Spider Baby

source: Spider Baby

The film opens with one of the most horrific murders ever shown on film; the rest of the movie is never again quite this frightening or startling, but is enjoyable nonetheless as a horror-comedy of the same ilk as "House on Haunted Hill" or "Bucket of Blood." The story concerns a family of inbred Southern degenerates who were once proud and powerful but whom years of inbreeding have reduced not only to childlike idiocy but savagery; some distant relatives out for money decide to meddle with dire, predictable results. The movie, complete with a loyal retainer, cute but deadly kids, and some even deadlier aunties and uncles kept tucked away in the cellar is essentially an extended version of an Addams family episode (the drawn out dinner scene is a bit too sitcomish). However, there are enough funny-scary moments to keep things moving along: the more memorable of these being when bitchy ice queen Emily succumbs to brother Ralph's caveman charms and when sister Virginia, the spider baby of the title, gives her long dead father a good night kiss—a scene with a weirdly poetic quality like something out of Poe. Perhaps the best part of the movie is Lon Chaney Jr. in his touching portrayal of Bruno, the kindly chauffeur who is genuinely devoted to his savage and hopeless surrogate family. A cult film that deserves its status.

I guess there's no accounting for the taste of some. Spider Baby seems to have a nice cult following. Then again so does Plan 9 From Outer Space and the collected works of Arch Hall. Meet the Merrye family a southern gothic and inbred family who are being raised by Lon Chaney, Jr. who is the family chauffeur and the guardian of the three Merrye children Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, and their erudite brother Sid Haig who likes to eat cats as a past time. Wild and crazy kids. What some find amusing I just found plain disgusting. In any event the outside world is intruding and Chaney does his best to protect his flock. You might like it, who knows. I sure didn't.

"Spider Baby" is one of the more popular low-budget horrors of the 1960s, and gives off an aura consistent with the creepy film fare of the time. While watching it, I found myself cycling through a series of wildly varied reactions, from intentional amusement to unintentional amusement, sympathy, apathy, fear, and a pervasive weirdness that was hard to shake. The opening credits, with their cutely foreboding imagery, sets the tone for what is bound to be a campy horror romp (which it certainly is), but "Spider Baby," flaws and all, turns into a genuinely creepy experience, helped immensely by the devoted cast. A group of lawyers, land-grabbers, and estranged relatives pay a visit on the Merrye clan, presided over by surrogate father Lon Chaney; in an effort to push the family (including 3 mentally handicapped children) out of their home, said visitors wind up spending a wild night at the house. "Spider Baby" has its flaws--the 'normal' supporting players hardly give memorable performances, and the pace sometimes drags. But writer-director Jack Hill gets incredible mileage out of the screw-loose Merrye family, a portrait as believable, unsettling, and weirdly humorous as the cannibals in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Chaney, Sid Haig, Jill Banner, and Beverly Washburn turn what could have been another forgettable B-movie into something very odd and endearing.

I guess when something is declared a "cult classic", you always seem to find some people willing to drink the Kool-Aid. That's the only conclusion I can come to reading some of these reviews of this dreck. The plot involves a family of inbred psychos who find themselves under siege by relatives wanting to take over their estate. Standing in their way is Lon Chaney Jr. working for booze money as Bruno the Butler. They have a part in the movie where they discuss the Universal Classic horror characters, of which, Chaney played all of them- The mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man. Sadly, he ended his career playing in cheap garbage like this, the signs of Alcohol abuse being very apparent. The movie had implied incest and rape, which made it kind of disgusting. Not much to recommend it at all.

This creepy, little film is a minor masterpiece! I can't believe I never caught this one back in the 60's. Lon Chaney, Jr. gives a heartfelt performance as old Bruno and the rest of the cast is splendid. Especially Jill Banner as Virginia. What a strange story to be filmed. A 7 out of 10. Best performance = Lon Chaney, Jr. with Jill Banner a close second. I'm no Jack Hill expert, but it sounds like he's made some interesting films in the 60's and 70's. I've never seen quite this combination of creepiness and black humor with stunning b/w cinematography. Track this one down for sure. The other two "kids" are marvelous as well. You don't have to like OR hate spiders to enjoy this flick (made in 12 days).

"Spider Baby" is weird. It's demented. It's insane, and it's easily one of the creepiest movies you'll ever come across. Here's one movie that never comes up in discussions of low budget horror films, but really should. There are virtually no effects, few 'boo' moments, instead relying on classic methods like an intimidating house, creepy shadows etc. The movie has a simple plot: a couple of distant relatives and their lawyer arrive at a spooky old house with a bad reputation to take control of the estate only to find three teens with 'Merrye' syndrome, a bizarre disease named after the family caused by generations of inbreeding. When the caretaker loses control of the three siblings horrific and hilarious results follow. The buildup is excellent, including the highlight of the film, a hysterical and very creepy dinner scene with several unorthodox menu choices. The characters are memorable. Lon Chaney Jr. is great as usual in the role of the dangerous children's caretaker, but Sid Haig easily steals the show with a bizarre performance as the spider-like and mentally disturbed Ralph, who does a lot of fun stuff over the course of this movie, like passing off cat as rabbit. The ending shot is quite excellent as well. All in all this is pretty much the definition of cult classic. It's fun and creepy and hysterical and though it has a following it hasn't suffered from overexposure. No, it's not the best film ever made on a technical or narrative level, but it's wicked fun and it's very, very unique. Enjoy!

I didn't know Turner Classics had a cult movie night until I scanned the listings yesterday to see what was playing. Even though it was showing at 2:00 A.M., it was worth the trouble to stay up and tune into this bizarre flick, which might be compared to a politically incorrect episode of the 'Addams Family'. You know you've got serious weirdness when the sanest one of the bunch is Lon Chaney Jr., portraying a caretaker for a trio of siblings whose stock in trade is murder and cannibalism. But don't let that sentence put you off, this stew pot of a film is a blast, with a familiar cast of cult classic mainstays, chief among them Sid Haig as demented brother Ralph. I got a kick out of the dinner scene when talk turned to old time horror films, and when Chaney's "The Wolf Man" is mentioned, he comments - "There's going to be a full moon tonight"! There's also a great nod to "Psycho" with all the stuffed birds in the Merrye mansion. It was also wonderful to see Mantan Moreland in one of his later movie roles, even if his screen time was abruptly ended. He was always fun to watch in those Monogram Charlie Chan films and zombie flicks of the 1930's and '40's. Come to think of it, he looked as good here in his sixties as he did back in his prime. Speaking of looking good, Carol Ohmart got a bit racy with her bedroom dance number, but did anyone else get the idea that she could have been Meryl Streep's sister here? Her best known film role was that of Vincent Price's wife in one of my earliest horror films as a kid, "House on Haunted Hill", gave me the willies for a week. Listen, if you've had it with the plethora of slasher/gore nonsense coming out of the mainstream media today, you owe yourself a viewing of this bizarre flick. It's impressionable enough to stay with you for days after a single viewing, and comes close to living up to it's tag line - 'The Maddest Story Ever Told'.

There's a blase, desensitised, black-comedy sensibility to the treatment of horror, violence and sex in this movie which not only anticipates "Night of the Living Dead" a few years later, but also Tarantino's approach decades later, let alone the lesser inheritors of that approach. There are plenty of moments in this extremely strange little picture which capture the same nightmare-logic of the family banquet scene in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", or pretty much the whole of "Eraserhead". While "Spider Baby" is funny in a lot of places, and intended to be, the choice of a hereditary neurological disorder as the source of the horror elements, rather than one of the standard horror movie devices (vampire, werewolf, mad scientist, whatever) gives the movie a case of the creeps that starts early and never goes away. The most bizarre thing in the movie, isn't the weird members of the central family (although they're plenty weird enough to be going on with), it's how director Jack Hill does some things efficiently, some with amazingly ambitious creativity, and others with an equally mind-boggling klutziness. Blame the budget for the latter, I'd guess. Amidst some amazing performances, (the two sisters and the brother), some blaringly cheesy ones (most of the "straight" roles), Lon Chaney Jr and Carol Ohmart stand out. Chaney, who is evidently not in tiptop physical condition for (ahem) some reason, nonetheless plays completely straight, in a strange, tender-hearted role (particularly in the black comedy context here) which is probably his best work other than "Of Mice and Men". Ohmart has a blowsier version of the strange, nasty, sexy role she played as Vincent Price's wife in "The House on Haunted Hill", and she is one of the most unusual screen presences you'll ever see. One good character part in a moderately-budgeted studio picture with a decent director would have been enough to make her more than a footnote name known exclusively to horror movie nuts. Sustained weird atmosphere, and a movie unlike any other. Rather than a horror movie, or black comedy per se, it's an exceptionally twisted adult fairy tale. Probably not as good-hearted as "Curse of the Cat People" or "Edward Scissorhands" in the same rough ball-park, but at least as memorable as either.

Man, I love twisted cinema! And it's very pleasing to discover older movies with such happily deranged and provoking plots! Jack Hill's low budget gem "Spider Baby" is truly inspired, enthusiast and blackly humorous like no other movie I've ever seen from this period. Right from the catchy opening title song (sung by Lon Chaney Jr.!) you know that you're in for a demented ride of wild fun. Like many other reviewers already pointed out, the events here are comparable to "The Addams Family", only it feels like Hill was even more unscrupulous in his character drawings and he couldn't care less whether his movie was ethically correct or not. We're talking topics like inbreeding, cannibalism and vile murders committed by cherubic-looking teenage girls. Meet the Merrye offspring: their parents are long dead but the loyal family chauffeur Bruno swore that he would look after the two mentally unstable daughters (Elizabeth and Virginia) and the problematic son (Ralph). Their jolly lifestyle is endangered by the coming of a distant ...and greedy aunt who's after the family mansion, accompanied by her obnoxious lawyer and nephew Peter. "Spider Baby" is a wonderful movie all together, but especially the absurd little details will please the fans of cult cinema. The lawyer's name, for example, is Mr. Schlocker and he even has this goofy looking Hitler-mustache and a ridiculously small stature. Virgina likes to pretend she's a spider that catches unsuspicious visitors in her web and lil' Ralph transports cadavers from the basement to the kitchen, using some sort of service elevator. Although this production clearly aims for black comedy primarily, Jack Hill still manages to add some creepy sequences and an uncanny atmosphere (emphasised extra by the black and white cinematography) to his film. The morbid scenery add greatly to this and so does the unpredictable Ralph-character...You can never foresee what he's capable of! The acting is terrific! Lon Chaney Jr. shines as the seemly tired but dedicated Bruno and this maybe is his best performance since his classic role in "the Wolf Man" (which is tributes here). The entire supportive cast does a great job too, especially the fairly unknown youngsters. Jack Hill started out as an acolyte of Roger Corman and he obviously learned how to use a modest budget well! Spider Baby is great entertainment, probably not suitable for all audiences, but fundamental for cult-fanatics and fans of obscure productions.