In the Spider's Web

Every year around Halloween, my kids decorate our front yard and postal box with enormous cobwebs. I just want to say the woolen webs and ridiculous fake plastic spiders they use look a lot more realistic and frightening than the special effects used in this movie.

Spiders are scary creatures to many people, but truly good spider horror movies are rare. My expectations for "In the Spider's Web" were not set very high, but since it was released in the "Maneater" series, I was at least hoping for a fun and undemanding creature feature. Other titles under this label were gory and entertaining (like "Croc", "Eye of the Beast", "The Hive", "The Sea Beast", ...) and that's all I wanted from this one as well. Alas, the only suitable words to describe "In the Spider's Web" are dumb, tame, boring, and unmemorable.

Lance Henriksen is the type of actor who adapts himself to the film he's starring in. If the script is good, Henriksen can easily give a great performance. If the script is lousy, like the case here, Lance is also visibly uninterested. He stars as a supposedly genius doctor/scientist, specialized in spider venoms and living amongst a secluded tribe deep in the Indian jungle. When members of an expedition seek his help because one of them got bitten by a dangerous spider, it quickly becomes obvious Doctor Lance isn't very kosher.

It's the type of bad B-movie where nothing makes any sense. Characters that are presumed dead reappear out of the blue, the police are beyond incompetent, the supposed heroes are people you couldn't care less about, etc. The special effects are pathetic. Authentic big spiders crawl over the ground, but as soon as the fake specimen attack people, or capture and roll them in their webs, it's pure amateurism. Nothing to recommend here, it's not even bad enough to watch in a fun-with-friends kind of way.

This film was OK for a film of its type if you do not expect to much. The Film has some good CGI of the Spiders and they look OK. Lance is a good choice for the doctor so he can do his made man thing again and is a good star name for the film. The rest of the cast are good for mostly young teen actors. The locations are good some island some ware but it looks good and makes a change from a lab or boring warehouse that you normally get in these kind of films. The Direction was OK if a bit slow moving. The sound is also good for Small movie and really helped the film along. The film is good for a small just don't expect to much from a small TV movie.

Trekking into the Indian rain-forest, a group of backpackers exploring the area are forced to stay in a remote tribe of spider worshippers using the creatures for an organ-smuggling ring and must find a way of getting away from the creatures alive.

This was quite an enjoyable is slightly flawed creature feature. Among the better qualities featured here is the rather creepy atmosphere this one builds up of being around spiders, which plays into the most rational fear of being around the creatures. Being around the creatures here is terrifying, as there's a ton made about their poisonous nature here, and it's more than simply hinted at here as their continuous appearance that requires saving, his secretive brother draped in a cobweb hood and nearly everything covered in cobwebs is a nearly continuous assault about the creatures and there's a wonderful atmosphere derived from this section. The cave scenes here are just really chilling, as the first one of the explorers looking inside the different outcroppings covered in webbing before getting lost in the disorienting design and then overwhelmed completely by the thousands of creatures, while the scene of the inspector stumbling around there is quite chilling. Even more impressive, though, is the entire final half is just highly chilling and suspenseful as there's no shortage of action and suspense here that's just relentless and exciting. The action here is great, from the tribal ceremony getting interrupted and forcing them underground into the tunnels and caves requiring a series of frantic stalking throughout as they try to remain hidden from the tribe while avoiding the spiders, getting trapped in the different webbing throughout and finally meeting the helpful officer inside as they guide each other through the darkened, web-covered tunnels here. As well, there's a lot of suspense here as there's the tense hiding out during the chasing but also the tense scene of having to maneuver themselves around the ledge of a web-covered wall above a bottom-less pit crawling with spiders to get to safety and an even creepier scene later of having to cross another chasm using a bridge made of webbing even though the whole party can't cross at once. These two factors here make this one so good here that it gets a ton of good-will just from this section, and with the build-up in the first half gives this one so much to like. Along with a fantastic final twist, these here are enough to hold off the few flaws. The main issue here is the fact that there's little actual action in the first half with this one really selling the atmosphere of being in the village rather than having any kind of action displayed, and it can make for a somewhat bland start here. The only other small problem here is the fact that the tribe's actions are way too scattered in the final half, showing the tribe chasing them in the caves then back into the organ-harvesting angle without capturing them merely to keep the plot line involved and decidedly giving off the inclusion of its rushed nature into the story. Otherwise, it's quite a fun and admittedly creepy creature feature.

Rated R: Violence, Brief Nudity and Language.

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.

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")