In the Spider's Web

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.

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.

Released to TV in 2007 and directed by Terry Winsor, "In the Spider's Web" stars Lance Henriksen as a dubious American doctor in the jungles of Northern India who seems to like arachnids a little too much. A group of American backpackers and their guide are forced to seek him out when one of their members is bit by a poisonous spider. Arachnid horror ensues.

This cartoony TV-horror flick has several things in its favor: Authentic jungle locations, plentiful spiders of various kinds (both real and CGI), Lance Henriksen and a winsome enough female lead (Emma Catherwood). The sets are good too, including the cave sets, although the ubiquitous webbing looks decidedly fake. As far as the authentic jungle locations go, the hikers are all obviously sweating in the sweltering forest heat. Yet it's obvious by the appearance of the Natives that this isn't Northern India, but rather 1200 miles around the corner in Thailand. There's only like one person who looks of Indian origin, which I suppose isn't a biggie for a TV flick.

Unfortunately, the story lacks drive despite the jungle action and ominous score (which is good, by the way). Moreover, I never cared about the characters; and Catherwood's cuteness only goes so far (she's actually a little thin for my tastes, but she's decent and definitely cute). There's a big reveal in the final act, but I predicted it at the half hour mark.

So there's a lot of good in this comic booky spider-horror movie, but it's brought down by its half-baked storytelling. The script needed serious work to flesh out its potential, but the producers didn't care enough to blow the money. They basically said, "That's good enough; let's shoot!" No, it wasn't.

The film runs 88 minutes and was shot in Krabi, Thailand. The screenplay was written by Gary Dauberman.

GRADE: C-

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.

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.