A curious and disjointed horror thriller that sees a young English tourist, Paul (Simon Brent) arriving in a remote Bavarian village where he spots a strange young woman with a scar that looks like a spider on her arm. Hostile villagers warn Paul to leave but he determines to find the mysterious woman - cue folkloric legends, whispered village secrets, looted art treasures, an ex-Nazi scientist, a conspiracy to create a poisonous super-weapon and a spider-goddess. There is enough plot here for three or four movies and it shows as little of the overall narrative gels together in anything approaching a satisfactory manner. The story lurches from sequence to sequence with little explanation or coherence. Things aren't assisted by Peter Sykes' hazy, uneven direction nor by the choppy, slightly amateurish editing. Despite that "The Legend of Spider Forest" still manages to remain relatively intriguing throughout with a good underlying story trying to break out and Pater Jessop's marvellous cinematography ensuring the film is visually interesting throughout. Not the greatest slice of early '70s British horror, but probably deserves a better fate than the obscurity in which it presently languishes. ( )