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Spider Baby - Or the Maddest Story Ever Told (1964)

Dir: Jack Hill

Here we have a true cult item. Given sporadic distribution initially the film has truly grown into a Cult favourite through years of TV, Video and late night Cinema screenings. And Jack Hill's script is the blueprint for many a 'Crazy Psycho Family' film from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "House of a 1000 Corpses".

The Merrye Family is a Family with problems. Due to years of grotty in-breeding a degenerative brain malady has spliced itself into their genes.
Around the age of 10 the effects kick in and all affected members' regress to a child-like state, but with the added value of making them murdering psychotics at the same time!

The current Merrye Family loonies are bald headed, mute Ralph (fan fave Sid Haig) and his two teenage Sisters Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Virginia (Jill Banner).
Virginia is the 'Spider Baby'; of the title and likes nothing better than throwing her home made 'web' net over people and 'stinging' them with her two large carving knives!
Also, in the cellar, are the 'elder' surviving Merrye's who are just too mad now to be allowed anywhere near the outside World.
Trying to keep all these crazies in line is the doting Merrye Chauffeur Bruno (veteran 'Universal' star Lon Chaney JR) who promised the kid's late Father he would look after the Family.

Then into this happy but lethal household come two distant relatives, the ruthless ice queen Emily (Carol Ohmart) and her much friendlier Brother, Peter (Quinn K. Redeker) who, with the slimy Lawyer Schlocker (Karl Schanzer) and his pretty assistant Ann (Mary Mitchel), plan to take over the Estate.....

 

From the opening credits made up of macabre line drawings, with Lon Chaney crooning the title song, you just know that something delightfully bizarre is going to unfurl itself before your eyes. And it does!

Everything here is a spot on parody of earlier films, from the scared and mistrusting 'townsfolk', to the opening innocent victim, to the spooky house, scheming relatives, skeletons in beds and a multitude of cobwebs. But as mentioned, Hill's script cleverly uses all these cliches to spin his own macabre tale and at the same time deliver plenty of ideas new to the horror genre.

The highlight of the film is the entertainingly mad Merrye Family (as should be the case with every film with a crazy Family, the makers of "Wrong Turn" should have taken note) who all have their time in the spotlight and all work as macabre creations.

Haig has great fun as the 'Geek' like Ralph, scurrying around sporting his mad grin and riding up and down the 'dumb waiter' lift cradling bodies. It's a grotesque pantomime performance, and it's most welcome.

Of the girls Elizabeth has enough screaming outbursts (as she flips her long dress around in a coy manner) and knife wielding flip-outs to make sure she is not put in the shade by her other siblings, and you really believe she means it when she screeches "Kill him! Kill him" before lunging out at a would-be victim. . Fine work by Ms Washburn

But it's the wickedly warped (but sweet) Virginia that is the star of the show. Jill Banner does wonders in the role of the lethal 'Lolita'. Whether it's flirting like an undersexed teen, playing like a little girl, or slashing away with childlike exuberance with her double knives...Banner pulls off Virginia's psychosis brilliantly.

Chaney, in one of his last roles of any worth, does a nice job as the Family's anchor, and his regular underplaying works well with is character, who may not be asd psychotic as the rest of them, but is certainly missing a few eggs from his omelet. He also brings a touch of pathos to the proceedings as he sees the Family he loves come under threat from the World outside.

Ohmart plays up her characters coldness to full cheesy affect so when she strips down to her black underwear, revealing a very hot woman under that icy coating, the change is all the more effective.
Redeker plays his role in a suitably tongue in cheek fashion, and makes the dizzy and nice Peter a welcome addition to the film, where he could so easily have become annoying.

But away from the character's the script also has many effective black comedy moments that help keep the film moving along nicely for the most part. Though one extended walking around the house scene with the Lawyer definitely outstays it's welcome and threatens to slow the whole movie down.
Among the many highlights is the dinner that the Merrye's rustle up for their uninvited guests that's made up of roast cat (pounced on by Ralph), dry grass salad, boiled fungus and bug stew!
Virginia is given lots of fun moments as well as she crawls around the mushroom patch looking for bugs, creeps around with her knives raised and strokes her pet spiders.
The film is full of delightfully wicked 'bonding' between the Family too; who share many a knowing glance at the expense of the unsuspecting relatives.

And look out for something that would never be allowed today…Comedy drunk driving!! As a pissed Peter slurs his words and wobbles the steering wheel after a heavy drinking session with Ann.

We have some nice dialogue as well with Hill giving some nice crazy but innocently childlike lines to the Family, like Bruno teaching the children how to act; "Elizabeth…I told you it isn't nice to hate" and a moody Virginia plucking a spider off the table and eating it.
Elizabeth: "Spiders don't eat spiders"
Virginia "They do if they're cannibal spiders"!

Top marks to Set Designer Ray Storey for his work on the house. It's packed with all the essential sights like draped cobwebs, creaking floorboards, dusty dark rooms, secret passages and a dank cellar. As well as a few rats, straw filled bird cages and a moth eaten stuffed owl which, with the many close-up's of spiders, add a slightly more 'fetid' atmosphere from the normal 'Old Dark House' and shows a move into the far more explicit 'charnel houses' that would become such a part of classics like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

The other change from the 'Old Dark House' films of the 30's/40's is the increase in violence. Sure this is never very explicit and basically off screen (a severed ear aside) but the crazed slashing and stabbing demises are a sign of the changing times.

Overall then we have a macabre black comic gem with a hint of pathos, a dollop of violence, pantomime villains, great atmosphere, sexy lingerie and a wonderfully acted and scripted Family of psycho's that would be an obvious influence on film makers for many years to come.
Nice ending as well!