In the Spider’s Web (2007)

Directed by Terry Winsor [Other horror films: N/A]

This film came as a surprise to me. It shouldn’t have – I’ve technically seen it before – but as it’s been over ten years, much of this slipped my mind. After refreshing my memory, the biggest question is how I ever managed to get through this one the first time.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever said this, but I have arachnophobia. It doesn’t bother me when watching most spider-based horror films, as so many are laughably unrealistic, such as Spiders, Ice Spiders, Camel Spiders, Arachnoquake, or Lavalantula. If it’s a big, fake spider, I have no problems. Hell, even if it’s something like Eight Legged Freaks, I’m not too worried.

There are a few films that have gotten to me, among them Arachnophobia, Kingdom of the Spiders, Deadly Blessing (those tarantula scenes tho…) and definitely this one.

In the Spider’s Web is utterly awful for someone who doesn’t care for our eight-legged friends. True, toward the end, there are some hideously CGI spiders thrown in, along with some rather fake-looking webs, but for the most part, these spiders look rather realistic. There were plenty of scenes of spiders coming down on webs as people were walking through spider-infested caves, and it was just a horrible experience.

Aside from that, the story’s of moderate interest. There’s a shady American doctor (played by Lance Henriksen) living in an Indian village (technically, this film was made in Thailand, but us Americans are unlikely to tell the difference) and also seems to have an unhealthy relationship with spiders. I did appreciate the minor backstory we got on his character, but at the same time, the circumstances of how we found out was rather ridiculous.

So a woman is bitten by a spider on a jungle tour, and the guides bring her to this village, as they know a doctor’s here. Three of the tour members go back to a small town, and alert the police. It’s a small police station, so one of them goes to a nearby, albeit larger, town. While at that police station, he picks up an outdated newspaper, makes a joke about how old it is, and boom, on the front page is a story about Lance Henriksen’s character. And this happens just in time for the day to be saved come the finale.

So yeah, that was a wee bit far-fetched. If they just had a different newspaper on a table, the ending would have been a lot grimmer than it already was. It’s whatever – I sort of like the gumption – but it definitely felt a bit forced.

Lance Henriksen was okay, but unspectacular. To be honest, I think I see him too often (Pumpkinhead, Hellraiser: Hellworld, Mansion of the Doomed, and Gehenna: Where Death Lives, to name a few) for him to make a large impression, but whatever, he’s okay. Others that tended to be average include Emma Catherwood (Senseless, The Reeds, Spirit Trap), Michael Smiley (The Hallow, Tank 432, Censor, A Field in England, Kill List), and Lisa Livingstone (The Redwood Massacre, Ghosts of Darkness).

To be sure, Cian Barry (Nina Forever, Ghost Town) wasn’t great, but I wanted to mention that his character takes a somewhat unexpected route. What the finale does to his character is somewhat odd – he’s told to stay somewhere, to wait for help, but he doesn’t. Instead, he goes back into a cave full of spiders. I don’t know why – they didn’t give a reason. It led to a somewhat terrifying final scene, but it just felt odd.

Though he didn’t get a ton of screen-time, Mike Rogers seemed like a fun character. Most importantly, though, is Sohrab Ardeshir. Playing a local police sergeant of a small town, Ardeshir seems like a small character at first, but he actually not only becomes rather important to the plot, but also becomes the most likable character in the film. A solid, stand-up guy, I really like Ardeshir’s performance, and while I didn’t think much of the character at first, I totally dug him come the finale.

All of this is to say that, while the story here is a bit lacking – especially when concerning the brother of Lance Henriksen’s character, who wears a spider silk sack over his head – there’s definitely some charm to be found. Most of the spider effects look pretty good, save a few scenes toward the end, and there is a bit of an interesting story at times. It’s still not a good movie, and personally, if only due to the spiders, I didn’t necessarily enjoy myself, but I definitely feel it’s not half bad, and might be worth a watch if it sounds like your type of thing.

6/10