Reflection on Spider, the Movie

"Spider" is a psychological thriller about a mentally insane man trying to cope with his past. When he moves into a halfway house and stops taking his medication, his past starts catching up to him.

At the beginning of the movie, we see Spider's adoration for his mother. When asked to retrieve his father, Spider rushes to the bar to find him. However, Spider's opinion of his mother begins to change later on that night, when he looks out his bedroom window and sees his mom being caressed by his father. It appears as if Spider does not approve.

Further into the movie, we see his father, with another woman. When his mom catches him in this act, his father "kills" her. However I do not believe that this was the case. Since Spider seems to be constructing his past, and not living it, I believe this was created from his imagination to fuel his anger towards his father; which stems from his Oedipus complex and failure to split from his mother. I believe that this was also a metaphor to symbolize that the old mom he once loved had died.

The movie continues with this hatred of this "new mom". His dad continues to insist that this is his real mother, but Spider does not want to believe it. Finally, at the end of the movie, we see Spider, as a little kid, leaving the gas on in the house, and killing his "mom". As he looks down at the lifeless body he no longer sees the woman he once hated, but the woman he fell in love with. The movie concludes with him smiling as he is being sent away. I believe he is finally happy, because now not only can he not have his mother, but neither can his father.