The Super Network

Spider Baby (1968)

Based upon the recommendation from my good buddy Eric Walkuski (you can hear about it on Episode 80 of Super Podcast) I went and tracked down Spider Baby. My sole knowledge of the film was minimal, just the few details Eric had thrown out there. I left all expectations aside and dived in head first in.

Spider Baby is a weird little number; its ideas and behaviours felt lifted right out of a film today. It was shot in the mid 60’s and it didn’t see a release until the late 60’s, it certainly felt ahead of its time. After watching the film I can really see and understand where it had influences, and honestly without this I don’t think we’d have seen some of the more modern classics.

The premise falls upon a mansion in a rural location; the occupants are the inbred Merrye family. They are all that remain, and are looked after by Bruno, a caretaker of sorts. The three ‘children’ have a disease, their mental state deteriorated. Instead of developing mentally, it goes backwards, and the consequence of that in this case is they have no sense of good or bad, right or wrong, they are little devils so to speak. Their parents are presumed dead, and distant relatives come to claim the properly, but rest assured it wont be given up without a fight.

The film quickly establishes itself, rural location, and warped family with murder right off the bat. It does not slowly introduce you to these characters; it throws you to them. Where it takes its time is with the outsiders, they come in and the situation slowly unfolds. This is there to build tension to the final confrontation, with a conclusion you wont see coming. The real fun here is with these crazy characters, and the amazing location. The house looked and felt creepy, with creepy crawlies and rats all over the place. I would hate to have to visit that house, and the huge spiders that kept showing up scared me! It helps that I have a huge fear of spiders, but the ones in this film were truly horrifying.

The main foursome of Elisabeth (Beverly Washburn), Virginia (Jill Banner), Ralph (Sid Haig) and Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr) are fantastic. Their characters aren’t too complex, but their madness and wackyness is quite well developed. The performances are just so good; the girls while both similar make each other stand out. Sid Haig (yes best known these days as Captain Spaulding) does not have any lines; his delivery is through his facial expressions, grunting and movements. He really was impressive, so young and I almost didn’t recognise him. Lon Chaney Jr is a legend, and he was impressive as Bruno. A very different character and one that seemed to fit him so well. The other characters or ‘the outsiders’ were not as memorable, but the story wasn’t really about them. They pulled off their roles well though, with Quinn K. Redeker as Peter being the stand out among them.

Jack Hill wrote a fabulous script and directed this piece to perfection. I absolutely loved everything about it. The film felt like something very different from the man, with films like The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage being the ones I knew him from. It is a real gem of a film, so glad Eric mentioned this and I had the opportunity to see it. One I highly recommend finding and checking out. You’ll find yourself thinking of films that were influenced by this, it has had a pretty huge effect on the grand scale of things.

Rating

| Purchase on DVD Region 1 |