L'araignée d'eau (1970) User Reviews

ultra obscure horror-fantastique from Belgium

[trashgang · 5/10 · 14 June 2012]

This is a weird flick and for so many reasons. It's filmed in France but made by Belgian director Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe. It was his first flick and it was based on the book with the same title. It's weird because the story is rare and the VHS is ultra obscure. Even Belgium's film archive doesn't has a copy of this flick.

It's a horror-fantastique flick that is filmed very slowly with very long shots and pans and with a few creepy lighting moments. Reminded me sometimes of Dracula (1931) when Dracula appears on the stairs. For being a horror there's nothing scary at all and there's no blood involved it just the mind of Bernard (Marc Eyraud)who is in love with a water spider (the translation of the title). He wants to replace his wife Catherine (Marie-Ange Dutheil) by the spider because his wife bores him.

The spider transforms into a tarantula and later in a mysterious mute girl Nadie (Elisabeth Wiener). He falls in love with the girl/spider and finally he has to choose between his wife or the spider.

Even as it is spoken in French and never was released with subs it is understandable because a lot of times nothing is said. The performances are great and all the actors moved further into the French film scene. It was even Marie-Ange her first flick and it doesn't show. She even has a small nudity scene.

I have seen so many people who are searching this very very obscure film on VHS. It pops up maybe once in your life. Even as it is low on everything still it's a collectible release.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Folie à deux.

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 5 May 2021]

This movie begins with a warning : (fantasy) tales are children's fears come true .The spider is par excellence, a scaring animal which inspired many movies from "Tarantula" to " the incredible shrinking man" to " Arachnophobia" .

But, in spite of the poster , this film has nothing horrible, nothing terrifying ; a voice over replaces the special effects ,depicting the man /pond-skater union , the rural landscapes are banal,but nicely filmed ;although Bernard is tired of his wife and wants another lover ,do not expect a menage à trois ;you rather get folie à deux ,perhaps with an imaginary character created by the hero,as child often do when they are alone or not loved by their family -which would justify the beginning; action is kept to the minimum :one hears complains of the villagers who say some of their stuff has been stolen .That's it. More atmosphere than story .

Itsy-Bitsy Spider turned into a babe...

[Coventry · 2/10 · 25 August 2021]

The handful of other reviewers that had the - ahem - honor of seeing "The Water Spider" refer to it as a brilliantly obscure piece of forgotten gothic horror. I might be wrong, of course, but could it perhaps be they are overpraising the film because it's so incredibly rare and difficult to track down? Because, honestly, all I saw was a senseless, dull, incoherent and incredibly cheap "thing" I wouldn't even label as a film. In a godforsaken peasant village, a talentless writer tries to escape from his nagging wife by walking next to the banks of a small river and play with a specific species of spiders. He takes a little arachnid home and hides it in the attic, where the little critter inexplicably transforms into a massive & hairy spider at first, and then subsequently in a beautiful babe with long black hair. How? Why? For what purpose? Your guesses are as good as mine. At first, I assumed the girl only existed in the guy's mind, but apparently his wife and even the villagers see her as well. Lack of logic and explanations aside, "The Water Spider" is still intolerably slow and boring. Whenever you hope something interesting might happen, the sequence abruptly ends and turns back to something dull, like Bertrand behind his writing desk or footage of the wife calling out to her husband one-hundred million times.

Haunting Gothic film

[Falconeer · 8/10 · 12 April 2015]

It's sad that this horror gem is so rare. "The Water Spider" is an incredibly creepy and atmospheric film. And it's storyline is just as obscure and bizarre. A man living in a small village, who has a fascination with insects, finds a small spider by the lake. He places it in his pocket and takes it into his home, unbeknownst to his clingy, overbearing wife. Soon, the tiny spider grows into a big, hairy tarantula, and the man hides it in his attic...to continue 'growing.' And grow it does, into a beautiful young woman with long black hair! This girl, who does not speak, becomes the man's secret, until the small minded village folk notice the girl stealing their food in the night, and trace her to the man's home. When the wife figures it out, she leaves her husband to his new "mistress."

That's really it. Little explanation is given as to why this spider transfers into a girl who resembles the beautiful Jess Franco muse, Soledad Miranda. But we find that no explanation is needed, as this movie brings the viewer so effectively into it's strange world, that we just accept it. Another reviewer claimed that there was little dialog, so an understanding of the French language isn't necessary. But actually there is much speaking, and you really need to have an understanding of the language, or subtitles to understand all the nuances and the motivations behind the characters. Unfortunately this title is almost impossible to find, as it was only released briefly, on VHS/PAL format from Belgium. But somehow the grainy, murky quality of the existing version only adds to the haunting look of this beautiful film. Quiet and slow moving, and featuring a gorgeous soundtrack, "Water Spider" is very much like the old horror films from the 1930's. Fans of the surreal, and of classic horror should seek this out. It's worth the effort.

a mesmerising movie

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 21 September 2014]

An impressive debut from Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe who sadly seems to have moved from this directly into TV. Perhaps this was a little too ambitious, a little too weird. Not over long and very well paced, this begins as if it were to be a poetic tale involving one man and his private thoughts and to a large extent it is. But, these thoughts take on visual form and his hopes and desires take him closer to his reality or further into fantasy. It is never quite clear. The film is full of ambiguities but the beautiful shots and quite splendid soundtrack mean that this is a mesmerising movie. Often reminding one of early horror movies in the way the main character moves up and down stairs and through doors this has an enigmatic hold from start to finish. Creepy too, for, forget not, he lets out his large collection of butterflies to concentrate his attentions on his water spider.

Lost French fantastic classic

[guy-bellinger · 9/10 · 17 January 2016]

Fantasy films are not particularly popular in France. And it is a fact that big hits in the genre are scarce, Cocteau's version of "Beauty and the Beast", René Clair's "Beauty and the Devil", Jeunet and Caro's "The City of Lost Children" being nothing but exceptions which confirm the rule. Some attribute this country's relative disinterest in fantasy to the Cartesian nature of its people. Maybe so... but why then do French viewers turn into a triumph an English or an American movie like "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1,842,700) or "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" (4,263,389) while they snub a Gallic counterpart such as "Cinéman" (297,882) or "Girl in his Pocket" (421,270). Likewise, to take one example among many, why are they so few to acclaim Jean-Pierre Mocky's "The Big Scare" (676,693) or worse, "Litan" (42,164) - yet two of his best films - whereas they flock to comedies like "Light-Fingered George" (2,371,855) and "The Big Wash" (2,111,923), good as they are? A phenomenon which also affects – to various extents - such highly regarded directors as Claude Autant-Lara ("Marguerite of the Night"), Cedric Klapisch ("Maybe"), Jacques Demy ("Parking"), François Ozon ("Ricky") or Pierre Jolivet ("A Mere Mortal"). And even when it comes to a successful director like Luc Besson, he will attract only 279,139 viewers if his sci-fi opus is French-made ("Le dernier combat") whereas he will pack houses (7,696,667) provided his anticipation movie is English spoken and featuring American stars ("The Fifth Element"). All this to say that when Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe chose to adapt a fantastic short story for his first film effort he did not give himself the best possible chance. Even if, the author of "L'araignée d'eau", Marcel Béalu, is one of the masters of the literature of the fantastic. And despite the magnetic aura of the ultra sensual Elisabeth Wiener.

And yet this strange story of an entomology enthusiast who, while walking by the side of a pond, picks up a water strider and brings it home only to find it the next day metamorphosed into a beautiful naked girl never ceases to fascinate. This is mainly due to Verhaeghe's excellence at describing in pictures the intrusion of the impossible into everyday reality. At every minute of his film he indeed manages to find convincing equivalents to Béalu's words and not only do the filmmaker and the writer's respective worlds (written and visual) meet but they add up and enrich each other into the bargain. There is no denying that the film version abounds in assets, which makes the adaptation much more than just a carbon copy of the book : the creation of a stifling atmosphere (a remote village circa 1900 caught in the grip of at once a harsh winter and that of superstition and backwardness), amazing dreamlike sequences (the flight of the dead butterflies, the attack of the wild cats in the church), a very unsettling metamorphosis scene, the unbridled beauty of Elisabeth Wiener, as well as an interesting reflection on the dangers resulting from the regimentation of minds and its subsequent frustrations

Unfortunately all that was not enough to make this lost classic the hit it should have been. Only 12,900 people in Paris left the comfort of their well-organized home to dare go wrestle with the depths of their hidden being in the theaters showing the movie. Elisabeth Wiener did not become a star, Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe did not become another Jean Pierre Jeunet (although he turned to television for which he made topnotch TV movies like "La controverse de Valladolid", "Jaurès, naissance d'un géant" or "En cas de malheur"). Whatever the case may be, his 1968 made masterpiece does exist and please, fantasy lovers, if you can dig out a video of it, feel free to... jump at the chance! You will not be disappointed.