MovieChat Forums > Night Gallery (1969) Discussion > Question on "Fear of Spiders" - possible...

Question on "Fear of Spiders" - possible spoilers...

posted 10 years ago by mercutio-8
5 replies | jump to latest

Could Kim Stanley's character possibly have been a witch? And that she put a curse on Patrick O'Neal?

After Patrick O'Neal sees the monstrous sized spider in his bedroom, he runs up the stairs and knocks on the door to her apartment. There is a cut to Kim Stanley, dressed in a dark dress, with a black choker. She has just blown out a candle.

Then she pretends to help him and locks him in his room where the spider is (whether it WAS as big as he thought, or just his imagination). Maybe she made the spider larger, or, if it was is imagination, put a spell on him to think it was larger (or there at all).

[–] Tresix 10 years ago

Interesting. I had never thought of that. Wasn't she wearing black when they first showed her?

"There will be blood. Oh, yes, there WILL be blood."-Jigsaw; "Saw II"

[–] mercutio-8 10 years ago

Actually, I don't remember if she was wearing black when she was first seen, but she was in her apartment.

[–] michael-watkins-laj7 10 years ago

that would have been an interesting twist. but wouldn't they have made it less open for interpretation; for story-telling purposes? either way, I like the idea of her having been a witch.

[–] akroagate 9 years ago

Did she see the spider in the bedroom? At first she said there was nothing there--but then she pauses and does a double take. Then, as she's closing the bedroom door behind him (to lock him in), she says, "Behind the chair."

Time of your life, huh, kid?

[–] Rosabel 9 years ago

Well, but what would be the normal reaction of anyone seeing a spider the size of a dog? It would have been more than a double take, even if you didn't have a morbid fear of them! So either she saw the giant spider and wasn't surprised by it (i.e., she was a witch and it was the result of her curse) or else she saw a perfectly normal, small spider and figured she'd pay Patrick O'Neal's character back by playing a mean trick on him. She wouldn't have expected it would be enough to kill him. If she was a witch, she could have cursed him to SEE a giant spider when it was really just a little one.

Actually, I didn't think the spider actually killed him; I thought he died of fright. It would be a perfect form of revenge: when she came back the next morning to unlock the door, he'd be lying there, dead of a heart attack. Nobody would know that the door had been locked all night, they'd assume he'd just died of natural causes. That would actually be better than having him found all bitten and poisoned by a giant spider, which would lead to a lot of investigation.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!