Taglines: The only thing worse than losing your mind… is finding it again.
Spider is set in the East End London in the 1960s and ’80’s. A deeply disturbed boy, Spider, ‘sees’ his father brutally murder his mother and replace her with a prostitute, Yvonne. Convinced they plan to murder him next, Spider hatches an insane plan, which he carries through to tragic effect.
Years later, Spider is released into a halfway house, where he receives little care or attention from the landlady Mrs. Wilkinson. Unsupervised, Spider stops taking his medication and starts revisiting his childhood haunts. His attempts to sustain his delusional account of his past begin to unravel and Spider spirals into fresh madness.
Spider is a 2002 Canadian / British psychological thriller-drama film produced and directed by David Cronenberg and based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McGrath, who also wrote the screenplay. The film premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and enjoyed some media buzz; however, it was released in only a few cinemas at the year’s end by distributor Sony Pictures Classics. Nonetheless, the film enjoyed much acclaim by critics and especially by Cronenberg enthusiasts. The film garnered a Best Director award at the Canadian Genie Awards. The stars of the film, Ralph Fiennes and particularly Miranda Richardson, received several awards for their work in the film.
During a Q&A session at the Kodak Lecture Series in May 2005, Cronenberg revealed that neither he, nor Fiennes, nor Richardson, nor the producers received any sort of salary during the shooting of the film. All chose to waive their salaries, so the money could be used to bankroll the under-funded production.
Spider (2003)
Directed by: David Cronenberg
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave, John Neville, Sara Stockbridge, Arthur Whybrow, Nicola Duffett, Jake Nightingale, Alison Egan
Screenplay by: Patrick McGrath
Production Design by: Andrew Sanders
Cinematography by: Peter Suschitzky
Film Editing by: Ronald Sanders
Costume Design by: Denise Cronenberg
Set Decoration by: Marina Morris, Clive Thomasson
Art Direction by: Arvinder Grewal, Lucy Richardson
Music by: Howard Shore
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality, brief violence and language.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: December 13, 2002 (Canada), January 3, 2003 (United Kingdom), February 28, 2003 (United States)
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