Horrors of Spider Island (1960)

You won't be disappointed!

Better Late Then Never

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A Gaston Hakim Production. Not copyright 1960 by Intercontinental Film/Rapid Film. U.S. release through Pacemaker Pictures: March 1962 (original 86-minutes version under the title It's Hot in Paradise), November 1965 (re-edited 75-minutes version). Released in West Germany in 1960 as Ein Toter hing im Netz. Alternative U.S. titles: Hot in Paradise, Girls of Spider Island, The Spider's Web, Body in the Web.SYNOPSIS: After their plane crashes into the ocean, a Hollwood talent scout, his secretary and six showgirls are stranded on a remote Pacific island. NOTES: A German movie, filmed on location in Nicola, Yugoslavia. COMMENT: It's sad to see a fine actor like Alex D'Arcy (How To Marry a Millionaire, Soldier of Fortune), reduced to acting in a German girlie movie that has now hit the airwaves as a somewhat tamer horror flick. Mind you, by the humble standards of both dubbed (D'Arcy at least provides his own voice) and "B" films, this entry in the monster cycle (cf. Wasp Woman) is not too uninteresting. In fact, the director manages to utilize his real locations to bring off a few adventurous effects. True, production credits mostly vary from typical Poverty Row shortcuts to merely competent craftsmanship, but at least there are plenty of showgirls to distract one's attention. In fact, it could be argued there are too many girls, for at least five of these young ladies look so alike, it's impossible to tell them apart.

A group of models is assembled by Alex D'Arcy to participate in a dancing troupe but the plane carrying them crashes into the ocean, leaving them stranded on an unforgiving island inhabited only by large, aggressive spiders. D'Arcy is promptly bitten and turns into a 'spider-man', hunting the beauties as they swan about in search of an escape.I recall seeing two spiders in the movie which is mostly centred on the strained relations between the prima donnas as they contend with the primitive surroundings, more accustomed to make-up, heels and chardonnay. The cast is virtually unknown (excepting the dashing D'Arcy), comprised of buxom, shapely blondes and brunettes of contrasting personalities.Containing a full-throttle girl fight undertaken with plenty of spite and venom, the action is otherwise pretty scarce, the makers preferring suggestive dirty dancing and teasing skinny dips in an attempt to keep the audience entertained (without success). Thin on plot, despite the scantily clad ladies, there's only so much long-legged ogling you can do before the whole saga becomes tiresome.

What a poor excuse for a horror movie. If you can even call it that. This movie might as well be under the romance/comedy section. All this movie shows are a group of bimbos trying to be sexy while prancing around on an island. You would think with a bunch of ditsy women and one man that there will be a lot of fun killing scenes. WRONG! There were about 7 girls and 1 guy, and only 3 of them get killed off! Including the guy....Oh how I was hoping all of them would get taken down one by one but that just didn't happen. Instead I waste more than an hour of my life staring at ditsy women get into cat fights, swim around, and endlessly flirt with any guy that comes along. It was mind numbing how NOTHING even happen! The first horror like thing that comes along is a nasty fake looking spider. Even though it looked so fake it still gave me the creeps. It's face was like a human mean old man's with sharp teeth, and giant black eyes. It's the only thing in the whole movie that weirded me out. The spider mutant comes along and bites someone and they turn into the mutant spider. About an hour of the movie goes by until anything remotely scary appears! In that one hour you see, like I said before, ditsy girls prancing around on the deserted island, pretty much doing nothing but being dumb and boring.I'm usually someone who doesn't like nudity, but nudity could have really saved this piece of crap. But I knew that wasn't gonna happen since this was the 60s and nudity was unheard of. I guess that's why they have so much sex and boobs nowadays, in case the movie turns out to be a pure crapfest.

This movie's idea is one for a regular porno movie; which, of course, you won't get here.HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND gets a nice sexy start, with a group of hot young women who seem intent on going to Singapore—as dancers: the blonde May, Rhonda, Babs with the golden legs—beautiful women in peril—which kind of comes directly from the pulps of weird menace and foretells a genre masterpiece like SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD (yeah, the script even has the uranium searchers).Getting lost with these young dancers on an island makes one happier than the Bounty mutineers. An exciting is conventional script is though spoiled by sheer incompetence, and also a cast of cute babes is thus wasted; the whole flick is blunt, badly made, it lacks the necessary sharpness and gusto, though I kind of enjoyed it.The last third of the movie is underachieved porn.'A real man is interested in only one girl.'