This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Released in 1971 (but not until '75 in the USA), "Spider's Venom" (aka "The Legend of Spider Forest" and "Venom") is a mystery/horror about an artist (Simon Brent) who stumbles upon a village with secrets in the Black Forest, Germany: A beautiful redhead (Neda Arneric) frolics the local woods and seemingly leads men to their deaths, but people in the hamlet only willingly speak of it in hushed tones late at night when the fires burn low. The tangled web includes lethal spiders, neurotoxin and mad Nazi doctors. Sheila Allen is also on hand.The protagonist looks like an early 70's rock star (e.g. Jim Morrison) and I noticed an early 70's rock/prog rock soundtrack during the tavern sequence (think Jethro Tull or ELO). Arneric is a serious cutie and there's some tame, tasteful nudity. I favor the haunting backwoods European mood. It was directed by Peter Sykes, whose next film would be Hammer's "Demons of the Mind (1972); he also directed Hammer's penultimate "To the Devil a Daughter" (1976) and, believe it or not, "The Jesus Film" (1979).Unfortunately, the editing is amateurish, like a lot of 70's low-budget Euro flicks; it's just awkwardly done and takes you right out of the movie. Pictures like this make you praise Hammer Films in all their low-budget glory. Also, the DVD that I viewed (which is probably the only form of the movie available) had terrible audio and I could only make out about 50% of the dubbed verbiage; no kidding.The film runs 97 minutes and was shot at Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England with establishing shots of the Alps. WRITERS: Derek Ford & Donald Ford, with additional dialogue by Christopher Wicking. GRADE: C

With Halloween coming up,I started talking to a family friend about Horror movies that he was looking for.Telling me about an interesting-sounding title that he had spotted when leaving HMV,I searched round the films alt titles and finally found the DVD being sold at a good price on Amazon UK,which led to me getting ready to enter the spider forest.The plot:Visiting a German village in order to take some wild life photos, photographer Paul Greville spots a mysterious girl in the woods with a scar that looks like a spider on her shoulders.Attempting to get more info from the villagers about the stranger, Greville finds himself being completely stopped in his tracks,with the towns people whispering that any man who gets near the girl is doomed to die.Pressing the town leaders, Greville is told that the mysterious figure is a "troubled girl" called Anna,who he should forget about if he knows what is best for him. Desperate to discover what Anna's "curse" is, Greville starts to investigate the webs of the towns peoples secret and lies.View on the film:Dipping the opening scene in green tint,director Peter Sykes & cinematographer Peter Jessop give the German village a lush,Folk Horror appearance,with the warm greens and yellows of the woods allowing the deadly spiders (and deadlier humans) to lurk hidden in the background.Hitting Greville's (played by a rugged Simon Brent)battles with the villagers with a firm thump,Sykes gives the final spiders webs an unexpected, pristine Sci-Fi shine,as Greville untangles the web of Anna's "curse."Stepping on all the villagers toes,the screenplay by Christopher Wicking and Derek & Donald Ford digs into a paranoid Folk Horror vein,as Greville's obsession with learning more about Anna leads to him brushing against the hushed myths of the village,and the rulers of the town who want to keep those myths crawling.Whilst the turn into Sci- Fi for the final cobweb is unexpected,the writers layer the paranoia on the lead villagers shoulders and deliver a deliciously strange final web.

Quite a curio this.'Legend of The Spider Forest' is partly shot in what appears to be the picturesque Bavarian mountains, concerning the bizarre, esoteric legend of the deadly Spider Woman; played by the truly delicious Nada Arneric. Various libidinous young men are dying in the uber spooky forest; is it really the dastardly machinations of the nubile Arneric or is there something far more sinister afoot? Throw in the ubiquitous mad German scientist and you have a giddy mish- mash of unctuous horror goodness that is bound to appeal to most Brit horror completists!

**SPOILERS** Almost incomprehensible horror movie that goes into so much detail about this crazy mad scientist and his equally nutty daughter that you get lost in just what it's supposed to be about in the first place. We see at the start of the movie in a dream-like sequence Paul and Anna skinny dipping in a lake and then romping and making out in the grass, stark naked, as their suddenly attacked by this unseen shadowy figure. The camera then pans to Anna's chest and we see this black spider tattoo.You assume that Paul was killed before the credits are even over but then we see him driving in the German countryside and running into Anna who he photographs. Anna very upset at her picture being taken runs off in the wood and Paul, in a state of confusion, drives into the first town that he come too. It's here that Paul finds out that the town's most respected and richest man Huber is interested in his pictures and uses his creepy daughter Hellen to bed Paul down in his hotel room in order to steal them.The movie never explains what the connection between Paul and Anna is and why are both Huber and Ellen so interested in Paul? Were also never told what did the opening sequence have to do with the rest of the movie anyway? We get some idea of what's going on when we start to see Huber involved with spiders and spider venom in his lab and that he uses the expensive paintings, that he stole after the war, from the local church to secretly sell to unscrupulous art dealer in order to finance his experiments. Were never really told what he's attempting to do with the venom and why. it seems that he's trying to create a super powerful poison & nerve gas agent to either revive his beloved Third Reich but we never really know for sure if Huber is a fugitive fanatical Nazi or not or if he just wants to sell his super poison WMD, Weapon of Mass Destruction, to the highest bidder just to enrich himself.The movie "Venom" goes on with Paul finding that Huber's saw mill that employs almost everyone in town is being used to saw people, who are killed by the "Spider-Girl" Anna, to pieces and then have their bodies, or whatever's left of them, disposed of.There's a number of locals working for both Huber & Ellen led by this not so bright thug Johann who always slips up and is such a burden on Haber's & Ellen's work with the spiders that he's viciously whipped on Hellen's orders. later Johann get's his revenge on Ellen by beating her head in and leaving her for dead as hundreds of deadly spiders break loose from their cages in Haber's lab."Venom" totally disintegrates, literally, at the end with almost everyone going up flames including what seem to be Anna's mother or guardian Frau Kessler. With the now totally insane Huber, doing an imitation of Anthony Perkins at the end "Psycho", looking like his face was badly stung by his spiders who were just as outraged at his experiments with them as the audience was in being conned, through false advertisements on the DVD box, into watching the movie. You watch "Venom" expecting something to happen and all you get is a number of unrelated scenes and people, what exactly did that bunch of thugs working for Huber have to do with the movie anyway? You also never get any intelligent answer to just what Anna had to do with Huber's experiments only getting some kind of lame explanation that she's being used by him like some kind of a scarecrow to scare people away from town in order to keep them from finding out about his secret experiments. Anna if anything else attracted Paul to the town and his being there spelled the end for Huber his daughter Hellen Frau Kessler and the rest of the gang of vicious and drunken hoodlums, including Johann, who worked for them.