European films often went through an editing process to try and make them more commercial for American audiences but this German effort obviously went through more than one metamorphosis to become the clunky film it is now. Story is about a plane load of female dancers headed by the talent agent Gary Webster (Alex D'Arcy) and his faithful assistant Georgia (Helga Franck) and while on their way to Singapore they crash into the ocean. Everyone except the pilots survive and after floating in a raft for a few days they find an island to paddle to where they find fresh water and an old shack.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Inside the shack the girls and Gary find a dead scientist in a giant web which scares everyone but they figure out that the island is being used to mine uranium. One night Gary heads out for a walk and is bitten by a humongous spider which promptly turns him into a half man/half spider creature and now he prowls the area. 4 weeks later the troupe of girls are visited by Bobby (Rainer Brandt) and Joe (Harald Maresch) who are from the mining company and they tell them that they are going to be saved at last but while waiting for their ship to come Gary the spider monster starts attacking again.
This was partially directed by Fritz Bottger (aka Jaime Nolan) but in interviews actor D'Arcy stated that he took over control of the film and directed all the sequences involving the giant spider and the monster. Originally this was just going to be an exploitive nudie with a bunch of women on an island getting naked but all the nude scenes were edited out and it was changed to a horror film. It's too bad that the nudity didn't make the final cut because this attempt at a horror film needed more than a big puppet spider that looks like it belongs in a sketch with The Count from Sesame Street. There were a few things that I noticed while watching this and right off the bat it's hard not to catch the dreadful excuse at dubbing with actors and actresses moving their mouths to nothing! The cinematography is a complete joke and most of the shots have that low budget grainy look to it and the plane crash itself is just stock footage from another source. Speaking of the plane crash how could they all survive something like that? And while floating in the raft the women continue to wear their high heels! Couldn't they puncture the raft with those inappropriate shoes? Once they land on the island the character Gary starts exuding his male dominance by ordering all the females to do everything he says such as "Come girls, water", "That's enough, lets look around", "Come on girls". Gary and the rest of the men on the island take off their shirts and spend the duration of the scenes trying to suck their big guts in and on the first night in the shack one of the girls starts putting the moves on Gary and it takes Georgia to bust them up in which Gary exclaims "Damned heat, I don't know what I'm doing anymore". I had to laugh at the women who after landing on the island keep tripping and bumping into one another as they attempt to keep their high heels on and when they find some spare clothing in the shack they start to argue and Babs and Nelly get into a cat fight. Actress Barbara Valentin who plays the slutty Babs looks something like Jayne Mansfield and she would actually have a pretty good acting career and work several times with the great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. As far as being an exploitation/horror film this doesn't work on either level but it is a curio and those who are interested in early attempts at schlock might find this intriguing enough to warrant a viewing.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Inside the shack the girls and Gary find a dead scientist in a giant web which scares everyone but they figure out that the island is being used to mine uranium. One night Gary heads out for a walk and is bitten by a humongous spider which promptly turns him into a half man/half spider creature and now he prowls the area. 4 weeks later the troupe of girls are visited by Bobby (Rainer Brandt) and Joe (Harald Maresch) who are from the mining company and they tell them that they are going to be saved at last but while waiting for their ship to come Gary the spider monster starts attacking again.
This was partially directed by Fritz Bottger (aka Jaime Nolan) but in interviews actor D'Arcy stated that he took over control of the film and directed all the sequences involving the giant spider and the monster. Originally this was just going to be an exploitive nudie with a bunch of women on an island getting naked but all the nude scenes were edited out and it was changed to a horror film. It's too bad that the nudity didn't make the final cut because this attempt at a horror film needed more than a big puppet spider that looks like it belongs in a sketch with The Count from Sesame Street. There were a few things that I noticed while watching this and right off the bat it's hard not to catch the dreadful excuse at dubbing with actors and actresses moving their mouths to nothing! The cinematography is a complete joke and most of the shots have that low budget grainy look to it and the plane crash itself is just stock footage from another source. Speaking of the plane crash how could they all survive something like that? And while floating in the raft the women continue to wear their high heels! Couldn't they puncture the raft with those inappropriate shoes? Once they land on the island the character Gary starts exuding his male dominance by ordering all the females to do everything he says such as "Come girls, water", "That's enough, lets look around", "Come on girls". Gary and the rest of the men on the island take off their shirts and spend the duration of the scenes trying to suck their big guts in and on the first night in the shack one of the girls starts putting the moves on Gary and it takes Georgia to bust them up in which Gary exclaims "Damned heat, I don't know what I'm doing anymore". I had to laugh at the women who after landing on the island keep tripping and bumping into one another as they attempt to keep their high heels on and when they find some spare clothing in the shack they start to argue and Babs and Nelly get into a cat fight. Actress Barbara Valentin who plays the slutty Babs looks something like Jayne Mansfield and she would actually have a pretty good acting career and work several times with the great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. As far as being an exploitation/horror film this doesn't work on either level but it is a curio and those who are interested in early attempts at schlock might find this intriguing enough to warrant a viewing.