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7
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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A
weird, twisted little low budget horror-comedy
from director Jack Hill, the man responsible for
such cult exploitation classics as Coffy
and The Big Doll House.
It concerns a family of retarded cannibals and
the devoted servant who cares for them. Genre
film legend Lon Chaney Jr. (Frankenstein
Meets The Wolf Man, Son
Of Dracula) appears in the last significant
role of his long career. He even gets to warble
the loopy theme song!
Meet the Merrye clan, a family cursed with
a degenerative disease that progressively "rots"
the brains of its sufferers. Beginning at age
10 the afflicted slowly revert to a childlike
state of retardation, with some unfortunate physical
side effects occurring as they grow older. The
surviving Merryes are cared for by their devoted
servant and chauffeur, Bruno (Chaney), the family's
only real contact with the outside world. For
decades he's lovingly shielded them from the prying
eyes of strangers. Now, though, interlopers arrive
to disturb their secluded domain.
Siblings Emily and Peter Howe — distant relatives
of the Merryes — show up out of the blue one day
with a lawyer in tow. Peter (Quinn Redeker) is
a rather happy-go-lucky fellow but his sister
Emily (House On Haunted
Hill's Carol Ohmart) is a cold-hearted harpy
from hell. She's determined to get her hands on
the Merrye estate and any remaining family assets;
her lawyer, the abrasive Mr. Schlocker (Karl Schanzer),
has drawn up the necessary documents to have the
surviving Merryes declared mentally incompetent
and institutionalized. Peter could care less about
the large, rambling manor house and surrounding
real estate. His only interest is in Schlocker's
pretty young secretary, Ann (Mary Mitchel).
A congenial Bruno introduces the unwanted
visitors to the Merrye "children": Elizabeth (Beverly
Washburn), Virginia (Jill Banner), and Ralph (Hill
regular Sid Haig). In their late teens or early
20s, the girls look normal — if a bit feral —
each with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old.
Bald, creepy-looking Ralph is even more far gone;
he can't speak and behaves like an infant. The
children totally disgust moneygrubbing Emily.
(She doesn't meet the other Merrye family
members — the ones who live in a charnel pit in
the basement — until later.) Peter is friendly
and amiable. So amiable in fact that he samples
some of the roasted cat which Bruno prepares for
dinner. (This dinner scene is a highlight of the
film.) Afterwards, Peter and Ann drive into town
to stay at a motel while Emily and Mr. Schlocker
bed down for the night in the only available guest
rooms. Ice queen Emily displays a hidden facet
of her harsh personality when she parades around
before a mirror in her room trying on lingerie
she discovers in the closet. Enjoying the show
is a drooling Ralph, who's climbed out onto the
roof to hang upside down outside her window! As
much as we dislike her, Emily's revulsion for
the Merryes isn't misplaced. You see, this dysfunctional
family isn't just cursed with an hereditary illness.
They're also murderous cannibals who dine on human
flesh.
A bizarre picture for its time, Spider
Baby is odd, funny and creepy all at once.
It's certainly one of the most unusual cannibal
films ever made. For a comedy it opens with a
surprisingly shocking murder. (Not gory, but startling
nonetheless.) An off-kilter vibe of psychosexual
strangeness permeates a number of scenes. Genuinely
ghoulish imagery is counterbalanced with sardonic
humor; the film never takes itself too seriously
or too lightly. This is due as much to the individual
performances of the actors as it is the direction
or script. Everyone is quite good, with the exception
of Schanzer as the attorney Schlocker. (The one
misfire among the cast, he's amateurish and annoying.
The Hitler mustache doesn't help things.) The
late Lisa Banner (The President's
Analyst), then only 17, gives an astoundingly
professional performance in her first movie role.
And it was nice to see that Lon Chaney Jr. got
at least one semi-decent part — not to mention
top billing — before hitting rock bottom in dreck
like Fireball Jungle
and Dracula Vs. Frankenstein.
(The latter flick is awful but can still be fun
for cheese lovers, however.) Of course, with Chaney
in the cast screenwriter Hill can't resist tossing
in a jokey reference to The
Wolf Man. "There's a full moon tonight,"
Chaney says ominously, providing the perfect punchline.
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Image's
DVD release utilizes the best-looking film elements
of Spider Baby still
in existence. While not pristine, the transfer is
leagues ahead of any previous VHS release (which
were mostly bootlegs, by the way). The Digital Mono
audio track is fine, with no problems to report.
The disc also comes with a pleasing array of extras.
Surprisingly, a trailer isn't among them. Director
Joe Dante (Piranha) provides
brief, complimentary liner lines.
Eight minutes of "lost" footage is included
— actually less than that, since much of it was
actually incorporated into the film. Viewable separately,
this features dialog between Bruno and Schlocker
that was nipped from the final cut. A shot-on-home-video
"reunion" has cult film entrepreneur Johnny Legend
briefly interviewing Hill and surviving cast members
Washburn, Mitchel and Haig at a revival screening
of the film, held at the NuArt theater in Los Angeles
in 1994. It's amateurish and not particularly illuminating,
but still enjoyable. The best of the extras is the
feature-length commentary by writer-director Jack
Hill. As with his commentary track for Coffy,
Hill holds forth in a rather laid-back, almost mellow
style. He stays focused mainly on the disc's subject
film rather than cover other aspects of his exploitation
career. He pays great attention to the cast, more
or less admitting that, since he gave little if
no direction to the actors during filming, it is
their individual performances which truly make the
picture work. He's effusive in his praise for Chaney
— a hardcore alcoholic who wanted to do the film
so badly he gave up booze during the shoot — and
the winsome Lisa Banner. (Banner, who also appeared
in a number of Dragnet episodes on TV, was
later killed in a road accident.) 9/03/01 |
| UPDATE
The Image disc reviewed here went OOP in 2004. On
Sept. 25, 2007 Dark Sky Films is slated to release
a special edition of Spider
Baby, completely restored/remastered and
featuring new bonus materials. |
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