Review of Horrors of Spider Island (1960) by Michael W — 13 May 2013

Mill Creek's 50 Movie Pack: Chilling Classics Reviews.

THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND, (Original German title) EIN TOTER HING IM NETZ (Translation: 'A CORPSE HUNG IN THE WEB'),IT'S HOT IN PARADISE [1960/1962/1965]: A 1960 West- German Adult, Horror, Science Fiction Nudie Movie that was dubbed & realised into the U.S.A in 1962 as the adult feature IT'S HOT IN PARADISE. Then three years later was trimmed of its nudity was again re-re realised in 1965 as the now cult classic THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND. Which due to its bizarre, cheesy, campy nature was a perfect fit as the bad movie fodder for the cult T.V movie show MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (MST3K).

THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND the (thankfully) nude free, English Dub of EIN TOTER HING IM NETZ now enjoys a new life as a Cult B-movie daring thanks to its MST3K appearance today. Why you might ask? Well that is due to the sight of the creatures, the deadly spider & the humanoid spider creature. Trust me just Google for images of said "monster" to see what I mean. SPIDER ISLAND is truly an excuse in inept filmmaking for the sake of well "naked" damsels being terrorised by some idiot in bad grease paint make-up with a crude spider puppet.

THE PLOT: (which I use the broadest term) sees a plane load of Showgirls & their sleazy manager crash land on guess what? Answer: A remote Island. However manager gets bitten by Mr. Spider Puppet and becomes............ (Must resist the reference) Spider Man; (no wait a minute) the man in the bad make up. As I have previously mentioned the creature terrorizes the showgirls. But that doesn't matter because two Sailors show up and woo the poor defenseless women and oh yeah deal with Mr. Spider!

THOUGHTS: Starting life off as a sleazy Male chauvinistic wet dream with the element of "horror" behind it; EIN TOTER HING IM NETZ, IT'S HOT IN PARADISE or THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND is a terribly campy monster film that is neither sexy nor scary as what the producers thought it was back in 1960, 1962 or 1965 or whenever the hell the idea came to them. For the record this review is about the 1965 nude free version this film which despite putting its clothes back on the characters still has a very sleazy vibe about it. With for good measure a monster that hell deserves its place alongside every goofy looking monster committed to celluloid. So my rating for what-ever-you-call-it is a much deserved 40% or four rubber spiders out of a potential ten.