Video Details
A brilliant and powerful psychological thriller about a deeply disturbed boy, Spider, who ‘sees’ his father brutally murder his mother and replace her with a prostitute. Convinced they plan to murder him next, Spider hatches an insane plan, which he carries through to tragic effect. Years later, his delusional account of his past begins to unravel and Spider spirals into fresh madness. Starring: Academy Award® Nominee Ralph Fiennes (Red Dragon,Schindler’s List,The English Patient), Golden Globe Winner Miranda Richardson (Enchanted April, Damage), Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects, Enemy of the State), Golden Globe Winner Lynn Redgrave (Shine, Gods and Monsters), Directed by award winning David Cronenberg (eXistenZ, Crash).

Review
David Cronenberg is a filmmaker so full of ideas that he sometimes seems to have trouble coming up with a narrative framework which will support them all; at times Videodrome and eXistenZ seemed to exist more for the sake of their subtexts rather than their principle story lines. But while Spider is one of his most powerful and compelling voyages into the human psyche, it's also a rare example of a film where Cronenberg doesn't seem to have quite enough material to flesh out a full-length feature. Ralph Fiennes gives an riveting performance as the emotionally damaged Spider, but so much time is spent watching Fiennes silently wrestle with the horrible memories in his head that one senses this is a brilliant one-hour film stretched to fit 99 minutes; it's a testament to the strength of Fiennes' work that he's able to make so many scenes in which he's not doing much of anything so absorbing. But the material in Spider that works ranks with the best realized moments in Cronenberg's career: He handles his cast beautifully (Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, and Lynn Redgrave all deliver top-shelf performances), his vision of a gray and crumbling England trapped somewhere in time is superb, and the remarkably detailed flashbacks of Spider's blighted childhood are at once painful and mesmerizing. Spider is a flawed film, but one well worth watching; even its lesser moments are too strong to dismiss, and the highlights are at once horrible, honest, and deeply human. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

See all Product Description

47 Reviews 5 star:  (25) 4 star:  (11) 3 star:  (3) 2 star:  (6) 1 star:  (2)           Average Customer Review (47 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: Haunting, Jul 20 2004 By A Customer After sitting on my self for well over a couple of months I decided to give this movie a try. My expectations weren't very high and I expected something on par with Willard. From the very beginning I was captivated with Ralph Fiennes' performance and he really communicated the feelings of being totally drawn in on himself. The unfolding of the story was depicted in such a way that we experience the confusion and emotional turmoil of the main character. While I've never been a big fan of Freud, the movie does make use of Freud's Oedipal Complex theory and models Spider's entire relationship with his parents is based on it. Spider's idealization of his mother made him incapable of seeing her negative qualities. While his mother did make efforts to be a "good mum" she also shared her husbands wrecklessness and drinking problem. In order to displace his mothers undeniable neglect he displaces her, in his mind, with a bar fly who flashes her breast at him at the local pub. In reality Spider's father isn't too far removed from his mother. A man who makes efforts to be a good father but doesn't do much to eliminate his vices, however, Spider staying true to Oedipal victimhood takes a hostile view of his father and ignores the good qualities and demonizes his father. While it is clear that Spider's memories are often twisted and others are mere imagination that he uses to make sense of what's going on around him, we can still say with relative certainty that his parents were too selfish in their drinking and partying to have any idea what their actions were having on their son. The truly sad part of the movie is that Spider is never willing to look the truth straight in the face and the only time he admits to himself that the drunken woman really was his mother is when he kills her. So he selectively chooses to see the truth only when he is at fault. This partial look at the reality of his life is what keeps him locked in his past. A truly sad movie and one I will not soon forget. Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: One of Cronenberg's best films, Mar 15 2004 By A Customer So no, this isn't typical Cronenberg. It's obvious that he didn't write the script, and that he's adapting someone else's story. But, what a bang-up job he does with it. Throughout the film, you feel as if you're receiving less and less air. By the end, it feels like coming up after nearly drowning. This is one of the most claustrophobic films ever made (up there with Polanski's REPULSION and Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD, though those films are radically different thematically). At first I thought the film was subpar, not fully taking in just how nuanced and controlled it really is. Upon the second and third viewing, the film revealed itself to me to be a masterpiece (a word I don't use loosely). For a fan of Cronenberg or just great films in general, get SPIDER. How I'd rate it among Cronenberg's works: 1.DEAD RINGERS 2.SPIDER/CRASH 3.VIDEODROME 4.THE FLY 5.NAKED LUNCH 6.M. BUTTERFLY 7.SHIVERS 8.RABID 9.SHIVERS 10.EXISTENZ (I think all his films are fantastic, btw, but that's how I'd rate em.) Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   1 of 2 people found the following review helpful: Cronenberg Understands McGrath, Aug 14 2003 By  Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews       Patrick McGrath is a fine writer of bizarre, beyond the edge stories and finally someone has found the courage to tackle one of his basically 'inner mind' stories. SPIDER dates back to 1991, before McGrath wrote ASYLUM, DR HAGGARD'S DISEASE, BUTCHER BOY, MARTHA PEAKE etc and that story showed all the promise of the author's ability to find entry into the dark interstices of the ill mind, a line of detail he continues to follow and expand. David Cronenberg, that master of the macabre, was the absolute right director to transpose this map (read 'web') of the schizophrenic mind to film. His cast is impeccably correct: Ralp Fiennes manages to create a three dimensional character out of the title role, while Miranda Richardson, Lynn Redgrave, and Gabriel Byrne and all the bit players feel fully in character at all times. The grisly story is beautifully photogrpahed and meticulously scored (a very finely orchestrated score by Howard Shore) and if at times the film feels longer than the usual movie, realize that this is the way a disturbed and immobile brain deals with the outside world. For the story read the other reviews. For your edification, buy or rent this amazingly disturbing film and keep your mind open....... Was this review helpful to you? (