Synopsis
Come into my parlor, said the spider to the...
A caretaker devotes himself to three demented siblings after their father's death. But then money-hungry relatives show up to usurp their inheritance.
Spider Baby
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Alternative Titles
Cannibal Orgy, The Liver Eaters, Attack of the Liver Eaters, Cannibal Orgy, or the Maddest Story Ever Told, Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told
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I've never seen a movie that strikes the tone this one does, an intersection between scary, funny, sexy, completely heartfelt, and totally disreputable. Lon Chaney's tearful late film monologue should be legendary if it isn't already. Same goes for Sid Haig's completely unhinged performance.
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“Spiders don't eat other spiders.”
“Cannibal spiders do.”Spider Baby, the maddest story ever told! a girl who acts like a bug, stalks like a bug, snatches, claws, but don’t get too close, she’ll catch you her in spiderweb. just about one of the most creative and delightfully bizarre things I’ve seen, a true weirdo macabre cult classic that has escaped me over the years and I have become ever-so tangled in its web of lunacy!
a story of two twisted sisters, their mute brother and devoted guardian Lon Chaney Jr.—the Wolf Man himself—residing at the old rundown Merrye estate, when distant relatives come to dispossess the family of their home, things turn awry. A gothic horror comedy pitched darkest black,…
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97
"As with many Old Dark House pictures, Spider Baby features a cobwebbed mansion full of spiders, skeletons, taxidermy, secret passages, and hidden creatures in the basement. And the living specimens are practically monsters in and of themselves. But Jack Hill has a great sense of empathy for the family, and he never once allows the silly plot to distract from their performances, which are the star of the show. The film dabbles in these ideas and images of what a ‘haunted house’ movie is, and then invigorates it with a dangerous, unsettling angle of violence and sexual undertones."
A few words on Spider Baby, which is a defining cult film that invigorated a new path for Horror.
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Spiders like bugs.. they taste good
A bizarro early Jack Hill horror comedy with fun performances by Jill Banner, Beverly Washburn and Sid Haig. At times campy, at times creepy, always weird(ly entertaining). The black and white photography makes Spider Baby feel like a movie from a decade or two earlier, but there are a couple of (ever so slightly) raunchy moments that puts it firmly in the latter half of the '60s.
Twisted!
I had a blast watching this with Michelle.
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Jozlyn Recommends 5: It's Alive!
I caught a big fat bug right in my spider web and now the spider gets to give the bug a big sting. Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! - Virginia
File this in the "Why the fuck didn't I watch this sooner?" folder. A relic from a turning point in cinematic horror, fossilized in celluloid amber. You can see, watching this, how the winds of change were blowing in the late 60s. The shift from old Hollywood horror to the exploitation horror of the 70s, in a film that feels like some weird mashup of The Old Dark House (1932) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). I mean, how can you not love a film where… -
Spider Baby is an absolute delight, managing to be at once terribly wholesome and profoundly warped; both saccharine sweet and cheerfully sadistic. And, counterintuitively, it's the sweetness rather than the horror that holds everything together, and cements the film's greatness.
As Bruno, the aging, lonely caretaker of the rapidly decaying Merrye family and estate, Lon Chaney, Jr. gives a performance of heartfelt depth, taking his character from an initially simple intoner of pat lessons for children (hate is wrong; things that aren't good aren't necessarily bad) to a man with a deep love for his charges, someone whose promise to look out for them was made out of affection and devotion, not a sense of obligation. In the midst of…
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In Memoriam.
Rest in Peace Sid Haig.
A truly wonderful, mesmerising craftsman.
A deeply felt loss. -
Declaring itself "The Maddest Story Ever Told", Jack Hill's Spider Baby fuses horror, comedy and family values for one bizarre slice of exploitation. The film status out slow but quickly descends into mayhem as a delivery man is captured and killed by what is apparently a little girl "playing spider". From there we are introduced to an inbred family afflicted by "Merrye syndrome", a condition which causes a regression back to childhood. The film really plays on this - the two central antagonists are a pair of unhinged young girls, a fascinating juxtaposition between violence and innocence. Lon Chaney Jr's sympathetic performance as the custodian of the family really anchors the whole piece. His presence helps to install the film's…
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just think the addams family meets the texas chainsaw massacre with a bit of psycho. that's the easiest way for me to explain what kind of movie this is. it's disturbing but extremely campy and a ton of fun. there's also a young sid haig that only adds onto the appeal. i recommend that every horror fan watch this.
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Somewhere between this and Zombie Shark Cheerleaders (or whatever DTV horror comedy is currently in post production somewhere on Earth this minute) we as a culture forgot that a movie that has horror elements can also be funny without being overtly self-referential, jokey, and stupid (2011's THE WOMAN is a notable counter example). Everyone plays their part with a straight forward conviction that makes the humorous aspects even more absurd and enjoyable. Lon Chaney Jr in particular summons something deep, dark and true in his turn as the straight man to his ghoulish family.
Also, a great theme song *or* the greatest theme song of all time?
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This is almost like the Umbrellas of Cherbourg of the first big wave of regional American exploitation, looking back and taking cues from the Universal horror canon while also producing a work that feels unmistakenly modern. Like a cross between Night of the Living Dead and Multiple Maniacs, with a subject matter that's every bit as lurid, but with the shock politics replaced by a genuine want to please and thrill. Such a treat to get to see this on 35mm.
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