Line #46 Film/HorrorsOfSpiderIsland


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horrors_of_spider_island_poster.png]]
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3	''(The) Horrors of Spider Island'' is a 1961 ExploitationFilm.
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5	A troupe of dancers is assembled in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity for a special performance in UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}. Unfortunately, their plane crashes and the survivors (the troupe plus their manager Gary and his assistant Georgia) become castaways on an island. A little exploration reveals that the island used to be the home of a scientist mining for uranium, before he was killed by spiders. One night Gary gets bitten by a spider and turns into a spider-monster, stalking his former friends and killing them.
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7	The film was a German flick, but represented an interesting midpoint in cinema between the traditional horror film and the nudie cuties that would pop up in the early-to-mid 60's that would lead to the eventual creation of the MPAA ratings.
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9	For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version, please go to the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S10E11HorrorsOfSpiderIsland episode recap page]].
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11	----
12	!!''Horrors of Spider Island'' contains the following tropes:
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14	* AllMenArePerverts: The moment they hit the island, Gary starts hitting on everyone. He blames the heat. Sure, Gary. Meanwhile, after Gary's gone, the Professor's assistants arrive -- one of them decides to try to do every girl on the island, including ''his best friend's new love interest''.
15	* AllWomenAreLustful:
16	** The ladies are stranded on an island, one of the only competent members of their group has gone missing, and the food's running out. When two average-looking men show up, you'd think the ladies would have bigger concerns than seducing them, but, well... The guys ''do'' bring food and supplies with them (they were resupplying the scientist who lived on the island), but forgetting about their missing friends is harder to justify.
17	** As Mike and the bots proved, when you're in a plane crash, you instantly become languid, helpless, and sex-starved, and you murmur and coo a lot.
18	* AsYouKnow: Bob and Joe clumsily provide exposition they should already know and not discuss: they're working for a professor and bring his scheduled supplies.
19	* BatDeduction: When the other women find the body of Linda, the stripper, they find marks on her neck that indicate she's been strangled and immediately come to the conclusion that "the spider" had done it. Disregarding the fact that spiders generally ''poison'' their prey, not ''strangle'' them, the spider did try to strangle Gary, but they had no way of knowing that the spider is a strangling spider.
20	* DistinctionWithoutADifference: "There's absolutely no reason yet to fear the worst. Until now, we only know that the plane caught fire and we've lost radio contact."
21	* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Joe and Anne. It starts with him saying he's glad her plane crashed (so he could meet her), and, well, if this movie were more competently written it ''would'' get worse, but the bit ends rather lamely.
22	* EasilyForgiven: Bob and Joe get into a nasty fistfight over the latter impugning the honor of the former's girl -- and laugh about it right after.
23	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
24	** Linda the stripper gets two: first, when she starts smoking whilst sitting beneath a prohibitive sign (even going so far as to take the sign off the wall and sit on it), showing her casual contempt for rules and procedure; second, when she goes in for her audition, she immediately begins stripping, with no prompting whatsoever.
25	** Gary enters the office and promptly demonstrates that he will '''not''' be DistractedByTheSexy, covering one dancer's legs and taking Linda's cigarette from her, showing that he's all business. (He does lose this a bit once they get to the island, though.)
26	* FailedASpotCheck: Plenty of easy ways to get killed by spiders by remaining unaware of surroundings.
27	* {{Fanservice}}:
28	** There's lots of scantily clad women in this movie. However, in the bathing scene, they wear light-colored body stockings. So they're nude, but they're not!
29	** The auditions themselves have the girls showing off their legs and getting nearly naked. Only two of the auditions for a dance troupe actually involve dancing.
30	* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: At least in the dub. The late professor's gun is an automatic pistol that is exclusively referred to as a "revolver" by the characters. One even does so just before ''inserting a magazine'', all but forcing viewers to notice the mistake.
31	* IdiotBall: One of the dancers asks if you can eat uranium. It's possible she's being sarcastic (i.e., finding food should be their first priority), but the acting leaves a little something to be desired.
32	* TheImmodestOrgasm: The moans from the sun-stricken dancers sound... erotic. {{Lampshaded}} and deconstructed by Mike and the 'bots.
33	* KillItWithFire: They somehow deduce that spider-Gary can only be destroyed with fire, so they drive him into [[QuicksandSucks quicksand]] by brandishing torches. Which means he wasn't destroyed by fire at all.
34	* LadykillerInLove: The movie appears to be trying to pull this off with Bob and Gladys, but the clumsy execution only succeeds in making Bob look like an indecisive {{Jerkass}}.
35	* LegoGenetics: They don't even bother to explain how or why radiation makes spiders mutate, or why their bites turn you into a werespider. Other than uranium deposits being nearby, and that's barely a HandWave.
36	* LoveAtFirstSight: Minutes after her first meeting with Bob (which involved him grabbing her while she was skinny-dipping), Gladys begins to consider marrying him.
37	* MonsterMisogyny: Kind of hard to avoid when the only two other guys come to the island in the last third of the film. 3 of the 4 men on the island end up getting killed.
38	* MoodWhiplash: In the ''[=MST3K=]'' version of the film (which differs from other prints), the girls escape the island to some easy-going music, then "THE END" abruptly appears on a black screen, accompanied by a creepy, dissonant music cue.
39	--> '''Tom:''' So, you want to end your movie ''that'' way, huh? Okay, get bent, we're outta here.
40	* NoEnding: Well, sort of. There's a shot of the girls leaving the island on a boat, then the film just... stops.
41	* NuclearMutant: Just being ''vaguely near'' uranium deposits is enough to make spiders into giant mutants.
42	* OfficialCouple: Gary was closer to Georgia than a boss and secretary normally are until Gary got spiderized.
43	* OffscreenCrash: The plane crash. One moment the plane is coming down, a few ocean scenes later they're all on the raft.
44	* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Gary gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and rather than [[ComicBook/SpiderMan becoming a superhero]], he turns into a vicious human-spider hybrid monster.
45	* PlotArmor: The only way that the women and the talent agent were able to survive the flaming, nose-down, off screen plane crash -- with nary a scratch, while the pilots and any other crew or passengers don't survive.
46	* QuicksandSucks: Spider Gary is ultimately killed when he's led into a patch of quicksand. Somewhat justified in that the quicksand in question is at the bottom of a pond; it's possible Gary simply got his feet bogged down, fell beneath the water's surface and drowned.
47	* TheScourgeOfGod: Spider-Gary's first victim is the lone stripper of the group, who previously threw herself at Gary and only managed to get slapped by an angry Georgia.
48	* {{Sexophone}}: Heard whenever one of the dancers acts sexy, even when she's by herself.
49	* ShowSomeLeg: TheMovie. During the odd auditions for dancers, it's the first thing Gary asks of the first dancer. Which gets her a job. Something tells us that he's not hiring ''dancers'' to go to ''Singapore''. The one classically trained dancer ''gets turned away''.
50	* SmartBall: When the group finds a hammer, Gary correctly says that since it's got a long handle it's a mining hammer, probably used for mining radioactive elements like uranium.
51	* SoftWater: Because it's easy to survive a plane falling nose-first into water, uninjured.
52	* VitriolicBestBuds: Joe and Bob can speak honestly to each other, have a good laugh after a fistfight, and [[spoiler:Joe takes a moment to mourn Bob's death after finding his body]].
53	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Gladys's dancing partner Doreen is hired by Gary alongside Gladys and then disappears from the film without a mention.
54	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The only thing spiderized Gary shows any fear towards is fire. The second a torch is lit, he flees in terror.
55	* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: Linda strips to her unmentionables during her "audition" as a "dancer".

Context Film / HorrorsOfSpiderIsland