Horrors of Spider Island [Blu-ray]

Overview

This German-Yugoslav coproduction first surfaced in 1960 under the title Ein Toter Hing Im Netz. Egyptian leading man Alex D'Arcy plays a talent agent who escorts seven gorgeous chorus girls to a club date in Singapore. En route, their plane crash-lands in the ocean. D'Arcy and the girls make their way to a seemingly idyllic island, where they come across a huge spider's web-and the dessicated body of a scientist. The giant spider sinks its teeth in D'Arcy, turning the poor fellow into a werewolf! Then the fun begins, depending upon your idea of fun. Released in America to general distinterest in 1962, It's Hot in Paradise fared no better a few years later, when it was recut and retitled Horrors of Spider Island.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/16/2020
UPC:	0663390003336
Original Release:	1960
Source:	Severin
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	23,097

Special Features

Closed Caption; Alternate U.S. release version- It's Hot In Paradise; The History of Spider Island - With Prof. Dr. Marcus Stigleger; Audio Interview with Actor Alexander D'Arcy by Horror Historian David Del Valle; Alternate Clothed Scenes; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alex D'Arcy	Gary Webster
Barbara Valentine	Babs
Allen Turner	Robby
Temple Foster	Joe
Donna Ulsike	Linda
Norma Townes	Gladys
Helga Franck	Georgia
Rainer Brandt	Actor
Harald Maresch	Actor
Barbara Valentin	Actor
Dorothee Glocklen	Actor
Helga Frank	Actor
Helga Neuner	Actor
Gary Sammer	Actor
Eva Schauland	Actor
Helma VanDenBerg	Actor
Elfie Wagner	Actor
Walter Faber	Actor
Karl Bette	Composer
Willy Mattes	Composer

Technical Credits

Fritz Bottger

Eldon Howard

Albert G. Miller

Fritz Bottger	Screenwriter,Director
Eldon Howard	Screenwriter
Albert G. Miller	Screenwriter
Wolf C. Hartwig	Producer
Gaston Hakim	Producer

Editorial Reviews

A plane crash strands eight showgirls and their manager Gary (Alex D'Arcy of The Prisoner of Zenda, 1937) on a seemingly deserted tropical island. Despite their discovery of a corpse hanging in an oversized spider's web, the ladies blithely busy themselves with bouts of sunbathing and skinny-dipping, while Gary traverses the island. His exploration earns him a bite from an enormous spider, which transforms into a slavering creature with a newfound appetite for dancers. While the primary purpose of this German-made oddity is to show scantily clad women imperiled by a decidedly male beast, it's also attractively photographed, and several scenes (most notably, Gary's first post-bite attack, and his final flight through a swamp) deliver a frisson not usually found in nudie-cutie/monster movie hybrids (e.g., House on Bare Mountain, 1962). Pacemaker Pictures distributed the film in the United States, first as an adults-only feature under the title It's Hot in Paradise, and later, in a slightly "cooler" print under the Spider Island moniker, which played as part of a double bill with 1959's The Fiendish Ghouls (aka Mania). Image Entertainment and Something Weird Video's DVD is the uncut Paradise version, and includes a trio of spider-themed stripper/cheesecake shorts, as well as an eye-popping gallery of exploitation poster art.

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