Curse of the Black Widow

"Curse of the Black Widow" (1977) is an ABC Movie of the Week film from director Dan Curtis, starring: Anthony Franciosa, Donna Mills, Patty Duke. A mysterious woman who turns into a spider is terrorizing local men and a private detective is on her heels to solve the mystery.

Private detective Mark Higbie (Franciosa) is in a local bar, a mysterious and beautiful woman enters and lures one of the patrons outside to help with her car.  Shortly after, screams are heard outside and a man is found dead and wrapped in some sort of cocoon - drained of blood!  The local cops aren't sharing and Higbie believes they are covering up what is really going on.  The PI starts his own investigation that leads to two sisters: Leigh and Laura Lockwood played by Donna Mills and Patti Duke respectively.

PI Higbie discovers that one of these women was bitten by a spider when she was an infant and according to local Indian legend, can turn into a spider woman at full moons.  Will he find out who it is before it is too late?

This movie uses Dan Curtis' tried and true formula of a private detective on the trail of a supernatural being, much like his Kolchak movies and series.  The number of characters were hard to keep track of at first and you don't know how they are all connected until later.  Once you see the creature, it's somewhat laughable but that is just because the time period it was made.  The film is still filled with plenty of suspense and horror to keep you interested.

Watch the original TV intro from 1977