Quentin Tarantino once called Spider Baby director Jack Hill the Howard Hawks of exploitation. It's recognition that Hill lives up to even in this film, his first solo feature film and yet still widely recognized as one of his weirdest and wildest films. The 1967 film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. in one of his better performances late in his career as Bruno, a guardian and protector to three demented adults following the death of their father. Dubbed "the maddest story ever told," Spider Baby opens up with a scene of Virginia (Jill Banner) killing an unaware messenger in her makeshift web, a web largely birthed out of a genetic disorder all three siblings have that causes them to regress back to childhood while retaining their physical strength and the sexual maturity of adults.

Bruno has, for the most part, been able to cover up the misdeeds of the siblings. This begins to change when two distant relatives arrive at the house to lay claim to it - that is, if Bruno can get the three siblings to behave.

Doesn't that seem unlikely?

Created on a budget of $65,000 back in 1967, Spider Baby is an exploitation fan's delight. It's a film that also made Alfred Eaker's list of 366 Weird Movies, an honor I can't help but think it deserves and that writer/director Jack Hill would be proud of receiving. While it would be easy to peg Spider Baby as an incestuous cousin to such television and cinematic fare as The Addams Family and, to a certain degree, even Little Shop of Horrors. These comparisons are understandable, but there's also little denying that it's one weird-ass beast all its own.

Spider Baby covers the gamut of exploitation material including both incest and cannibalism, though Hill deserves some perverse credit for making the key characters surprisingly sympathetic and compelling. Jill Banner was a mere 17-years-old when she played Virginia, a gloriously unpredictable young woman whose behaviors will likely make you laugh even as you're squirming. Sid Haig shows up as remarkably regressed sibling Ralph, whose behavior isn't so much a polar opposite to Virginia's but he's got a more infantile quality going on. Beverly Washburn is here as the third sibling and completes the trio quite nicely. The film also features Carol Ohmart as Aunt Emily, who brings with her the spot-on Peter (Quinn Redeker).

Despite having a budget that was modest even in 1967, Spider Baby benefits greatly from the creative and inspired lensing of Alfred Taylor and Ronald Stein's almost endearing original score.

Yeah, I said endearing.

Spider Baby, though, truly soars on the strength of the perfect casting of Chaney, whose life had downward spiraled by this time due to alcoholism but who reportedly promised Hill he'd remain sober throughout the production. It has been long reported that Chaney kept his promise and was rewarded with one of the best performances of his incredibly up-and-down, mostly down, career.

With a wealth of winning extras on this DVD/Blu-ray release from U.K.-based Arrow Films, Spider Baby gets practically the perfect distribution for a film that remains an early, shining example of exploitation and bold, passionate filmmaking in a genre that could far too often be accused of going by the formula.

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic