It was horrible all right, but for the viewer! This is in a sense a non-movie, rather, it is just a bunch of stuff that was filmed and then loosely tied together in order to give the semblance of plot.
There are many problems with this film, and it has definitely earned its spot on the IMDb bottom 100 list. Let's discuss the major crimes this film commits:
(Spoilers, but hey, if you're here it's probably because you, like I, watched this on MST3K, so you already know what happens anyway...)
1. As most previous commentators have stated, there is only one mutant spider on the island. Not much is given to explain its creation, except there was some professor on the island who must have been fooling with radiation of genetics or something. (Science in the 50's was like magic in movies, there was no explanation for why it could mutate animals, it just did.)
2. After the guy (Gary) is bitten by the creature, he transforms into a spider-like monster (not really, more like a guy with clawed hands and a messed up face, but bear with me here). After he scares the girls on the island, he mysteriously vanishes for most the movie! I'm serious, the next 40 or so minutes is the girls doing things on the island while dressed erotically. And no, not even that redeems the film.
3. Two sailors show up on the island, which immediately prompts squabbles among the women over who belongs to who. Very misogynist, since everyone seems to like the guys who treats woman like objects. There are dances, group bathing and other various hijinks, all of which take place during the above mentioned 40 minutes of monster-less "horror." Not for one moment during this time is there mention of the monster, or even a feeling of fear among them. There is only pure, unadulterated hedonistic feelings of joy, save a good cat fight and fisticuffs between the two men.
4. This is a personal problem with the movie, but a major one for me nonetheless. When the monster finally reappears, he looks exactly like he did when we last saw him. What the hell?! I figured with all the time he spent off camera, he was probably mutating further. He was bitten by a mutant spider, for God's sake! He should have grown a couple extra sets of arms or something! But no, he just comes back on screen, same stupid make up, and kills two more people.
5. After discovering their two dead companions, the girls finally rally up the strength to hunt Gary down and destroy him. Maybe if they had done this to begin with, the last two people wouldn't have been killed. But then, I didn't like anyone in the movie anyway, so good riddance. Anyway, the chase Gary out to a field full of quicksand, which wasn't even shown or even mentioned previously in the movie, he sinks, he drowns, he dies. I really hate 'deus ex machina' endings. They rarely work, especially in bad b-movies. But it hastened the end of this movie, so whatever.
So, there you have it. The folks on the "Satellite of Love" made this watch much, much easier. Mike and the bots help was down this crap, but it still is tough to take.
1 star for the movie, which it's lucky to get that, and 8 for the MST3K version. Not the best episode, but still highly entertaining.
There are many problems with this film, and it has definitely earned its spot on the IMDb bottom 100 list. Let's discuss the major crimes this film commits:
(Spoilers, but hey, if you're here it's probably because you, like I, watched this on MST3K, so you already know what happens anyway...)
1. As most previous commentators have stated, there is only one mutant spider on the island. Not much is given to explain its creation, except there was some professor on the island who must have been fooling with radiation of genetics or something. (Science in the 50's was like magic in movies, there was no explanation for why it could mutate animals, it just did.)
2. After the guy (Gary) is bitten by the creature, he transforms into a spider-like monster (not really, more like a guy with clawed hands and a messed up face, but bear with me here). After he scares the girls on the island, he mysteriously vanishes for most the movie! I'm serious, the next 40 or so minutes is the girls doing things on the island while dressed erotically. And no, not even that redeems the film.
3. Two sailors show up on the island, which immediately prompts squabbles among the women over who belongs to who. Very misogynist, since everyone seems to like the guys who treats woman like objects. There are dances, group bathing and other various hijinks, all of which take place during the above mentioned 40 minutes of monster-less "horror." Not for one moment during this time is there mention of the monster, or even a feeling of fear among them. There is only pure, unadulterated hedonistic feelings of joy, save a good cat fight and fisticuffs between the two men.
4. This is a personal problem with the movie, but a major one for me nonetheless. When the monster finally reappears, he looks exactly like he did when we last saw him. What the hell?! I figured with all the time he spent off camera, he was probably mutating further. He was bitten by a mutant spider, for God's sake! He should have grown a couple extra sets of arms or something! But no, he just comes back on screen, same stupid make up, and kills two more people.
5. After discovering their two dead companions, the girls finally rally up the strength to hunt Gary down and destroy him. Maybe if they had done this to begin with, the last two people wouldn't have been killed. But then, I didn't like anyone in the movie anyway, so good riddance. Anyway, the chase Gary out to a field full of quicksand, which wasn't even shown or even mentioned previously in the movie, he sinks, he drowns, he dies. I really hate 'deus ex machina' endings. They rarely work, especially in bad b-movies. But it hastened the end of this movie, so whatever.
So, there you have it. The folks on the "Satellite of Love" made this watch much, much easier. Mike and the bots help was down this crap, but it still is tough to take.
1 star for the movie, which it's lucky to get that, and 8 for the MST3K version. Not the best episode, but still highly entertaining.