Spider is the story of Dennis Cleg (Ralph Fiennes), a man who is given a room in a halfway house catering
to mentally disturbed persons. Cleg has just been released from a mental
institution and in his new abode starts piecing together or recreating in his
memory an apparently fateful childhood event.
This psychological thriller about Dennis « Spider »
Cleg a mentally disturbed patient reliving his past with a clear syndrome of
the mother as the Madonna and the whore might be a little repelling at first
but like David Lynch’s Eraserhead,
this is the kind of film that gets your on the screen even if it is strange and
disturbing.
This Freudian nightmare of urban England is populated with
Ralph Fiennes in the title character, Gabriel Byrne as his father and Miranda
Richardson as the mother. The dual role of Richardson makes this complex film a
little more clearer when it comes to the psychology of the character. The
audience is seeing the vision of Spider and slowly understands the traumatism
that let him to an asylum.
Considering that director David Cronenberg, actors Ralph
Fiennes and Miranda Richardson were not paid to make this movie because of the
difficulty to fund it, this makes a very special film. It has the vibe of the
aforementioned Eraserhead without
much of the eerie settings and crude black and white. The somber tones of the
images makes it almost like a monochrome film that is filled with grey and
opaque lighting. Cronenberg’s mise en scène is solid and very subtle. Few
effects but an effective storytelling and a personal signature that can remind
of the visuals of his own Naked Lunch.
There’s not much gore in Spider
compared to his cult classic and the horror is in the head of the protagonist.
However, as much as his best films can be described as
horror and science-fiction classics, his later offerings are challenging the
psychological horror of mankind. In a recent interview, Cronenberg stated that
he always did comedies, well it takes a dark sense of humor if you ask me. There
are not that many flaws in Spider but
the re watch factor isn’t much there and the layers of understanding are quite
palpable. A solid film that is sure not for everyone’s tastes even Cronenberg’s
fans would be a bit disappointed but it is certainly recommended. In fact, Spider is underrated and
under appreciated, but it is still far from Videodrome,
this critic’s favorite film from this director.
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