A boy (Woody Norman) hears a knock on his bedroom wall in this horror flick called Cobweb, because The Knocking was already taken and sounds stupid.

In a particularly stale month for Horror, Cobweb is a breath of pumpkin-spiced air. Set the week before Halloween, it sees Peter bullied both at school and at home, confronting the secrets hidden from him by his petrifying parents (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr). None of this is new (even the town of Holdenfield recalls Halloween‘s Haddonfield), but is told with American gothic bravura by director Samuel Bodin, who handles his debut feature with the expertise of a spooky-seasoned pro.

Bodin establishes the story at pace, weaving a tapestry of images that tells you everything you need to know and keeping you in the dark about what’s to come. His restrained approach feels like it could snap at any second, keeping viewers hanging by a thread right up until the gratifying payoff. Philip Lozano’s refined cinematography aids the ambiguity, casting sinister shadows over the domestic horror. There are no frills, just thrills and chills that don’t let up for 88 minutes.

The outcome might be described as The Black Phone meets The Yellow Wallpaper, with the Freudian fable of Hatching thrown in for good measure. The characters are deliberately fairytale-like, including the aptly named saviour-teacher Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman), and the mum and dad who evoke the gaslighting parents of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Carrie. But the references are visual (including a ball recalling The Shining) and the horror plot-driven, its sardonic subtext about family and abuse lurking like the monster who wisely remains shrouded in darkness.

Refreshingly straightforward and compact without sacrificing suspense or scares, Cobweb packs a bite bigger than its creepy-crawly scale suggests, producing a great example of how frightening a 15 can be. At the risk of prejudging Pet Sematary 4, The Exorcist 6 and Saw 10, it might be the best genre offering this year.