Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Cobweb (2023). With stars such as Lizzy Caplan (Fatal Attraction) and Antony Starr (The Boys) attached to the project, Cobweb was one of the biggest horror promises of the year. The movie has just arrived on Hulu, but back when it hit theaters, critics pointed out that, despite issues with pacing and editing, there’s still a creepy mystery worth unfolding at the center of Cobweb. Still, with so many different threads tied together during that bonkers ending, some horror fiends might leave theaters feeling a tad confused. So, whether you’re checking it out on Hulu for the very first time to get in the spooky spirit or revisiting it after catching it in theaters, here’s your handy guide to all the secrets revealed at the end of Cobweb.
What Is the Thing Knocking on the Wall in ‘Cobweb’?
Written by Chris Thomas Devlin (2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre), the script of Cobweb revolves around eight-year-old Peter (Woody Norman). Peter is a shy and sensitive boy who struggles to make friends at school, partially because of his overprotective parents (Caplan and Starr). While, at first, Peter’s parents don’t seem too weird, the family dynamics shift after the boy starts to hear knockings on the wall of his bedroom. First, Peter’s parents try to dismiss the noises as nightmares. Then, when they can no longer blame Peter’s imagination, they get angry at the boy and accuse him of lying. Obviously, the parents are hiding something, and at the end of Cobweb, we understand why.
As days pass, the thing knocking on the wall starts to whisper, asking Peter for help. Soon, Peter and the spooky voice begin to chat. The thing on the wall reveals she’s Peter’s sister (Ellen Dubin), whom the parents locked inside the wall. As the voice tells Peter, the parents are not good people, and soon they will kill her. The girl then tells Peter that the parents will lock him inside the wall in her place once she’s dead.
There’s some truth to what the voice on the wall says. The creature is actually Peter’s sister, born with a mysterious medical condition that gives her strong limbs and sharp teeth. Afraid of their daughter, the parents decided to lock her in the basement. When that didn’t work to contain her, they dug a pit and turned it into a cage. The walls of their home became the last prison of the girl, who had been turned into a nightmarish creature by her own parents. Peter’s sister can climb walls and rip other people’s limbs apart with her jaws. Her nails have also become sharp claws, making her an unstoppable killing machine. That means there’s nothing supernatural about the voice haunting Peter, as she is just a child who became a monster after many years of abuse and neglect.
What Happened to the Girl Who Vanished on Halloween?
In Cobweb, we quickly learn that Peter is not allowed to go trick-or-treating on Halloween as the boy’s parents are too afraid he might go missing. Their concern originates from the disappearance of a young girl who lived down the street four years prior to Cobweb’s events. That’s not the whole truth, though. Peter’s parents were the ones who abducted the girl, killed her, and buried her body in the garden. During Halloween, Peter’s sister managed to escape her prison, crossing paths with a girl who had come to the house to ask for candy. To protect their terrible secret, Peter’s parents decided to kill the girl and banish Halloween celebrations in their home, lest another incident happens. So, while Peter’s parents did have a good reason to stop Peter from going out on Halloween, their decision is not aimed at protecting their son but at keeping his sister hidden.
Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr’s Secret Comes Back to Haunt Them
In Cobweb’s bloody ending, Peter’s sister convinces the boy that his parents are planning his murder. Afraid for his life, Peter mixes rat poison with the soup his mother prepares every evening. Peter’s parents die violently, with their organs imploding due to the poison. Peter rushes to steal his mother’s keys as she begs him not to release his sister. Ignoring his mother’s warnings, Peter opens the hatch hidden behind the enormous wooden clock in his parent’s bedroom, convinced that he’s doing the right thing. Unfortunately for Peter, lying runs in the family, and he gets tricked by his sister. She crawls out of her prison, revealing that she forced Peter to kill their parents as part of her own revenge. She also threatens to destroy him, as she has always been jealous of him. Because while Peter had a soft bed, she had to sleep on cobwebs, with spiders nesting in her hair. Peter’s parent’s inhumane segregation of their children has caused her violent uprising and turned Peter’s sister into a bloodthirsty monster who wants to punish everyone.
Before convincing Peter to kill his parents, his sister tells the kid he should take revenge on his bully, Brian (Luke Samson Busey). Peter pushes the boy from the top of some stairs, breaking his leg. Since rotten fruits never fall far from decaying trees, Brian calls his older cousin, who decides to visit Peter on Halloween. Brian’s cousin and his friends break into Peter’s home to trash the house and beat the boy up. Instead, they become prey for Peter’s sister, who’s eager to kill them one by one. The attack by Brian’s cousin and his friends distracts Peter’s sister long enough for Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman) to get to his home. The substitute teacher was concerned about Peter after receiving an ominous call from him. Miss Devine suspects the boy has been suffering from domestic violence. While Miss Devine is not wrong, she could never anticipate stumbling into the carnage left behind by Peter’s sister.
Peter and Miss Devine escape his sister’s wrath by joining forces and luring her to the basement. There, Peter manages to lock his sister in the pit his father had built many years before. It seems like a happy ending, but the sister tells Peter that the case won’t be enough to hold her down. She will eventually escape, and when she does, she’ll finish the job and kill him. So, Peter should be watchful for moving shadows for the rest of his life. Plus, whenever he listens to wood creaking or feels observed by an unseen presence, he will wonder if the time has come to face his sister. It’s a spine-chilling promise, and we doubt Peter will ever sleep peacefully again.
The Big Picture
- Cobweb reveals a disturbing secret as Peter’s parents are revealed to have locked his sister in the wall, turning her into a monster through years of abuse.
- The disappearance of a young girl on Halloween is revealed to be at the hands of Peter’s parents, who killed her to protect their dark secret.
- Peter’s sister manipulates him into killing their parents, revealing her own revenge plan and leaving Peter in constant fear of her return.
