Plot
For the past four years, Los Angeles has been terrorized by a series of mysterious murders, in which several men have been found dead with huge puncture wounds in their chests. The latest happens when private detective Mark Higbie is visiting a bar. A dark-haired woman with a German accent needs help with her car, and one of Higbie's friends goes out to help her. The woman makes a pass at him, but is turned down. Minutes later, the man is found dead.
Mark does some digging and finds out that Lieutenant Gully Conti, who is leading the investigation, knows who the culprit is, but is covering up details. He soon finds out why; all of the victims have had their bodily fluids sucked out of them, and the wounds are filled with spider venom. Each time, a mysterious woman named Valerie Steffan was in the area. Gully suspects that the twins, Leigh and Laura Lockwood, are somehow involved. Leigh hires Mark, concerned about the police focusing on her. It turns out that she dated all of the men who have died so far.
Mark eventually gets in touch with a former bartender who saw one of the murders, who tells him that at least one man was killed by a man-sized black widow spider. Checking further, he finds out that Leigh and Laura's father died in a plane crash several years ago, and one of the girls was nearly bitten to death by spiders. Mark finds out that the plane landed in an old vineyard owned by the Lockwoods, and meets an aging Native American who found the girls. The Native American says that according to an old legend, some women are affected by an ancient curse passed through the female line. During the full moon, these women turn into giant spiders in times of stress, kill their victims, encase them in webbing and feed on them. These women have a red hourglass-shaped birthmark on their abdomens, similar to those found on black widow spiders. They are practically indestructible in spider form; the only thing that can kill them in that form is fire. The twin who was bitten by the spiders is the one affected by the curse.
Mark calls Laura and finds out Leigh is on her way. Laura tells him that Leigh is the one who was bitten, and Mark tells her to get out as fast as she can. As Laura is in the midst of packing, she suddenly has violent convulsions and visions of two of the men who died. It turns out that Laura is really the killer. She has long suffered from multiple personality disorder; Valerie is the expression of her feelings of inadequacy compared to Leigh. Valerie is also the only one who knows how to use Laura's curse. It turns out that Valerie has made several advances toward Leigh's boyfriends; when they turn her down, she turns into a spider and kills them. The only other people who know the secret are their mother, and their former nanny, Olga. Their mother has been in a catatonic state since seeing Valerie kill Leigh's fiancé.
Leigh arrives and finds her mother in a panic. Suddenly, Valerie walks in, taunts Leigh and her mother by telling her about the things Laura never had the courage to say to Leigh. She also talks about how Leigh stole Laura's boyfriend, Gianni. She explains that Laura tried to win him back by seducing him, and unfortunately, Gianni ended up raping Laura and getting her pregnant. This caused Valerie to retaliate and kill Gianni, which was what their mother witnessed; she was babbling about Laura killing an Italian boy when Leigh found her, and it made her go crazy. Laura then turns into a spider. Horrified, their mother falls out of the window to her death. Valerie encases Leigh in webbing. Olga arrives minutes later and realizes Laura has to die. She goes to an old farmhouse to find Laura cowering on a stall. Laura admits that Valerie killed their mother, and hurt Leigh as well. As Olga pulls out a pistol, Valerie takes over, turns into a spider and kills Olga.
Mark finds the place deserted and goes to the farmhouse. He finds Leigh, alive but terrified. Just then, Valerie arrives in spider form. Mark empties his pistol into her, to no avail. He hurls a lantern at Valerie, and she catches fire. Leigh and Mark escape, while Valerie sets the farmhouse ablaze as she thrashes about on fire. The farmhouse burns to the ground and the police consider the ordeal to be over.
Sometime later, Mark is at Leigh's beach house for dinner, while Jennifer is shown playing on the beach with her dog. Leigh explains that Jennifer is adjusting to living with her, though she still has occasional nightmares, but with diminishing frequency. She has returned to school and is making new friends. She tells Mark that although Jennifer does not really look like her, sometimes she reminds her of Laura. Jennifer asks to go for one more swim before dinner, at which time she turns and waves to Mark and Leigh on the balcony, revealing a red hourglass-shaped birthmark on her abdomen, the same one that Laura had, indicating that Laura was her mother and that she has inherited the "curse of the black widow".
Black Widow is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by editor and plotter Stan Lee, scripter Don Rico, and artist Don Heck, the character debuted in Tales of Suspense #52. The character was introduced as a Russian spy, an antagonist of the superhero Iron Man. She later defected to the United States, becoming an agent of the fictional spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and a member of the superhero team the Avengers.
Victoria "Vicki" Winters is a fictional character from the television Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows and its remakes of the same name. The role was originated by Alexandra Moltke on the ABC series from 1966 to 1968. After Moltke left to raise a family in 1968, actresses Betsy Durkin and Carolyn Groves briefly replaced her for only a handful of episodes, before Victoria was written out completely. Jaclyn Smith, who was married to Dark Shadows actor Roger Davis at the time, was offered the role when Moltke left the show, but she declined.
Spider Widow is a fictional superhero character that was published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books. The character was created by writer and artist Frank Borth, and debuted in Feature Comics #57, which bore a cover date of June 1942. Borth continued to write and draw the Spider Widow feature until the end of its run in Feature Comics #72.
Madame Web is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210, published November 1980, and was created by writer Denny O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr. She is usually depicted as a supporting character in the Spider-Man comic book series, where she appears as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis, connected to a life support system resembling a spiderweb.
The Reptile is a 1966 British horror film made by Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by John Gilling, and starred Noel Willman, Jacqueline Pearce, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel, and Michael Ripper.
Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko is an actress and former model. Born and raised in Ukraine, she moved to France at age 16 to pursue a modelling career, acquiring citizenship in 2001. After starting her acting career in 2004, Kurylenko had her breakthrough film role in the action-thriller Hitman (2007). She gained recognition as Camille Montes in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008) and as Taskmaster in the superhero film Black Widow (2021).
Don't Go To Sleep is a 1982 American made-for-television horror film that was produced and directed by Richard Lang. The movie features Dennis Weaver, Valerie Harper, Ruth Gordon, and Robert Webber, and youngsters Kristin Cumming, Robin Ignico, and Oliver Robins.
"Spider-Man" is the name of multiple comic book superheroes from the Marvel Comics Multiverse. The original and most well known is Peter Parker created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko originating from the Earth-616 universe. Within the mainstream Marvel Universe there have been characters that have taken the mantle such as Ben Reilly, Mac Gargan and Doctor Octopus.
Ice Spiders is a 2007 science fiction horror film which premiered on June 9, 2007 on the Syfy Channel. A team of young Winter Olympic hopefuls must slalom to safety when a hoard of giant mutated spiders spin their way out of a top secret laboratory. Ice Spiders stars Patrick Muldoon, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Noah Bastian, K. Danor Gerald and Matt Whittaker and was released on DVD in 2007.
Spider's Web is a play by crime writer Agatha Christie. Spider's Web, which premiered in London’s West End in 1954, is Agatha Christie's second most successful play, having run longer than Witness for the Prosecution, which premiered in 1953. It is surpassed only by Christie's record-breaking The Mousetrap, which has run continuously since opening in the West End in 1952.
Lawrence Stewart "Larry" Talbot, also known as The Wolf Man, is a title character of the 1941 Universal film The Wolf Man and its sequels, created by Curt Siodmak. He was portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. In the 2010 remake of the film, he is portrayed by Benicio del Toro. The Wolf Man was part of the Universal Classic Monsters ensemble.
Red Riding Hood is a 2011 American romantic horror film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson. The film is very loosely based on the folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood" collected by both Charles Perrault under the name Le Petit Chaperon Rouge and several decades later by the Brothers Grimm as Rotkäppchen. It stars Amanda Seyfried as the title role, with Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas and Julie Christie in supporting roles.
The Vampire Diaries, an American supernatural drama, was officially renewed by The CW for a full 22-episode season on February 16, 2010. The first episode premiered on September 9, 2010, at 8 p.m. ET. The season picks up immediately after the events of the season one finale. All the series regulars returned. The second season focuses on the return of Elena Gilbert's doppelgänger, Katherine Pierce, the introduction of werewolves, the sun and moon curse, and the arrival of the original vampires. Tyler Lockwood's uncle, Mason Lockwood, arrives in town searching for the moonstone, a family heirloom. Tyler later learns of his family's werewolf curse. Meanwhile, Caroline Forbes is killed by Katherine while having Damon Salvatore's blood in her system, turning her into a vampire. The arrival of the original vampires, Elijah and Klaus Mikaelson, also bring about complications. Klaus is a vampire-werewolf hybrid, but his werewolf side had been forced into dormancy by witches, as nature would not stand for such an imbalance in power. Therefore, Klaus arrives in town with plans to break the curse and unleash his werewolf side by channelling the power of the full moon into the moonstone, sacrificing a vampire and a werewolf, and drinking the blood of the doppelgänger. It became available on DVD and Blu-ray on August 30, 2011.
Bedelia is a 1946 British melodrama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Margaret Lockwood, Ian Hunter and Barry K. Barnes. It is an adaptation of the 1945 novel Bedelia by Vera Caspary with events relocated from the United States to Monaco and England.
The Spider Bite or The Red Spot is a modern urban legend that emerged in England during the 1970s.
My Mom's a Werewolf is a 1989 horror comedy film directed by Michael Fischa, written by Mark Pirro, starring Susan Blakely and John Saxon.
"Mother's Little Helper" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of the American fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on April 9, 2017. In this episode, Gideon's past with the Black Fairy and his vengeance towards his grandmother is revealed, as Gideon blackmails Emma into defeating the Black Fairy in order to return Hook back to Storybrooke. Meanwhile, Hook teams up with Blackbeard to find a way to return, only to end up back in Neverland, whilst Regina turns to an imprisoned Isaac when Henry's powers as the Author goes awry.
