In the Spider's Web

I have a guilty pleasure for terrible, but fun horror films. This doesn't fit that as well as some films, but it was pretty enjoyable. There was tones of cheesy lines, ridiculous deaths, a totally not suspicious spider shaped cave. Is this film good? No. Will you have fun? Probably!

The spider cultists are amazingly bad, with spider web bags over their heads. But don't worry they some how donate organs to the locals. The spider venom juicing organs not thought about at all. It's all good. It's like a big operation with more than one group involved.

I'm sure it's a perfectly legit business. Oh and the cultist have matching nails too. It's glorious.

Initially I had hopes for "In the Spider's Web" because the DVD cover looked so promising. A dark place with a person hanging down, suspended by webbing and wrapped up like a cocoon. Underneath the helpless person is a number of skulls and at the front of the DVD cover is a fairly cool-looking big spider.

I love monster movies, unfortunately there are just too many bad ones out there. "In the Spider's Web", however, fall into the not-so-great category of creature features. The movie means well enough, but it just have a story that is hard to believe and buy into, and that makes the movie all the more difficult to digest.

The acting in the movie wasn't bad, mind you, the actors just struggled with a weak storyline and plot. I hadn't expected Lance Henriksen on the cast list here, so it was a nice surprise to see that.

What really made the movie not work for me, was the spiders. In some scenes they made use of real spiders, which was really cool. Then in other scenes they used poorly animated CGI spiders, and often repeated the same scene. But wait, it gets better, in many scenes they were using plastic toy spiders hanging down from above in strings. And it was so painstakingly obvious that it was toys, as they weren't moving about at all. That was just too hilarious and it had me shaking me head in disbelief.

I enjoy spider movies, however there are not all that many of them that have turned out to be super great. And now having seen "In the Spider's Web", I can honestly say it will be bagged, tagged and shelved in my DVD collection, most likely never to be played again.

Take a pretty run-of-the-mill film, add Lance Henriksen in - at least - a prominent role and it instantly elevates it to at least 'watchable' status. In case you hadn't guessed by the title, 'In the Spider's Web' is about a team of, er, I don't know what they were doing, but it doesn't matter, let's say they're scientists, or something. Anyway, a diverse team of spider-fodder are mooching around a north Indian jungle when one of them gets bitten by a spider. They take her to a nearby village where they soon discover that the creepy-crawlies aren't the only thing they have to worry about.

There are a few establishing shot here and there to denote that at least the production went to a real life jungle to get some of the footage. Otherwise, they seem to save a lot of money by putting a few plant pots around a sound stage and let the audience do their best to believe that the actors are really deep in a jungle. Apart from that, the special effects aren't that bad. The spiders are - for the most part - real (with the possible exception of the arachnid 'crowd scenes') and the worst effects in the film were when a couple of characters fell down a long drop and you could almost see the green screen behind them.

If you're already not a fan of spiders (who is?) then you'll find some of the scenes quite creepy and did I mention Lance Henriksen is in it? Sometimes he's good and sometimes he's bad. In this film he has long nails on one hand and a brother who walks around wearing a sack on his head making him look like a cross between the elephant man and an 'engineer' from the 'Alien/Prometheus' franchise. I'll let you guess if Henriksen's motives are pure here - either way, he steals every scene.

It's hardly a classic, but it's a decent enough little watch if you're in the mood for some sort of cheesy B-movie and/or you're a fan of Lance Henriksen which crosses 'Arachnophobia' with 'Temple of Doom.'

In India, the backpackers American friends Gina (Emma Catherwood), John (Cian Barry), Stacy (Lisa Livingstone), Geraldine (Jane Perry) and Phil (Michael Smiley) hike in the woods with their guide Brian (Mike Rogers). When Geraldine is bitten by a poisonous spider, the group decides to seek an American doctor that lives in the jungle in a tribe. Dr. Lecorpus (Lance Henriksen) treats the girl and while Gina, John and Phil return to the village in the civilization, Brian and Stacy stay with the native. They decide to visit a temple in the forest while waiting for the recovering of Stacey; however, they find a dark secret about the evil Dr. Lecorpus.

"In the Spider's Web" is a silly, but very entertaining adventure. It is funny to see the short clothes that Gina wears in the jungle, very adequate for a place with vegetation, mosquitoes, bugs and spiders; or to discover that spider's web is combustible, and a torch provokes fire with explosion; or that a person should shout in a cave while chased by men armed with daggers. But in the end, this movie was better than I expected and I liked it. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Aranhas Assassinas" ("Assassin Spiders")

In the Spider's Web (2007)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of American friends are backpacking through a jungle in India when one of them are bitten by a spider. They rush her to a village where an American doctor (Lance Henriksen) tries to save her but it turns out that the doc might have more devilish plans. Soon the Americans are dying one by one due to what appears to be a spider cult as well as the strange brother of the doctor who just happens to be wearing a bag over his face. Wonder what's wrong with him? This made-for-TV flick isn't the worst creature feature out there but at the same time it's pretty poor on so many levels. I will at least give the filmmakers credit for at least trying to mix up various genres but in the end all of the story lines are a mess and one can't help but become bored and frustrated with the film before we even hit the half-way mark. I think the biggest problem are the characters. I found each and everyone of them to be extremely annoying as each of them just seemed to be trying to be the dumbest of the bunch. There's one who demands going into a creepy lair where the spiders are and yet she seems shocked when she discovers that there are spiders in this cave. Hearing her scream every few seconds just got on my nerves and I'd be willing to bet that many will be hitting their mute buttons. Another problem is an incredibly bad, flirtatious thing going on between a couple of the characters. Things aren't any better with mad scientist Henrikson who I had a hard time understanding in several of the scenes. I'm not sure if it was just poor recording or the actors voice but at times I couldn't understand a word he was saying. Perhaps the actor was doing this on purpose so we wouldn't have to hear poor dialogue? Either way, the actor is easily just cashing a paycheck and delivering very little energy. None of the other actors really stand out either but you somewhat expect that from a film like this. The special effects aren't too bad and the majority of the CGI spiders look OK, if nothing overly great. Fans of the genre might want to check this out if they desire to see every film of its type but others should just save time and stay clear.