Spider Baby

Starring:Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, Sid Haig, Mary Mitchel, Karl Schanzer, Mantan Moreland, Carolyn Cooper, Joan Keller
Director: Jack Hill
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Description

The seductive innocence of Lolita, the savage hunger of a Black Widow and a taste for blood! Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the caretaker for a family who is inflicted with a unique genetic disorder--one that causes them to regress mentally to a state of savagery and cannibalism. When distant cousins arrive with the intention of "taking over," an utterly bizarre night of horror follows.

Customer Reviews:

B-Movie That deserves a remake.......2007-03-29

This movie has been a summer party classic around my place for 12 years now. My wife really doesn't like B Movies, but stayed awake for this one. While it has flaws, I think that you can enjoy it in either an ironic way or as a true B Movie sci-fi/horror enthusiast. My advice for you to really enjoy it would be to fire up the grill on a hot July night, have a few beers with your friends and then, after the sun goes down and everyone is tipsy, throw this at them. Soon enough, they will understand. Then, repeat the procedure next year.

Honestly, this is in my B Movie top 10. (Along with classics like The Giant Gila Monster and Killer Shrews. The back story is unique and the movie could be great if it was remade with a budget above the $16 they had to make this version.

A Taste I've No Wish to Acquire.......2007-03-18

Legal issues caused it to be pulled from theatres almost as quickly as it reached them; the DVD received a very small release, is presently out of print, and is hard to find and expensive when located. What with one thing or another, SPIDER BABY was among the cult films I had always heard about but never actually seen--so when it suddenly received a late-night showing on Turner Movie Classics I was eager to sit up and see it through.

The story concerns the last surviving members of the Merrye family, all of them afflicted by a degenerative disease that leads them first into insanity and then into a sort of de-evolution, rendering them animalistic in more ways than one. The youngest generation consists of Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn), Virginia (Jill Banner), and Ralph (Sig Haid)--and a nasty, loutish trio they are indeed. Elizabeth, the title character, is fond of spiders; Virginia is goody-goody in a psychopathic manner; and Ralph is as far gone as only Sig Haid can make him. They are watched over by family retainer Bruno (Lon Chaney), and all concerned are distressed when Aunt Emily (Carol Ohmart) and Uncle Peter (Quinn Redeker) come to call with an eye toward assuming control over the estate.

Although quite a few have mentioned that SPIDER BABY paved the way for such films as TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, no one seems to have noticed that the film is essentially a riff on Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. The action takes place at a remote house--Victorian in style, set on a hill, and approached by a significant staircase. There are stuffed birds galore, a bedroom which contains parental remains, and something unpleasant in the fruit cellar. And very little of it is remotely interesting.

Now and then you encounter a bad movie that is so bad it is funny, with the films of Ed Wood a case in point; now and then you find a bad movie that has such geniality that it creates a unique sense of charm, as in the films of William Castle. But most bad movies are just plain bad, and SPIDER BABY is exactly that. Most obviously, the film is slow: molasses in January runs like water in July in comparison. Every shot is drawn out to the length of maximum boredom. Although less than an hour and a half in running time, the whole thing feels longer than DR. ZHIVAGO and OUT OF AFRICA combined.

The script is riddled with cliche and shot through with failed attempts at humor and the performances follow suit. Mantan Mooreland is an early casuality, attempting to recycle his perpetually frightened character of the 1940s and 1950s and without a trace of success; fortunately for all concerned, he is eliminated very early on. Carol Omhart, who is best recalled for the original HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, was a blonde bombshell of the deadpan variety who never got the roles or success she deserved. In her opening scenes she looks remarkably like Meryl Streep, but she is soon reduced to running around the house and through the fields in black undies. It is true that she wears them well, but you can tell her heart isn't in it.

As for the Merrye family, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, and Sig Haid do manage to generate the occasional moment, but "moment" is indeed the operative term--occasional glimmers of what-might-have-been in a sea of slow moving and obvious plot turns that aren't in the least surprising, frightening, or amusing. And then there is Lon Chaney Jr. Although he scored with a handful of memorable films over the years (OF MICE AND MEN and THE WOLF MAN come to mind), unlike his father he never had much in the way of acting chops. As the 1950s unfolded his career dived into B movies; by the 1960s he was a roaring alcoholic and his career consisted almost exclusively of schlock horror flicks. His performance here is every bit as bad as it was in every other film he made during this era.

Cult films are almost always an acquired taste, but SPIDER BABY is a taste I've no desire to acquire. Although the DVD remains marginally available, it will never be a part of my own collection.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Thanks for the find!.......2006-11-10

I've been looking for this movie everywhere. Couldn't find it in stores so I decided to look online. Thanks for the find. It's a great movie.

Too weird to miss!.......2006-11-05

If you look for the strange or love Lon Chaney, Jr., you have to see this.
This is a B&W, early 60's, no-budget horror movie that offers a buffet for lovers of the bizarre.

Chaney is the care-taker of the ultimate disfunctional family. Living at the end of a dirt road, secure behind a big, iron gate, these folks don't get many visitors. The visitors that do drop by, wish they hadn't.

When some greedy relatives show up looking to cheat the "kids" out of their inheritence, you'll love the games they play. Chaney is understated and fabulous as the truly devoted Bruno.

Great DVD of funny, and vaguely erotic, horror "cult" film!.......2006-11-04

This is a great quality DVD (with additional features, and boxed in the original screen ratio) of one of Lon's Chaney Junior's last films. By the time a confirmed alcoholic, Chaney liked the script and opportunity so much that he stayed "on the wagon" for the movie's short twelve days of filming, and turns in one of his finest performances. Several of the other actors also turn in first-rate performances, including beautiful and sexy 17-year-old Jill Banner as "Virginia" (the "spider baby") in her first film role. Two of the performances somewhat mar the film, however: that of Quinn Redeker (as "Peter Howe"), who wanders spastically throughout the film as if he doesn't seem to know what's going on around him; as well as that of tiny "actor" Karl Schanzer (as Schlocker), whose performance is SO amateurish that it almost makes you want to crawl under your chair whenever he's on screen (he only got the role because he knew the two producers). On the whole, however, this film is one of my MUST HAVES--as the plot is truly bizarre and wonderful (involving an incestuous family of mentally and physically regressing crazed killers)--and I highly recommend it to film buffs!

Man in the Attic / Juggernaut / House of Mystery / Bloodlust / the Rapist / Devil's Express / I Eat Your Skin / the Sadist / Mesa of Lost Women / Horrors of Spider Island [[[10 HORROR CLASSIC MOVIES]]]

Average customer rating:

Man in the Attic / Juggernaut / House of Mystery / Bloodlust / the Rapist / Devil's Express / I Eat Your Skin / the Sadist / Mesa of Lost Women / Horrors of Spider Island [[[10 HORROR CLASSIC MOVIES]]]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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