Watch Spider
- R
- 2002
- 1 hr 38 min
-
6.8 (39,234)
Memory and fantasy blend together in an unsettling viewing experience from acclaimed horror and suspense director David Cronenberg based on a Gothic novel by Irish author Patrick McGrath. The "Spider" of the title is Dennis Cleg (Ralph Fiennes), a mentally ill, almost mute man who enters a halfway house at the film's start. He is not recovering from his illness, but sinking more deeply into madness. Cleg barely exists in his present, spending his time lost in flashbacks and hallucinations from his childhood in 1950s London. He relives or invents scenes of domestic violence and terror, in which his mother and a local tramp are played by the same actress (Miranda Richardson), both brutalized by Cleg's father (Gabriel Byrne). He struggles to remember, or perhaps forget, a single traumatic event that may be responsible for his mental illness. The viewer is trapped along with Cleg in a nightmarish cinematic reality with dark, gritty visuals and a strong, dreamlike technique.
