Spider Baby is the cult classic directorial debut of film maker Jack Hill, aka The Maddest Storey Ever Told or Cannibal Orgy. Yes that’s right, they even get mentioned in the opening song. This is the ultimate Mad Movie in my opinion. Words like weird, sick and outlandish have been used to describe it. So here we have the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family living with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they continue to develop physically. The children are cared for by the family chauffeur played by Lon Chaney Jr. (The Haunted Palace) who plays the role like the veteran horror movie actor he is. We start out with a cameo by Mantan Moreland (veteran comedy actor) who pops up long enough to get himself killed. It is Moreland’s character who brings us to the house inhabited by the Merrye family, along with a few other oddities and surprises. What a creepy twisted haunted house movie; no one had ever saw a movie like it at the time. Due to its subject matter - not to mention subtitles - this one sat on the shelf a long time before released in to theaters. What a great cast starring Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart (House on Haunted Hill), Quinn Redeker (Ordinary People), Beverly Washburn ( Old Yeller, and later starred in Hill’s Pit Stop) and the late Jill Banner in her film debut turning in a stunningly creepy and somewhat sexy performance if you can imagine that! Also features Sid Haig, who starred in Hill’s student film The Host, Mary Mitchel (Dementia 13), Karl Schanzer (Dementia 13) and Mantan Moreland who has been a character actor or comedian since the early 30's. Hill was conflicted as to the title so it is known as Spider Baby and The Maddest Story Ever Told at the same time. The DVD release features never before seen footage - obviously cinemas were too sensitive and the world was just not ready for Spider Baby back in its day. But it is greatly appreciated by me and I think it is truly one of the MADest movies of all time. MAD movie goers will enjoy this five star MAD movie.
Here are some fun facts: Chaney sang the opening song and this movie had to wait 33 years before it was released to cinemas in the UK...wow, big surprise. It did however finally get released in North America in January of 1968, still a long to wait for film lovers of this weird genre...you know who you are.
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