Black Belly Of The Tarantula

Black Belly of the Tarantula (La Tarantola Dal Ventre Nero) (1971)  

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Paolo Cavara

Starring: Giancarlo Gianni, Claudine Auger, Barbara Bouchet, Silvano Tranquilli, Stefania Sandrelli

From: A few different Italian and French companies

Featuring COCAINE SPIDERS

The plan is to hopefully watch at least two giallos during the month of October; this one in particular was selected not just due to its title or the unique gimmick of the killer. It was also because a mutual here recently saw this and noted how straightforward it was by giallo standards… they were right.

Spider wasps will sting a spider to paralyze it then lay eggs in its still-alive carcass until they hatch then the larvae will eat the carcass; there’s a horrifying scenario which should be used by someone for a creature feature. The murderer here uses acupuncture needles to paralyze women then he stabs them to death. A police inspector investigates the case and has self-doubt after struggling; thankfully he has a wife he supports her. It’s especially rare for me to admit it in a giallo but it actually was a nice relationship. Wackiness of wife Anna selling their furniture before they purchased new furniture aside, it was a charming pairing where she motivates him to not give up and continue working the difficult case.

It's not my favorite of the genre by any means and it’s more a mystery than horror movie-as sometimes happens in this genre. Be that as it may, the characters, scenario-there is some fascinating subtext if you dwell on it for even a bit-kills and Morricone score are all fine. The most noteworthy aspects are a nice foot chase, a crappy-looking spa where **of course** a blind employee (vision impairment in any Italian genre effort of the 70’s is about as ubiquitous as a bottle of J&B) works, a quality moment where someone says “F it!” and raises hell, & the novelty of this having three Bond girls-appropriate for Bond Day being yesterday-as long as you count the original Casino Royale: Claudine Auger, Barbara Bouchet, and Barbara Bach.

There is one scene involving a very minor plot point of a victim being involved in the drug trade. A scientist who provides an exposition dump on the spider wasp scenario turns out to be running drugs by… disguising cocaine as sand in small glass boxes holding tarantulas?! It made me wish to have the power to be a great or even good screenwriter. Besides the creature feature I mentioned earlier on, there needs to be an OOT picture named COCAINE SPIDERS that hopefully would prove to be B-movie gold.