiences can relate to and laugh at or be scared with.
This is the main problem with Spiderhole; I really didn’t care what hapened to any of the characters...but there was a point towards the end when I began to sympathise with their torturer – not good.
