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      The Spiders

      Released Nov 8, 1979 2h 10m Horror List
      100% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 60% Audience Score 100+ Ratings An explorer looking for an Incan diamond must stay ahead of the Spider Cult which wants it for nefarious purposes. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (6) Critics Reviews
      Roger Moore Movie Nation Seen today, “The Spiders” can seem a pretty primitive affair. Racial attitudes and racial depictions flirt with being cringeworthy...It’s still fascinating to any film buff to see the sort of ambitious work Lang was attempting in his 20s Rated: 2.5/4 Jan 28, 2023 Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row Even in 1919, Lang's mastery of the medium was clearly visible. Rated: 3.5/4 Aug 6, 2019 Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid It's apparent that Lang was enjoying himself on this production, and the fact that he returned to the genre forty years later is also telling. Mar 9, 2012 Full Review Michael E. Grost Classic Film and Television Inventive silent adventure. Jul 18, 2009 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Lang made the story exuberant and exotic. Rated: B- Feb 19, 2007 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 4/5 Jul 22, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Fun Fritz Lang frolic is better than the second part. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member I liked this well..It's old but really captivating and keeps you intrest thoughtout the film. I will see part 2 soon, it's very old at least to say but It's LANG! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Early Fritz Lang action epic was meant to be a four part serial, and too bad the final two parts never materialized, because Carl de Vogt as Kay Hoog is a genuine action star, suave and indefatigable, and these first two parts aren't short on suspense. Sure the editing is choppy, partly due to the fact that the film was lost for years, and only resurfaced fifty years later in bad shape, but Lang had probably seen enough Griffith by 1919 to know how to string together action and intrigue (and some cringe-worthy Asian stereotyping) to make it a smooth two-plus hours. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member I'd love to give this film its proper credit in cinematic history (like some of my fellow movie lovers have done) as being one of Fritz Lang's lesser known masterpieces and the obvious progenitor of the action/adventure genre that led to Indiana Jones. I say I'd like to, but I can't; the flick is an umitigated mess. Given..not all of this is Lang's fault. Movies were still quite new at the time. A reliable body of cinematic tricks and stylistic editing choices had not yet been established. The Spiders is so full of non-sequitur transitions that, despite its novel attempt to control the story's flow, the editing renders the plot confusing at best, incomprehensible at worst. Lang also chose to use colored filters to tint nearly every scene in the flick. At first, I thought there was a reason behind the hues...say bad guys were always filmed in greens and blues and good guys in yellows and reds. Not so. Then I thought that maybe the colors differentiated the exotic locations in the story. Nope. Scene transitions? Night and day? Flashbacks? No, no, and no. The one thing Lang's color filtered panoply did elicit from me was an emotional response...I began to hate Fritz Lang for his arbitrary and non-sensical use of colored filters. And as far as editing savvy goes, Chaplin and Lloyd's film companies had already produced a series of very satisfying - and far more comprehensible - short films. If you want to see Lang at his best, avoid The Spiders and watch Metropolis instead. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member The Indiana Jones of the silent era! Really amazing score, with a lot of pipe organ. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Wealthy adventurer fights against criminal organization. Earliest surviving Lang movie(s) contain many scenes and themes that reappear throughout his Weimar films. This movie serial was originally planned for four parts but was made in two, with the pace of the second movie suddenly feeling rushed. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Spiders

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis An explorer looking for an Incan diamond must stay ahead of the Spider Cult which wants it for nefarious purposes.
      Director
      Fritz Lang
      Screenwriter
      Fritz Lang
      Distributor
      LS Video
      Production Co
      Decla-Bioscop AG, Decla-Film-Gesellschaft Holz & Co.
      Genre
      Horror
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Nov 8, 1979, Wide
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Mar 9, 2016
      Runtime
      2h 10m