The Spider in the Attic (2021)

 Linda is a radio host who’s seen better days. Her time slot has been moved to 3am and her ratings are down. When the radio station threatens to replace her, she says she has an idea for a serious program about an unsolved true crime.  She asks for a few days to figure it out.

Based on a tip from her daughter, Linda pitches the idea to investigate a Nazi doctor who lies a few hours away. She says she needs to be more controversial. They’ll drive up to the house and ask to speak to him while broadcasting live.  Begrudgingly, the station gives approval on the condition that two big wigs go with her to ensure she’s not wasting their money on a spa visit for her family.

Linda and her entourage arrive at the doctors to find no one is home. When Lucy breaks in by reaching through the window to unlock the door, Linda is worried they’ll get in trouble. But Lucy says they’ll say the door was open so it’s fine to go in. Is it?  The two wander to the front door to let the others in.  At this point Linda pulls out a recorder to start her story. So much for doing a live broadcast, or for noticing the massive spiderweb in the corner. 

While exploring the house, they find the doctors body and rather than call the police, they decide to investigate to determine what happened. Linda claims this is what real reporters do. I would argue most reporters don’t contaminate death scenes and those that do are bad reporters.  

Their plan is absurd. They’re going to tromp all over the house to see if they can find anything for their story. Then they’ll call the police and say they were driving by and Linda’s pregnant daughter had to use the bathroom. So they stopped, found the door unlocked, went in, and found the doctors body.  They don’t seem to realize this isn’t a good plan.

There is not enough spider in this movie. Also the people are not very bright.  Linda brings her entire family on this trip, even though the radio station is afraid she’s trying to pay for a family vacation.  One daughter is pregnant and near her due date. But she insists on going since she’s just had a fight with her boyfriend and she’d just spend all her time on the phone with him.  He’s also coming since she can’t leave him alone due to the fight. The fight continues at the doctors house until the boyfriend decides to leave.  So both of them are useless. It’s awkward as hell and since this is for Linda’s job, she should have just told her daughter to stay home. 

Ridiculous dialogue:

Idiots! Why discard credible science because of how ethical the research was?

Lucy - We can just say he left his back door open. It’s easy.

Linda - But if we get caught, it’s illegal!

Lucy - So are many things, Mom. But leaving your door open and someone passing by, it’s just normal.

We can’t do anything for this poor guy now. But we can try to uncover what happened here. Shauna, this is what real reporting is about.

The massive spider webs in an otherwise clean house
should have been a tip off.

Serious security flaw if you can reach inside to unlock the door.

No one wants to see a spider looking like a massive bat.

They don’t seem pleased with her pitch on how to get better ratings.