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| Spider Baby (Directors cut) | 
 enlarge | Director: Jack Hill
Actor: Jill Banner; Jr. Lon Chaney; Sid Haig; Joan Keller; Mary Mitchell; Mantan Moreland; Carol Ohmart; Quinn K. Redeker; Karl Schanzer; Beverly Washburn
Studio: MPI Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $6.69
You Save: $13.29 (67%)
New (41) Used (8) from $6.58
Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 14022
Format: Black & White, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 84
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: MPID8142D
UPC: 030306814292
EAN: 0030306814292
ASIN: B000RPCJ9I
Theatrical Release Date: 1964
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Want to Play Spider? July 19, 2007
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Before I begin let me say that Spider Baby is one of my 4 favorite films of all time. Jack Hill's comments are worth the price of the film alone to anyone who appreciates the struggles and gambles of low budget film making at the start of their career. This is only part of the extras, but let's sharpen our knives and go bug hunting with the movie itself.
Jack Hill's horror, cult classic tells the tale of the last of the Merrye family who suffer from a degenerative disease of the brain that begins at about 10 years of age due to inbreeding. The Merrye children could be said to be homicidal, cannibalistic, pyschotic and yet at times show childlike innocence and charm. Their two aunts (that have proceeded them into total madness)live (if you can call it that) in the basement. The Merrye family is cared for by their devoted caregiver and chauffeur, Bruno who has made a deathbed promise to the children's father to always protect and look after the children.
Enter into the story an Aunt wanting to take over the family holdings, her nieve brother, her sleezy lawyer and the lawyer's beautiful, playful, and easily unnerved, legal assistant.
While Spider Baby is a low budget survivor of lawsuits, drive-ins and hidden copies; it has endured the test of time due to the acting talents of the cast. Lon Chaney Jr. (Bruno) could count this as one of his last films and Jill Banner (Virginia aka Spider Baby) as her first movie role. Sid Haig (Ralph) is an art form unto himself with his contortions and facial expressions. Beverly Washburn (Elizabeth) is so compelling with her rollercoater worth of moods. Carol Ohmart (Aunt Emily Howe) is both sexual and evil in her selfish motives. Her brother Quinn K Redeker (Uncle Peter Howe) is both narrator and out to lunch friend to all. Mary Mitchel (Ann) is pure comedy relief, perfect victim and mirror to any scene she is in. Mantan Moreland (the messenger) brought a politically incorrect, African-American role to the beginning of the film which has to be appreciated for a comedy style that had faded from movies by 1964. The last character I would like to mention is the house and grounds themselves which have horror, comedy and degeneration that so describes the entire movie. The house and grounds are in a sense the spider web.
Overall, the roles are wonderfully defined, the story is told well, the violence is off camera yet clear. The strength of the acting lies in the non-verbal facial, use of hands and motion.
There are really two endings in the same movie. The first is both twisted and logical in it's climax. The second is a surprise and leaves one wishing for a sequel that never happened.
This film is so delicious and sickening in the same bite. Spider Baby will make you laugh and scream in the same breath.
Want to play Spider?
 Spider Baby never looked so good! November 24, 1999
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I love re-releases, no better way to re-release this little gem than on DVD. the QUALITY OF THE TRANSFER IS MAGNIFICANT! Spider Baby goes down as one of the all-time great cult classic films. Jack Hill's best right next to Switchblade Sisters. This DVD includes 8 minites of long lost footage, that was recently found when they where looking for a good print to use in the transfer. Dvd includes a great little Documentery on the theatrical re-release, with the aging cast remeniscing about to good ol' days, and Jack hill answering a few questions for his cult following. Highly reccomended, check it out if you are into weird movies with simple plots.
double-distilled pure purple psychotronica! June 16, 1999
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is an unashamedly crazy little movie that's lots of fun to watch. The title doesn't lie: This is the craziest story I've ever seen on film. And what a lineup: Lon Chaney Jr. in what may be the best role of his career; comic relief veteran Mantan Moreland; Carol "House on Haunted Hill" Ohmart (who feels compelled to model lingerie in a haunted house); Mary "Dementia 13" Michel; Sid Haig as the "big kid" Ralph; and the girls "Virginia" and "Elizabeth" -- never was degenerative disease so appetizing! If you like standard-issue Hollywood fare, stick with that; but if you prefer the crazy edge, this is the flick for you!
 Kiss of the Spider Girl October 22, 2004
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This horror camp comedy has slowly earned its cult status over the four decades since its release. It is aka: THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD, THE LIVER EATERS, and CANNIBAL ORGY. Jack Hill wrote, directed and edited it. He filmed it in 12 days. He was a former production assistant for Roger Corman, and he learned how to keep America's Drive In screens busy. Over his career, he directed 21 films, and most of them had their debuts over the shiny hoods of automobiles, flickering madly, competing for teenager's attention span. His later films included COFFY and SWITCHBLADE SISTERS.
The film opened using comic credits, with Lon Chaney Jr., the film's one major star, singing the title song. The song was later released on 45, the flip side of Bobby Pickett's MONSTER HOLIDAY. This movie, although not a serious candidate to compete for horror status when rubbing shoulders with the AI Edgar Allen Poe classic, mostly starring Vincent Price, or with the British Hammer lush color gore fests that were the remakes of all the old American Universal classics. But never the less, it has managed to carve out its own quiet niche. It never takes itself too seriously, and yet never reduces itself to burlesque and pratfalls like the TV shows THE ADAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS that were popular at the time. It became a crude schematic for future films done about a "crazy family"; films like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS.
Bad movies are a genre unto themselves. This movie shared something significant with several Ed Wood features. Wood gave the aging Bela Lugosi some screen time before his death. In this film, Jack Hill gave the aging Lon Chaney Jr., who actually had starred with Lugosi in several Universal 40's horror classics, his farewell role. Chaney, who was an alcoholic, stayed dry for the two weeks of the shoot. Despite everything, he managed to deliver a rather nuanced and poignant performance; implying that he never really was given much of a chance to show what he could do as a dramatic actor. I remember him as Big Sam in THE DEFIANT ONES. He showed some dramatic promise in that one.
The plot centered around a fictitious medical problem, a genetic brain malady called the "Merrye Syndrome". Just before puberty, at about age ten, the family members would begin to regress their emotional age. At some point they would lose language, and develop a taste for human flesh. Several of the older family members were kept in a pit in the basement, where the odd dead body was tossed as a delicacy. Chaney as Bruno, the family chauffer, was the guardian of the last three children, and the family secret.
The old comedy veteran, Mantan Moreland, had a brief scene as a Messenger. He was dispatched early, and fed to the family in the basement. The plot thickened with the arrival of two cousins, their lawyer, and his secretary; more fodder for the fiends. I did like the dinner scene, where the strangers were fed roast cat, dry grass salad, boiled fungus, and bug stew. Carol Ohmart played cousin Emily, and she was able to do a gratuitous strip tease scene, and then parade around in black lingerie for a time.
In 1964, I thought this movie was silly, and not very scary. Today, upon reflection, I see it as prototypical in its creativity, that it had some clever writing, was fairly dark and humorous, and there was above average acting in it.
Spiders..... September 9, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Jack Hill is the director of this, and he's made a living directing very bad films like Switchblade Sisters and Coffy (even though Pam Grier is hot). But this is his best film, and it's quite good. This is a really creepy, darkly funny, and surprisingly touching (especially at the end) film about a very unique and disturbed family. Lon Chaney, Jr. is magnificent as the long suffering butler of the family, who has a degenerative disease (called Merrye Syndrome, a sort of early dementia). After it was released (sort of) in 1964, it went into limbo over rights and issues like that, and was released under several names, like Cannibal Orgy: Or The Maddest Story Ever Told and The Liver Eaters. After a few unsuccessful releases under this myriad of titles, it disappeared and many people thought it was lost. A B movie enthusiast named Johnny Legend tracked down the original negative years later, and new prints were struck. The restoration is quite good, and the film is really a marvel considering the tribulations of its production. It was shot in a mere 12 days, and despite its budget and low rent production, it holds up surprisingly well. It's not campy, just a creepy and quite unique film.
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