Part of the "Maneater Film Series," In the Spider?s Web is a thriller that is sure to make your skin crawl and the hairs on the back of your neck rise. When a team of backpackers sets out to explore the Indian jungles, on... more »e of them is bitten by a poisonous spider. Forced to seek the help of Dr. Lecorpus (3 time Golden Globe nominee Lance Henriksen, Aliens), an American physician living in a local village, the group quickly discovers that the village has several secrets. As they learn of a venomous ritual in which a crawling army of spiders feasts on dead corpses, they unravel Dr. Lecorpus involvement in the ritual and his plans which are beyond anything any of them could have imagined. Now available for the first on DVD, with its dense jungles, marauding natives, mad scientists, screaming teens, and amassing arachnids, In the Spider?s Web is a gleefully entertaining creep-fest that?s as tough to shake loose as a tarantula in your hair.« less
Joshua Koppel | Chicago, IL United States | 03/26/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"One day I watched a film called Night Feeders and found some real talent at work. I had a similar feeling with this film. Lance Henriksen (the only actor whose name is used in the packaging) is a mysterious doctor living with a jungle tribe. A jungle tour runs afoul of a spider and they go to the native village for medical help. These natives worship spiders as gods and Lance seems to have some similar feelings. Some of the tour stay in the village and some go back to civilization for additional help. Eventually we find out what Lance is up to and we get a pretty good resolution.
The story is not great but it has some interesting twists and traits. Like with Night Feeders an unexpected character rises to the top. This character is one of my current favorites from recent movies and shows that the makers were willing to try something different. The rest of the film is not as good as Night Feeders in originality and has a few problems. For some reason the natives who worship the spiders also eat them. In one scene Lance looks like he is participating, even chewing, although the effects team, or someone, let the spider be seen going right past his head instead of into his mouth. There is no explanation as to why the natives are helping Lance and he seems to have no real power over them. I guess they were going for a little Doctor Moreau. But overall it is an okay film and worth it for that one special character. Check it out."
Step Into My Parlor...
Zekeriyah | Chicago, IL | 05/24/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Yet another terrific outing from the Maneaters series, a collection of made for TV movies about animals going amok that originally aired on Sci Fi channel. That sentence, by the way, should give you some idea what to expect from this movie, in terms of budget, plot and... well pretty much everything else. Nonetheless, its an enjoyable movie. I mean, for $10 what do you expect, right?
So take your standard plot... a group of American teens go tramping about the jungles of India. One gets bit by a spider, goes to find a village doctor, and they get wrapped up in a mysterious spider worshipping cult that steals people's organs and sells them on the black market... All that, and you've got swarms of CGI-spiders running about. Oh, and of course plastic spiders and fake spider webbing too... you know, like the type you can buy as Halloween decorations. Despite the insanity of the movie, its actually pretty fun in a cheesy way. It also stars Lance Henriksen, which only added to the appeal for me.
I can only imagine the budget they must have had while filming this. Although set in India, my first guess would be that it was actually filmed in Thailand. Especially since theres only one Indian actor in the film, and the villagers look more like a bunch of people from Southeast Asia clad in loinclothes and turbans. Still, I didn't go into it looking for scientific or cultural accuracy. Its just a cheap 'animal attack of the week' type film, but a fun one at that. So keep up the good work, and look for more of the Maneaters movies, because thus far they've all been pretty good (or bad maybe)."
ARACHNOPHOBICS BEWARE
Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 11/09/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"There are LOTS of creepy crawly spiders in this average spider flick. Six backpackers on a vacation in some unnamed country stumble into a jungle with aome pretty vicious spiders. When one of them is bitten by a spider, they seek help from a reclusive mysterious doctor (Lance Henriksen, who seems to take any role these days), and they find all is not as it seems.
The plot tries for originality with its harvested organs storyline, but it's basically an exercise in let's get the heck out of here. The spider fx are pretty creepy and the movie has good production values. Fans of the genre should be sufficiently satisfied."
Could have been better
A. Belcher | NYC, NY | 10/22/2007
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I am a big fan of spider movies however this one was boring and unimaginative. Normally I fancy the moveies where there is at least one big spider that will terrorize the town or mountain range or what ever, in this case there was none, and the one guy who you thought might be a freak because his head was covered the whole movie when they finally unmasked him I have seen better makeup in 1950's B movies"
ANOTHER DECENT MANEATER FLICK
fmwaalex | Austin, TX USA | 10/21/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"IN THE SPIDER'S WEB
Another film in the "Maneater" series in fact I believe it is the second and to be honest it is actually enjoyable and not as horrible as others may say. When I first learned of this film it immediately had something going for it, and his name is Lance Henriksen. So naturally I had to not only see this but own it so of course I made it mine. Naturally it was me and my bro watching this and as expected Lance was great and the film was not so bad. I would not say this is the best in the series but it is kinda entertaining although towards the end it felt a bit long.
The movie follows a group of friends who are hiking threw a jungle when one of them is bitten by a spider. Almost immediately she starts to feel the effects so the guide recommends a tribe near by. This tribe's village is home to a doctor who is an expert is spiders because the tribe worships them. Dr. Lecorpus [Lance] begins to treat the girl as soon as they bring her and his methods are a little weird. Aside from that he seems normal and the friends decide to go back to the town to get more help. Two decide to stay behind with the girl and that is were things get interesting. The Doc says there is nothing they can do but wait so they should just hang out. With that said they decide to go hiking some more and look for a temple that up until now has been legend. When they find this place they may find their doom and the good doctor may be behind it.
Gary Dauberman did a pretty good job as far as the story goes because it is interesting and entertaining, he is also one of the writers of "Blood Monkey", another "Maneater" film. As for the direction that comes courtesy of Terry Winsor and he does a good enough job but I still feel like the film went a little to long but I do give them credit. Lance Henriksen as always is great as the Doctor in this at the village, he makes for a great creepy kinda villain. The young cast is surprisingly good well not all of them but for the most part they are good. The biggest surprise in this film is easily the guy that played the police officer that went in to help out the Americans. He did an excellent job on this film and they actually let him be not only a major player in this film but the hero really. He was probably my favorite in the film along with Lance. Also Lance's crazy brother is kinda weird, but it added a little something to it.
I would not say that this is the best movie ever or even the best of this series but it is entertaining enough. Like I said in my last review I would recommend this to lovers of this type of film but any body may like it if they give it a chance. Lance fans will be happy with his performance I think and he helps make this a decent nature run amuck flick. Give it a chance and at least catch it on SyFy on a rerun or something.