Webs (2003)

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2021) You can almost introduce Webs in a way that makes it sound interesting: What if electrical workers in Chicago stumbled upon a forgotten nuclear-powered laboratory in a disaffected building, and triggered the equipment so that it sent them to a parallel dimension characterized by humans fighting for their lives against spiderlike aliens? I mean… that’s not high art, but it’s as interesting as your average summer blockbuster. But the trick, as they say, is in the execution and it quickly becomes clear that Webs is coming straight from the made-for-Syfy TV-movie factory. Indifferent filmmaking skills and a very low budget combine to create something that quickly reaches new levels of blandness. Intermittent flashes of interest merely make us long for a better version of the film, as what ends up on screen is a mix of third-rate actors, terrible special effects, cost-cutting tricks and unremarkable directing from David Wu. I suppose that the result could have been worse, so at least there’s that. But otherwise: Webs is better left untouched.