Spider
Tags: mystery, murder, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, revenge, storytelling

Plot synopsis:
Opening in the East End London in the 1950s, a deeply disturbed boy, named Dennis Clegg, nicknamed Spider (Bradley Hall), 'sees' his father (Gabriel Byrne) brutally murder his mother and replace her with a prostitute, Yvonne (Miranda Richardson). Convinced they plan to murder him next, Spider hatches an insane plan, which he carries through to tragic effect.Many years later, an adult Dennis 'Spider' Clegg (Ralph Fiennes) is released from a local mental institution and is given a room at a local halfway house catering to mentally disturbed persons. Clegg receives little care or attention from the landlady Mrs. Wilkinson (Lynn Redgrave). Clegg, in his new abode, starts piecing together or recreating in his memory to try to remember an apparently fateful childhood event. During the days, he roams the nearby derelict urban area and the local canal and starts to relive or visualize a period of his childhood with his mother and his father.A shift takes place in the child's psyche when he witnesses his mother groping with his father in the garden and, subsequently, when he sees his mother in a silky night gown she wore for his father. The son, as a grown man seems to recreate in his memory the buildup to his father's murder of his mother with the passive support of a prostitute he is involved with, who then moves into the house and is presented as his mother. The young son then kills the mistress by gassing her in the kitchen. After that memory he attempts late one night to kill the landlady whom he sees alternatively as the mistress and his mother, but backs away after she says, "What have you done Mr. Clegg?" In the final scene, Clegg is arrested by the authorities and taken back to the asylum.

Review: David Cronenberg's Spider is one of those films.Many comparisons can be made between this film and the Ron Howard film A Beautiful Mind in that they both examine the complexities of mental illness.
seven packets of Crisps and a packet of Embassy.' Many times have I uttered similar words in a London Pub.The locations were so real, you could smell and tasted them - I grew up in such a places and in the same period as the Boy Spider - every single and highly accurate detail brought my childhood memories rushing back.The story is real - events like the critical event in this film really did happen and still do.For international readers, England from the late 70's onwards adopted a 'Care in the Community' programme and every city and major town has halfway houses, like the one portrayed in this film, where newly released inmates of mental institutions are ordinarily just dumped to fend for themselves.This film is nothing short of a Masterpiece - the real pity is that it won't appeal to a wider international audience..
We watch Spider (Ralph Fiennes) at the present time, trying to live at a boarding house which takes pity on people who should legally be in mental institutions, and, in parallel action, watch him reliving his childhood, doomed to stand watching those events play out again and again, an observer as impotent as he felt when they originally happened.This film is a mystery into the character and history of Ralph Fiennes' character.
But if you don't like patient films (and you might see it as a slow film - don't expect big action, expect to watch a fascinating character - and maybe discover why he's so troubled), watch any of Cronenberg's previous efforts instead.Its not a very big or important film - not one of the most essential films of 2002, but if you've seen those more important choices, and are looking for something different, Spider may just be an interesting, atmospheric experience for you.8/10.
SPIDER (2003) *** Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Bradley Hall, Lynn Redgrave, John Neville.
Filmmaker David Cronenberg does it again : mixing psychological drama with Gothic mystery with the cloak of violence in the air with Fiennes (in a brilliantly mannered near mute turn) as the titular character, a schizophrenic recently released to a halfway house, nicknamed in his youth by his mother (Richardson who gives an excellent turn to the third power; she inhibits three interlaced roles that act as the story's linchpin) for his cat's cradle yarn confections which sends his scattershot memories into overdrive as he attempts to connect the missing pieces of his life.
David Cronenberg's film, based on a novel adapted by its author, Patrick McGrath, is set in London in the late 1980's, and explores the effects of an infamous Conservative government policy, whereby expensive, outdated mental hospitals were streamlined and the inmates released with limited supervision, a process that was termed Care in the Community.
The film focuses on Spider, an elusive mental patient, institutionalised for most of his life, now released and returned back to a halfway house in East London, the place of his childhood, to fend for himself in the outside world.
As ever, Cronenberg, unlike other directors, does not condescend and go for the easy option, in other words making Spider a neatly disturbed, good-looking human, glamorised by his tragic sense of unreality, i.e. A Beautiful Mind.
Gabriel Byrne plays Spider's father with his rich sourness and Miranda Richardson, in a double role, shows why she is such a hidden, rough gem of British acting (at least to the wider world).In Spider, Cronenberg Is Back To His Best With A Characteristically Original Film About Society and Mental Illness.
"Spider" is the childhood nickname of Dennis Cleg (Ralph Fiennes, superb), a schizophrenic man who's sent to a halfway house after spending years in a mental institution.
Back at his old neighbourhood, Spider remembers how his father (Gabriel Byrne) murdered his mother (Miranda Richardson) when he was a little boy, and brought a prostitute (Richardson, again) to live with them.This is the most complex and compelling study of schizophrenia I've ever seen in a movie.
But Cronenberg and McGrath are not like Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and their "A Beautiful Mind" (or "how to make a cute movie about a schizophrenic turned genius and win my Oscar").
Cronenberg's mature direction and McGrath's perfect screenplay, plus the magnificent performances (Miranda Richardson gave a tour-de-force with her multiple roles), Howard Shore's low-key score and the astounding cinematography by Peter Suschitzky (which gives the movie a Dostoievskan look) make "Spider" a memorable experience.
Cronenberg uses such techniques as sparse dialogue and long camera angles to create a feeling of alienation and detachment from the world at large, capturing the experience of enduring life with schizophrenia.Needless to say, Spider is not a "fun" film to watch.
I strikes me as Cronenberg trying to do a Ken Loachesque style movie with all of his usual hard philosophical questioning, sniping at your assumptions of what reality really is.The overwhelming impression I was left with was the sheer creepiness of the film, highly appropriate in a film about a Spider.
The twist is that everything in the film is seen through the eyes of Ralph Fiennes, a schizophrenic who has been released to a half way house after spending decades in an institution.
But considering the subject matter - Fiennes has been released into a world that is a total mystery to him - the film follows his pace as he slowly makes his way around.I can't tell too much of the plot without ruining the movie.
Rewarding, however, not in the sense of his more notorious horror films, but in the way that a splendid Freudian character study unfolds, in a manner that is most striking because of the layers and unpredictability of the structure of the story.It's an experiment in point of view, where the main character, an ex-mental institution patient, goes in and out of fantasy and memory, with a double layer of what he saw as a child and what he had as a twisted Oedipal fantasy as partial (or maybe likely at best) reality, turned into a nightmare, and then with himself becoming part of this memory/fantasy/nightmare as a dual reality with his time staying at a halfway home.
It's not an easy venture, but somehow Cronenberg and writer Patrick McGrath, uses the schizophrenic perspective of the character to gage the audience into his perpetual crisis of re-living the past and piecing together what happened between his father, mother, and a "tart" of sorts.It's a risk that ends up paying off so well because of the dedication to the mood of every scene, however minute in scope, as every dip into Dennis/Spider's notebook of scribbled gibberish and every trace of memory or view into what was not really (or was it) seen outside of his perspective as a child and every walk along the old neighborhood brings out pieces of a puzzle that build and build to something terrifying, not just because of the "I want to see what happens next" mode, but because one can't be sure which point of view, which layer, will turn out as the real one.
This side of the story would be disturbing enough, but Cronenberg compounds this with Spider as an adult becoming apart of these childhood scenes, a silent and sometimes quietly mumbling observer of himself as a child, but more significantly himself seeing what went on between his father, Yvonne, and his mother.
But perception in memory, of the most perverted yet quintessentially Freudian fantasy, in a man is the subject here, and it's a masterstroke of storytelling and character building to see how Spider develops along the lines of a thriller that keeps you guessing based solely on what is certain, uncertain, or both at the same time.It's also, aside from being a rich experiment on a man trapped in a state of mind formed mainly, and continuing ever so strongly, from a horrible familial trauma, extremely well shot (many scenes are like perfect little photos of dank small-town English discontent) and exceptionally performed by Fiennes, who never deviates from this tortured, rarely coherently communicative soul.
There's even a couple of moments of dry comedy from John Neville as mental patient, with observations absurd and dead-on (the shirts).Spider grows slowly and with the intellectual stamina of a fantastic piece of psychological theater, and with the emotional dissonance and tortured heart of Cronenberg at his very best.
In "Spider", the Canadian director has finally completed a circle, he has completely moved from the horrors of the flesh to the horrors of the mind."Spider" tells the story of Dennis 'Spider' Cleg (Ralph Fiennes), a man who has been released from a mental asylum where he was spending time struggling with schizophrenia.
While living in a halfway house, his mind tries to reorder his broken memories in what seems a desperate attempt of recover his lost sanity.Based on the novel by Patrick McGrath, "Spider" is an in-depth study of Spider's life as he remembers the events of his childhood, particularly his relationship with his parents, played superbly by Gabriel Byrne and Miranda Richardson; and how he ended being who he is.While the screenplay was also written by Patrick McGrath himself, the movie follows a very different approach to the story.
We discover the life of a mad man through his own eyes, through a madness that blinds him and confuses him, but also seems to protect him from the real world.Ralph Fiennes' brilliant performance as Spider is surprising in his realistic portrait of schizophrenia, and his his ability to convey emotions of horror and sadness in a role almost without dialogs.
Miranda Richardson is also brilliant, and her performance as Spider's most important memory is really one of the best of the decade and one that deserved more recognition than what she got.Without too many flare, Cronenberg makes a brilliant picture despite its minimalism approach.
The sequence of the body being carried out of the house, revealing who was actually killed, is a very creative twist provided by the director.Thus the film while presenting an intimate portrait of an individual returning to normal life after drug therapy and the effect of not continuing the medication, with the help of stark and drab exteriors that reflect the state of the mind, slowly engages the viewer to realize that the story can be as lively as a detective storywith the viewer as the detective.This work of Cronenberg pales in comparison to "The Fly," which provided a fascinating sci-fi angle.
The film triggers a very dangerous ground - the inner world of a mentally disturbed man, Spider, played by great Ralph Fiennes, who does a marvelous job, showing us a slow, seemingly harmless man, who anyway killed his Mom and tried to poison with gas another woman.
"Spider" is probably Cronenberg's most low key film; out have gone the blood, guts and mutation, resulting in his common theme of "body" horror being translated into a completely psychological issue as the titular character's past, present and imagination all dangerously coincide in chilling fashion.Everything is played to perfection here.
The only disappointed so far was "Strange Days", but that certainly wouldn't keep me from watching this movie.Dennis Clegg, who is nicknamed Spider by his mother, lives in a halfway house for the mentally ill in London.
As the story unfolds, we get a good idea of what is going on in the man's mind and what has happened in his life that made him become the man who he now is..."Spider" is one of those movies that will not be loved by a large audience.
Sure, it isn't all that accessible when you don't take your time for it, but when you do, you'll find it very rewarding.With this "Spider", David Cronenberg has made a very good and intriguing psychological drama that is not only accessible to those who have studied psychology, although I'm convinced that those people will enjoy it even more.
I immediately sat thru the whole movie again, this time with my jaw wide open that one woman could possibly have that much talent.If you like good acting, this film is for you.David Cronenberg directs with a light touch, the same you would use to help a man like Spider, without making him feel threatened.
The creepy psychological thriller, `Spider,' is difficult and challenging even for a David Cronenberg film.
Ralph Fiennes delivers a bravura performance in the largely nonverbal role of a mentally disturbed man who, upon his discharge from an asylum, takes up residence in a drab halfway house in London.
Miranda Richardson (in a triple role), Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave, John Neville and young Bradley Hall all contribute mightily to the success of the work.My biggest fear is that many people will tune out this film early on because of its admittedly slow pacing in the first half.
Spider (Ralph Fiennes, in a superb performance) is a mentally ill man, who leaves the mental institution to live in a home for persons in the same state of mind as him.
Although the plot in uncomfortable, the direction of David Cronenberg and the performance of Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne and the supporting cast is splendid.
Director David Cronenberg and star Ralph Fiennes made a big promo push for "Spider" as an accurate representation of schizophrenia, in contrast to what they decried as Hollywoodization in "A Beautiful Mind."
The mumblings and rememberances of Dennis Clegg (Ralph Fiennes)combine to make for a journey down Memory Lane that is unlike any that rational, thinking people would care to take, let alone inhabit and from which there is very little chance of escape.Fiennes spends the length of the film attempting to piece together bits and pieces of times past in his childhood, that may or may not have happened.
Each newly remembered facet of his world is honed on the impressions of a spider web -- the string, broken glass, the jigsaw puzzle, the string game he plays at the kitchen table -- spiraling and spinning the child and the man into its deadly web and further from reality as we know it.Richardson portrays three multi-faceted characters in this film, three spirits, and with each one she sheds a skin and grows another, entirely different in bearing and manner.
murmuring gibberish,scribbling nonsense in his diary..all seems so haunting and realistic.The way he handles the role,it shows his calibre as an artist of his business.Miranda Richardson also gives a quite unsettling performance, as the film goes by,you will understand and mark my words you will be totally in awe of her role.The film is justifiably genred as a horror,and horror is not always jumpscare.The gloomy atmosphere of halfway house with the perfect absorbing score by Howard Shore will hold you tight to the seat,the movie is slow, but it will gradually engulf you to it's centre.Cronerberg has wonderfully adapted his film from a novel by Patrick McGrath which is said equally absorbing.The film has tempted me to watch more of Cronerberg's works..
But the more I thought about it after the fact, the more tiny moments began to impress themselves upon me: Spider's walk through the apocalypse of London, Cronenberg's deft impressions of a young disturbed man's worldview, the dead-on performances of the entire cast, the phenomenal restraint of everyone from Fiennes to the costume designer to create a world as that suffocates the viewer.
Institutionalized for twenty years after the death of his mother Dennis `Spider' Cleg (Ralph Fiennes) is released to a halfway house, and tries, shattered though his mind may be, to piece together the shards of his life.
Ralph Fiennes  who plays spider establishes a great performance so great that you think he is actually the real man.
I'm a big fan of Cronenberg's films - Videodrome and The Dead Zone in particular - and I think Spider is right up there with the best work he's ever done.
It makes Russell Crowe's performance in Beautiful Mind look like that of a first year acting student.The film is ambitious in showing us the world from Spider's point of view, fantasies and all.
Spider, the powerful and haunting new film from Canadian director David Cronenberg, takes us on a journey through a disturbed man's psyche - a story in which we are uncertain to the end about what is truth and what is fiction.
The movie is the story of Spider (Ralph Fiennes), a fellow who's been released from prison and now moves to some sort of nursing home for the mentally ill.
For your edification, buy or rent this amazingly disturbing film and keep your mind open.......Note: watching this little masterpiece of a film three years later only serves to increase appreciation of the work of Cronenberg, Howard Shore, Ralph Fiennes, Mirana Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, and Lynn Redgrave.
Dennis Clegg (Ralph Fiennes), nicknamed Spider, is a schizophrenic man who has come to live in a halfway house, and the film tracks us through his mind and the process it goes through.
Seeing each character through the mental web that he has spun for himself, it presents an interesting challenge for all of the actors and none of them miss the opportunity.Cronenberg imbues the film with a grit and grime that puts you into the dirt with Spider, making the whole thing an even more unsettling and full experience.
To regain his childhood memories so he can piece together the truth of an event which changed his life forever, the murder of his mother.I don't think many people would name Spider as Cronenberg's greatest movie, but the performance delivered by Ralph Fiennes is without doubt the most extraordinary in the Cronenberg arsenal.
Cronenberg's film about a mentally disturbed man(Fiennes) who snaps back into a state of reality as he takes residence in a halfway house.