Curse of the Black Widow

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW

A phenomenal 1977 made-for-TV production that proves a smart script can overcome the limitations of a small budget, Curse of the Black Widow follows a private investigator named Mark Higbie who (with the help of a sassy female assistant called Flaps) struggles to unravel the mystery behind a series of unusual murders.  Higbie concludes (correctly) based on the evidence at hand that the perpetrator is a woman who sometimes transforms into a giant spider.  He’s initially hired by the fiancée of a fellow who gets offed in the prologue, but he discovers a pattern of similar killings going back at least three years.  While the police struggle to cover up the existence of a huge murderous spider, Higbie pieces together a string of clues that lead him to believe that the monster is either the woman who hired him (Leigh Lockwood) or her sister Laura.  Higbie sets out to destroy the creature before it claims any additional victims.

With special effects that are merely passable rather than state-of-the-art, Curse of the Black Widow relies on a well-paced plot laced with humorous moments and some utterly disturbing concepts to keep the viewer hooked.  The dialogue is often sharp (particularly the banter between Higbie and Flaps), and much of the imagery toward the end (human skeletons in giant spider webs) is the stuff of nightmares.  I predict that at some point in the future an astute Hollywood producer will exploit the clever story contained in this made-for-TV gem to generate a big-screen remake.  The identity and motivation of the spider make perfect sense once all the questions posed early in the tale are answered, and the protagonist is a mildly quirky and memorable guy rather than a bland one-dimensional no-nonsense investigator.  Absolutely seek out Curse of the Black Widow (at present unavailable on official DVD) by any means necessary if you’re in the mood for a superior creature feature.