- Source: Horrors of Spider Island
Horrors of Spider Island (German: Ein Toter hing im Netz, "A Corpse Hung in the Web") is a 1960 West German horror film written and directed by Fritz Böttger, and produced by Gaston Hakim and Wolf C. Hartwig for Rapid-Film/Intercontinental Filmgesellschaft. The film stars Alexander D'Arcy as Gary Webster, a talent agent who invites several women to a club in Singapore. Their plane ride ends abruptly when they crash-land into the ocean. Webster and the women make their way to an island where they find a large spider web. A giant spider sinks its teeth into Webster, turning him into a mutant.
The film was released in the United States in 1962, and has been released with various English titles including It's Hot in Paradise, Hot in Paradise, Girls of Spider Island, Horror On the Spider Island and Spider's Web.
Plot
Gary Webster (Alexander D'Arcy), a nightclub manager, flies a group of women from New York City to dance in his club in Singapore. While flying over the Pacific Ocean, their plane catches fire, splits in half, and plummets into the ocean. The group is next seen a few days later, suffering from dehydration on a life raft, before they finally spot a small island and stagger to dry land.
Having discovered fresh water, they explore the island and come across a cabin. Inside, they discover a dead man caught in a large spider web. According to his journal, the man was a Professor Green researching and mining for uranium, but he feared something terrible was about to happen to him. There's no indication how long the professor planned to be on the island, but the women estimate there is enough food to last them about a month.
That night, Gary ventures out alone when he is bitten by a giant spider and turns into a spider-man beast. He flees into the woods, leaving the women to wonder what has happened to him. Driven by uncontrollable violent urges, Gary kills one of the women the next day. Unaware of what has happened to him, the remaining women fail to connect the dots.
Twenty-eight days pass, and the women are running low on food when they spot a ship on the horizon. They are unable to signal it before it leaves, but two men, Joe and Bobby, arrive in a rowboat with supplies for the professor. As they all wait for the ship's scheduled return, they celebrate their last night on the island with a wild party. One of the men sneaks off to rendezvous with a woman, but both end up being killed by Gary. Finally aware of Gary's mutation, the survivors hunt him down with torches until he flees into quicksand and dies.
Cast
Source:
Production
The film was shot between October and November 1959 on location in Yugoslavia. Georg Krause, who previously shot Stanley Kubrick's 1957 anti-war classic Paths of Glory, served as the cinematographer, with Heidi Genée editing.
Producer Hartwig decided that in order to have a horror exploitation winner, the film only needed a monster and semi-nude women.
Release
The film was shown in Berlin on April 16, 1960. Pacemaker Pictures distributed the film in the United States, originally under the title It's Hot in Paradise in March 1962 with an 86-minute running time. It was later released with the Horrors of Spider Island title as part of a double feature with The Flesh and the Fiends in November 1965 with a 75-minute running time.
Reception and legacy
Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, calling it a "well-photographed sex film, typical of the period", with sci-fi elements almost casually tossed in. Allmovie also gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "while the primary purpose of this German-made oddity is to show scantily clad women imperiled by a decidedly male beast, it's also attractively photographed, and several scenes (most notably, Gary's first post-bite attack, and his final flight through a swamp) deliver a frisson not usually found in nudie-cutie/monster movie hybrid". Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror! panned the film, writing, "No matter which mode it's in, the film is mostly incompetent. Shots are staged with little imagination, the (presumably) stock music is often incongruous with what's on the screen, and the acting turns are woeful". Gallman also criticized the film's poor dubbing, monster design and frequent day for night sequences.
Mondo Digital.com gave the film a mixed review, complimenting its atmosphere while acknowledging the film's faults, stating, "While watchable even in its shortest version, Horrors of Spider Island becomes a delirious experience with the added nude swimming footage. The atrocious dubbing contains some of the more quotable one-liners around, while D'Arcy's weird but decidedly non-threatening monster makes up for the decided lack of actual arachnids on screen".
George R. Reis from DVD Drive-In.com, however, gave the film a positive review, commending the film's climax as "moody" and "well-photographed".
It was featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1999.
See also
List of films in the public domain in the United States
List of German films of the 1960s
List of horror films of 1960
References
Notes
Bibliography
Munden, Kenneth White (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog: Feature Films, 1961-1970, Part 2. University of California Press. ISBN 0520209702.
Reid, John Howard (2007). Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema: Classic Films of Horror, Sci-Fi & the Supernatural. Lulu. ISBN 978-1430301134.
External links
Horrors of Spider Island at IMDb
Horrors of Spider Island at AllMovie
Toter hing im Netz (Horrors of Spider Island) Horrors of Spider Island at Rotten Tomatoes
Horrors of Spider Island is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
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