What hath God wrought?

SPIDER BABY (1968)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Lon Chaney Jr. might have wondered where his career went when he appeared in occasional disposable junky fare in his latter years. "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" is one disposable stinker that might have stirred up the Biblical line: "What hath God wrought?" Perhaps he thought the same of this Jack Hill-directed horror film (more comical than terrifying overall), "Spider Baby: Or the Maddest Story Ever Told." I do not consider "Spider Baby" a stinker - it is actually a fairly solid little chiller with black humor tones imbued throughout and then some. I don't know what Chaney thought of it but he probably never saw the finished product.

The Merrye Family lives in some decrepit, decaying mansion in the middle of the woods. It is the kind of mansion that one stays away from, not approach and ask if anybody's home. One such victim, a delivery man, falls for the oldest trick in the horror film book - sticking your head into an open window with torn curtains. He is killed instantly, and loses a ear.

The Merrye Family consists of three siblings, two of whom are young women wearing tattered dresses. One is a brunette "spider baby" (Jill Banner) who violently attacks outsiders in a spider-like manner and armed with two handy knives. The other is a blonde nutcase named Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn), who merely stands around and flaunts her sexuality like a feral cat. Then there is Ralph (Sid Haig) who sneers and never says much - he is like a bald raggedy doll craving sexual attention. Bruno (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is the chauffeur and guardian of this bizarre family, which also includes a cannibalistic pair of aunts and uncles living in the cellar. Think of the film "Spider Baby" as an early precursor to 1974's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead," not to mention a possible inspiration behind Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses." The rest of "Spider Baby" has family members from out-of-town and their lawyer seeking to take possession of the house. A dinner scene where the meal consists of a cat's carcass (unbeknownst to the guests), insects, mushrooms and a weed salad is enough to make you laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Somehow Lon Chaney, Jr. brings gravity to his role as the guardian - he makes us care about him since all he wants to do is protect the family at any cost from the outside world. It is a spark of humanity added to a cheeky horror flick whose main purpose is to titillate; spiders and much hysteria involving a dumb waiter and fresh meat for consumption add to the titillation. "Spider Baby" is absurdly funny with a haunting finish. For an el cheapo production shot in 12 days with the film producer going bankrupt before finally releasing it four years later, it is much better than expected.