DESPITE the title, which must have led many an unwitting teenager into the cinema, David Cronenberg's latest offering is a far cry from his best-known film, The Fly.

Rather than the SFX-laden sci-fi antics we are used to, The Spider gives us the much more down-to-earth scenario of the psychologically devastating effects of childhood trauma.

Admitted to a mental hospital with schizophrenia when he was a child, Dennis 'Spider' Cleg (Ralph Fiennes) is released after 20 years to live in a London boarding house. Compelled to return to the scenes of his disturbed childhood, he forces himself to relive the events that triggered his original mental collapse.

Adapted from the haunting novel by Patrick McGrath, Spider is a moody and macabre film brimming with authentic period touches and featuring classic understated performances from Fiennes and Miranda Richardson.