spider baby

Yet another graduate of the unofficial Roger Corman film school, director Jack Hill is responsible for more than his share of minor classics in the exploitation genre including The Big Doll House, Foxy Brown and Switchblade Sisters. But while most of his work was predictably commercial enough to make money and appease the drive-in crowds, Spider Baby (1968) is cut from a different cloth entirely.

The film introduces us to the Merrye family, whose surviving members suffer from a syndrome that mentally ages them in reverse as they approach puberty. Elizabeth and Virginia are seductively functional baby dolls while their older brother Ralph is a feeble-minded gimp…and even more dangerous inbred relatives lurk in the basement. Their caretaker, Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr. of The Wolf Man), protects them as best he can but when distant relations and their attorney arrive with plans to inherit the family wealth, bad blood starts spilling in the Merrye household.

Shot in twelve days in 1964 and originally titled Cannibal Orgy, Hill’s film took four years to make it onto the screen. But no matter when it was released Spider Baby would have been a hard sell. Blending horror, comedy, sex and cannibalism, the market for this eccentric approach simply didn’t exist yet. The Monster Mash-style theme song under the opening credits (sung by Chaney instead of a Karloff impersonator) only makes the tone that much more bizarre.

In one of his final performances, Chaney is put to excellent use here, allowing the movie to have fun with his classic horror past but also delivering a convincing monologue that is easily the best acting of his career. Sid Haig is the film’s living, breathing special effect; a bald-headed, buck-toothed man-child with a surprising sexual appetite.

Yet it’s the late Jill Banner as Virginia who comes off as the most naturally talented member of the cast. She has the juiciest role as the youngest Merrye, whose favorite game of “spider” almost always results in someone getting “stung.” Only eighteen-years-old during production, she looks much younger and the sequence in which she attempts to seduce her Uncle Peter is hypnotically disturbing.

Much like the Merrye family, Spider Baby is unpredictable, unconventional and surprisingly dangerous. Often Hill’s movie feels like a fun and friendly episode of The Munsters (which also coincidentally also went into production in ’64), then does an abrupt about-face with overt suggestions of sex and violence…all off-screen which makes them somehow even more disturbing. There simply is nothing else quite like it.

Arrow Films present a newly restored Blu-ray / DVD–combo that carries over all the extras from the 2007 release and adds a few more. An audio commentary and half-hour documentary answer most questions about the production, but the panel discussion, extended scene, location tour and featurette on composer Ronald Stein are pleasant examples of overkill. Even better is The Host, Jack Hill’s half-hour student film that likely served as “inspiration” for Coppola’s third-act finale in Apocalypse Now. Although Spider Baby was always blessed with a good transfer on home video, Arrow’s efforts elevate the entire production to a new level of black-and-white clarity.