They’re creepy and they’re kooky…

Jack Hill’s cult classic SPIDER BABY gets the all-star treatment in a lavish new collectors edition from the crew at Dark Sky Films. I still remember the first time I saw SPIDER BABY. It was 1997 and Anchor Bay had recently released a VHS edition of the film. The two names that drew me to the box were Jack Hill and Johnny Legend. Hill was the purveyor of such brilliant Blacksploitation films as COFFY and FOXY BROWN and Legend was the force behind a VHS series of Exploitation Trailers called SLEAZEMANIA—sort of a predecessor to the recent 42nd STREET FOREVER series. I knew that with Legend’s name attached as in “Johnny Legend Presents” this was gonna be one hell of a weird movie. Boy was I underestimating that sentiment!

The Merrye family suffers from a curse—a syndrome as the film calls it. This debilitating mental condition, the result of years of inbreeding, causes the afflicted to begin regressing to childhood once they have achieved puberty. As they age, their mental faculties slowly revert to a child-like state, eventually regressing beyond their conception and into a primordial state of cannibalism and madness. The surviving bloodline of the late Titus W. Merrye live in a secluded Victorian home somewhere in Southern California with only Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.)—the masters former chauffeur—as their ward. The teenage girls Elizabeth and Virginia (Beverly Washburn and Jill Banner) are already exhibiting their budding homicidal tendencies whist eldest brother Ralph (Sid Haig) has reverted to a near infant-state. Their seemingly idyllic and twisted lifestyle is about to be rudely interrupted when the makeshift family receives notice that a sleazy attorney (Karl Schanzer) is arriving that afternoon with the remaining blood relatives (Carol Ohmart and Quinn K. Redeker) to claim the family fortune and property for their own.

Shot in 1964 and shelved for 4-years due to the producer’s various bankruptcy suits, SPIDER BABY—originally titled CANNIBAL ORGY—is a rare breed of film. It’s horror/comedy that not only succeeds as both; it thrives as both while still struggling to define itself as both. The film is too sentimental to be considered camp, too campy to be taken seriously and too shocking to be considered comedy—although it’s virtually bloodless. Lon Chaney Jr. serves as the emotional center in a vortex of sly dialogue and garish visuals. It is through his sad eyes that we watch the disintegration of the world’s most dysfunctional family. But the film is not tragic. By Bruno’s account to Virginia “nothing is very bad”. That overriding sentiment seen again in the child like wonder of Virginia and Elizabeth during the film’s climax defines what SPIDER BABY is all about.

Director Jack Hill says the film is about unconditional love. That’s a haughty goal for a $60,000 horror film destined for a life of Drive-in Double Feature doom. That the film delivers the poignant assertion while still managing to unnerve and amuse the viewer speaks volumes to the strength not only of the cast but to the filmmakers.

Jill Banner’s star making debut performance as Virginia—the SPIDER BABY of the title—is a mixture of Sue Lyon in LOLITA and Patty McCormack in THE BAD SEED. She is at once naive and sexual with a burning, deep seeded psychosis that is custom designed to entrap you and consume you. Like the spiders that she so reveres, Virginia is the ultimate predator. Lon Chaney Jr.’s presence, as Bruno is the ideal study of a man heartbreakingly determined to do what is best for the family. The actor who was battling a debilitating alcohol addiction that would claim his life less than a decade later gives the moving, career-capping performance. Ralph, characterized by genre favorite Sid Haig—who would go on to appear in 7 other Jack Hill films—is a revelation. A six-foot four-inch tall toddler, Haig steals every scene he’s in—menacing guests with his child-like animalism.

What Hill, Cinematographer Alfred Taylor (KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE) and Production Designer Ray Storey (BLUE SUNSHINE) manage to accomplish is impressive as well. With deep lighting schemes and inspiring set design Taylor and Storey actually succeed in supplementing Hill’s dry direction, making the film feel at times both claustrophobic and Spartan and at other times vast and gothic. Hill’s direction is clearly born out of his Roger Corman roots. The film is clean, matter-of-fact and never flashy. As such Hill’s direction really grounds SPIDER BABY in its era.

It’s almost impossible to define SPIDER BABY. The cult that surrounds it is exclusive. Even the most ardent genrephiles haven’t seen the film. It’s been in and out of distribution so often that it’s hard to keep track of it. Director Jack Hill only managed to get a print himself (in the early 1980’s) through a ruse. The DVD edition of the film is night and day from that VHS collector’s edition I saw 10-years ago. The print is excellent with just a few soft spots. But the highlight is a retrospective documentary featuring Hill, Haig, Alfred Taylor, Schanzer, Redeker, Beverly Washburn and Director Joe Dante reminiscing on the films production, history and subsequent status as cult legend. It is encompassing and heartfelt, informative and whimsical. It’s clear that those involved in the production have great affection for the movie and for what they accomplished that summer in Southern California. SPIDER BABY may be one of the strangest films you’ve ever seen, but what more could you expect or deserve from a movie that bills itself as The Maddest Story Ever Told!