Spider [Blu-ray]

Director: David Cronenberg David Cronenberg

Overview

Ralph Fiennes plays a grown man haunted by his childhood in David Cronenberg's stylized psychological drama Spider. Upon his release from a mental institution, Spider (Fiennes) takes up residence in a halfway house. Paranoid, quiet, and forever making notes, Spider spends much of the film remembering scenes from his youth, specifically a horrific event from his childhood that occurred after he came to believe that his father (Gabriel Byrne) was having an affair on his mother (Miranda Richardson). The psychological terror builds to a climax that challenges how much the viewer can believe Spider's recollections of the event. Bradley Hall plays Spider as a boy, and Richardson portrays many different women who come into contact with Spider. Spider was screened in competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/13/2022
UPC:	0043396584211
Original Release:	2002
Rating:	R
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	18,156

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ralph Fiennes	Spider
Miranda Richardson	Yvonne/Mrs. Cleg/Mrs. Wilkinson
Gabriel Byrne	Bill Cleg
Lynn Redgrave	Mrs. Wilkinson
John Neville	Terrence
Bradley Hall	Young Spider
Gary Reineke	Freddy
Philip Craig	John
Cliff Saunders	Bob
Tara Ellis	Nora
Sara Stockbridge	Gladys
Arthur Whybrow	Ernie
Nicola Duffett	Barmaid
Jake Nightingale	Large Man
Alison Egan	Flashing Yvonne
Donald Ewer	Toothless Jack
Joan Heney	Cook
Peter Elliott	Resident
Alec Stockwell	Resident
Scott McCord	Resident
Frank Blanch	Resident
Rachel Taggart	Young Woman
Olivia Imogen Harris	Child
Howard Shore	Composer

Technical Credits

Patrick McGrath

Patrick McGrath	Screenwriter
David Cronenberg	Director,Producer
Catherine Bailey	Producer
Jane Barclay	Executive Producer
Charles Finch	Executive Producer
Simon Franks	Executive Producer
Samuel Hadida	Producer,Executive Producer
Sharon Harel	Executive Producer
Zygi Kamasa	Executive Producer
Martin Katz	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Hannah Leader	Executive Producer
Luc Roeg	Executive Producer
Alan Senior	Special Effects
Suzanne Smith	Casting
Tony Currie	Sound Editor,Sound Effects
Stanley Monahan	Special Effects
Don White	Sound/Sound Designer
Andy Malcolm	Sound Editor
Goro Koyama	Sound Editor
David Evans	Sound Editor
Wayne Griffin	Sound Editor
Glen Gauthier	Sound/Sound Designer
Orest Sushko	Sound/Sound Designer
Christian Cooke	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A mysterious space between memory and confabulation opens wide in Spider, a skillfully austere psychodrama from Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg. Adapted from the novel by Patrick McGrath, who also wrote the screenplay, Spider follows Cleg (Ralph Fiennes), a.k.a. Spider, who arrives at an English halfway house after a stint in a mental institution. Upon release, Cleg experiences disturbing flashbacks of his childhood with his mother (Miranda Richardson) and father (Gabriel Byrne) that inevitably lead to paranoia and violence. Despite the story's emotional depths, Cronenberg manages to cut a clear path with his typically clean, uncluttered style. The spare realization -- shooting on a minimum of sets and with as few extras as necessary -- strengthens the story's psychodramatic quagmire. And as Spider, Fiennes anchors the film superbly: His tensed-muscled approach effectively suggests internal struggle amid incessant mumbling and methodical scribbling in a notebook. The result is a genre movie that trades quick thrills for a cumulative effect that is consummately intense, eerie, and hypnotic.