Venom (1975)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Absolutely brilliant

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

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!

To begin with, I first became aware of this film through the biographical notes on director Sykes residing among the supplements included on the Anchor Bay Special Edition DVD of Hammer's superior latter-day outing DEMONS OF THE MIND (1972).Despite its obvious low-budget, this obscure but stylish thriller with fantasy and erotic overtones is an impressive and assured piece of work in its own right – starting out as it does in black-and-white with the first attack of the "Spider Girl" (played by a Serbian actress with the awkward-sounding name of Neda Americ but whose looks are decidedly stunning) after some full-frontal nudity by way of watery lovemaking! The male protagonist (Simon Brent), then, is a sturdy and compelling character; also notable in the cast are the vicious mature-looking woman (Sheila Allen) who forcefully seduces the hero in a steamy but short-lived sequence, her wily first citizen father (Gerard Heinz), and her ill-tempered blond boyfriend (Derek Newar) – who's incongruously whipped at one point by his own cohorts! Various unexpected twists come to light during the lively climax which sees the emergence of a cross-dressing ex-Nazi – who turns out to be the father of the Spider Girl and is intent on resurrecting the Party in his remote countryside village through the sale of art treasures retrieved in World War II and which lay hidden in a local church ever since! This is a very rare item indeed: I acquired it in a full-frame edition (with forced Finnish subtitles to boot), which format renders the compositions overly claustrophobic at times!

**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.

In an opening scene in black and white with a blue tint to it, a young man and woman skinnydip together, and then go into the woods for a little sex. A large shadow of a spider looms, and the man is attacked. The woman has a birthmark or tattoo of a spider on her. There's seemingly some full-frontal nudity in a longshot, and there is toplessness despite the PG rating! Later there's some sadistic beatings and whippings. The Legend of Spider Forest almost makes this sound like it's for kids: nope!I watched this on a double-sided DVD as Spider's Venom (the other title is Virgin Terror). Unfortunately full-screen, and I had to actually zoom the picture out a bit since it went beyond the edges of the screen. Probably taken from a videotape rather than a film print, given a weird glitch about thirty-five minutes in. Additionally, the sound quality is awful - whoever did the transfer wasn't checking the levels and it's particularly bad when the music swells and some notes just become loud hums and there's pops and crackles. So "Miracle Pictures a Division of PMC Corp. - Delaware," thanks for releasing this, but what a terrible job you did!After the opening scene, the picture turns to color. Paul, a photographer/artist drives into a small German village and he manages to take a photo of the woman with the spider marking that he calls a scar. However, his pictures are stolen. He's met with a mixture of friendliness and hostility at the local pub. The mill owner shares a bottle of wine with him, and tries to interest him in his daughter. He does in fact wind up in bed with her shortly later, where they have a vigorous session, though it isn't graphic at all.Paul wants to find out who the young woman is, and the townspeople want him to leave. He knows that there had been some paintings, including a Bosch, that had disappeared during WWII from the church. He finds one by a fresh body in the forest, but they too disappear.The villagers do speak some German that isn't subtitled (putting us in Paul's shoes, I guess). The girl with the spider mark also sings some song in German as well.Eventually, the mystery is solved along with a bizarre bit of transvestism that adds nothing. Cue the big fire, so common in Gothic horror movies of the 60s and 70s. Not bad, but a better release is clearly needed for a real idea of the quality of the movie.