Toter hing im Netz, Ein |
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West Germany / Yugoslavia • 1960 • 89m •
  • Directed by: Fritz Böttger. • Starring: Harald Maresch, Helga Franck, Alexander D'Arcy, Helga Neuner, Rainer Brandt, Dorothee Parker, Gerry Sammer, Eva Schauland, Helma Vandenberg, Elfie Wagner, Barbara Valentin, Walter Faber. • Music by: Karl Bette, Willy Mattes.      En route to a show in Singapore, a troupe of beautiful dancers are stranded on a deserted island by a plane crash. Their routine of skinny-dipping and devising new skimpy outfits is interrupted when a radioactive spider bites their manager and turns him into a wild-eyed, furry-faced monster with three fangs and a passion for strangling.
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Review:
First, we must look at the change in characters once they reach the island. The island represents a separation from society (as in Lord of the Flies). The writer shows that civilization puts restraints on both males and females. The male characters, when separated from society quickly give into their animalistic, and violent tendencies. This is primarily represented by the transformation of the manager into a horrible abomination, but can also be witnessed by the fact that the two research assistants begin to fight after only one night on the island. The shift in females however is decidedly different. The females, instead of giving into their violent desires, gave into their sexual appetite, evidenced by well, pretty much every scene in the movie. The writer has therefore shown us that the root desires of mankind are summed up as two parts- sex and violence, chilling commentary indeed.
At the end of the film we see the manager sink into the mud as the dancers chase him into the mire. While this might seem silly and over the top, it is far from it. The dancers started working together, rather than embracing their desires, this action was symbolized by the flares, their light representing the light shed by wisdom. Thus, if we view the spiderman-monster as the darker parts of the human psyche, we can see that the light of knowledge pushes them off and takes away the threat they represent. The very end of the film is also potent with rich meaning. On the one hand, it shows that while humanity had triumphed in this situation, we're still sailing on a stormy sea. Now that these major aspects of symbolism have been discussed, let us look at the so called 'inconsistencies'
The goofs section listed the view of D'ary from a distance without his make-up on as a screw-up, but whoever said this is an idiot. Rather, it was to show us that when viewing individual cases it might look like men are ravaging beasts, however when we view the situation from the distance the image is quite the opposite. We see that rather than being a monster, he was simply a man desperately chasing after innocence, we see that when he finally reaches the innocence, it is inevitable that the end result is it's destruction (I highly suspect that the imagery of innocents falling from the cliffs in Catcher and the Rye were inspired directly from this movie).
The beginning leg scene might be construed as simply a cheap excuse to show off girls legs, but the truth is far deeper. It was showing us that legs are the vehicle we use to travel into the future and which are necessary to enter into (as well as escape) any situation that life takes us into.
When the dancers first leave on the venture, we see that they are in a typical transport plane, however when they crash it is a kamikaze plane. The reason for this is simple, when we leave on ventures, they may seem innocent enough- but can quickly lead to disaster if we don't watch our path. Indeed, they can go so far as to even kill the part of us that makes us human, in the movie the author shows this to be our human inhibitions.
I hope you have all come to view this film in a new light, and hold the appreciation for this movie that it truly deserves. Watching the movie I realized that many of the scenes directly inspired the famous blockbusters of our generation. Jurassic Park II from the scene where they're running through the brush, Signs from the scene with the corn in the background, Spiderman for the radioactive bite, Alien for the latching on of the radioactive spider on his throat, Frankenstein when they chase D'Avery with the torches, Flight of the Phoenix for the plane crash, Freedom Writers for the large female presence, ET the Extraterrestial for obvious reasons, and any movie involving the female double pimp slap (the slapper whapper). I am recommending that they show it in my college film class, and I hope all of you can do the same.
Review by facelessturtle from the Internet Movie Database.
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