In the Spider’s Web is another title that is part of RHI Entertainment’s Maneater DVD series and unlike Blood Monkey; In the Spider’s Web was actually a Saturday night Sci-fi channel original movie. The film was also shot on location in Thailand just like Blood Monkey was and one can only wonder if they were both shot on the same set or location.
One can look at this film as kind of an unofficial prequel of sorts to Arachnophobia. Lets just say it’s more or less a story if the spider didn’t leave the jungle and end up in suburbia. The film follows a team of backpackers who set out to hike though and explore the jungles of India. When one of them is bit by a poisonous spider and dies; the group is forced to get help from a local scientist named Dr. Lecorpus (Lance Henriksen, Aliens). However, the village in which the good doctor is living in has a group of people who practice bizarre rituals which include the spiders of the jungles. Now it’s just a matter of time before each member of the group becomes an victim to these rituals.
Believe it or not the script was promising, it had this kind of weird and bizarre story going, and the pacing of the story worked very well. The dialogue was a bit choppy here and there, but it gave the movie the “B” feel it needed to get over as another low rate monster film. Overall it’s not a bad script but nothing perfect either. It had it’s up and downs but for the most part held it’s own.
The film’s directing and acting pretty much go hand in hand. While you can never really rate a B-movie acting as being the best acting in the world, I will give credit to the cast for doing a decent job with the script. So of the line and deliveries of them came out a bit off and resulted in a shake of the head and a moan from myself, but hey what am I supposed to expect from a low budget film such as this. Lance Henriksen of course was good in his role, but something tells me this was just another pay check for him. Movies like this never really result in the best of everything, and the acting is one place where this film had it’s up and downs.
Surprisingly this film’s production was a lot better than most Sci-fi original films. While the CGI and visuals still looked fake, they were not as bad as they were in the majority of the films Sci-fi channel has produced. The spiders actually really didn’t look half bad. The locations and sets were pretty cool looking but I did feel that some of the make-up and costumes looked a bit out of place. I also felt that the sets themselves were a bit under dressed. The film does have it’s fare share of blood and some guts here and there but nothing to crazy.
Overall, like I said in my review of the first title of RHI Entertainment’s Maneater DVD series Blood Monkey, you really need to be a fan of these films to really like them. In the Spider Web was a little bit better than Blood Monkey production value wise, however I did like the story of Blood Monkey a lot more. It’s a crapshoot your either a fan of films of low budget creature films or your not. Personally I’m a big fan of the classic creature features, but these film just fail in their overall realism and effects to impress me.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
