Gotta thank Shemp_Diesel for suggesting this one because until now SPIDER BABY is a movie I have never seen. Fortunately there’s a really nice print of this one on YouTube so I’m able to watch and review it. As somebody who has reviewed a ton of older movies, you will hear me mention the term “pre-code” a lot when there is racy material for the time in a movie from the early thirties. I will also mention how said material would not be allowed in a film a few years later. SPIDER BABY, being released in December of 1967, has about the opposite effect. The code 100% loosened later in 1968, and SPIDER BABY is no doubt an exploitation of its time. This shows almost as much sex and gore as one can show in a 1967 film, but if released one year later, you gotta think there’d be some nudity and more blood. As it stands, we get lingerie and a fake looking ear being lobbed off. Anyway you slice it, SPIDER BABY is a really fun exploitation film that pays tribute to a few other old horror films and serves as a great late in life vehicle for Lon Chaney, Jr.
The basic premise of SPIDER BABY is Lon Chaney, Jr. plays caretaker to a family of young kids (I guess they’re supposed to be teens, the real life actors were in their twenties), two of them young girls and the other a tall, bald awkward looking guy who suffer from “Merrye Syndrome,” a disease where in late childhood the brain starts to regress to early childhood and beyond to an even more primitive state. “Merrye Syndrome” is exclusive to this family and causes one of the daughters to eat spiders and kill others as if she’s a spider herself. The tall guy looks like one of the pinheads from FREAKS and is a mute who kills animals and is a basic sexual miscreant. He’s also played by the recently deceased Sid Haig, who I got a total kick seeing when so young. I’m really used to seeing him in Rob Zombie movies much later in life. Anyway, the kids are being threatened to be put in a home and there’s an Aunt and Uncle trying to get the fortune of the family in the process, so they stay over the haunted house.
The house itself is very isolated and spooky, like something straight out of PSYCHO. Heck, the dead father even shows up at one point as a character the family converses with in skeletal form, leading more credence to a PSYCHO influence. You guys will find with me, atmosphere is very important to a good horror movie and this deserted spooky house has atmosphere in spades. Spider webs, darkness with just the right amount of subtle lightning, basements where bodies can be dragged into and mauled, a dumbwaiter to transport bodies - just a really cool looking place. Can’t stress enough, the shots of the demented daughters hands grabbing ankles of victims from the floor below is really awesome. Being barely a code film, any violence had to be more subtle than it could be say six months later. Stuff like the hands reaching under is great, but with the exception of one Mantan Moreland ear on the ground, not much is shown in a slasher sense. Compare this to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, released not much later and notice how much gorier the latter is. Still, I think SPIDER BABY works well with the limits of its time and as someone who likes older horror films anyway, gore is not a necessity for me. Still, I can’t help but notice, for the time the film was made, they were so close to being able to do more in that department.
The sexual exploitation also rears its head in SPIDER BABY. This is very important because it really is an example of where horror films were headed. By the 70’s, so many horror films had either some sex or nudity in them to the point where it became cliche. SPIDER BABY again just missed the point where they could have shown more. One of the young daughters ties up Quinn Redeker (THE THREE STOOGES MEETS HERCULES) as if in a spider web in a kinky almost S&M like scenario. She at times wanted to kill him and at times seemed to want to do something else - she couldn’t make up her mind, very demented. Then there’s forty year old Carol Ohmart (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL). She plays an in law trying to get that money. Being an exploitation film, being in a creepy house where the family eats spiders and cats and has a mute imbecile ogling her doesn’t stop her from feeling it’s safe to be alone in her room at night, parading around in a bra, silky robe, garter belt and black stockings just for the heck of it. I mean ladies, wouldn’t you do the same thing? Just an excuse to show the audience she’s quite attractive. Sid Haig crawls from the top of the house down into the window of her room like a spider, a very cool scene and this leads to him and the daughters chasing her around in a field outdoors, still in lingerie, of course. Sid gets her before the daughters and rapes her - again done much more subtlety than would have been done a few years later. Later in the film, she comes back possessed with passion as if she likes what just happened to her and claws and scratches people in the process. Really doesn’t make too much sense, but anybody who watches a movie like this expecting Shakespeare is watching the wrong genre anyway.
Then of course, there’s Lon Chaney, Jr. At Universal, while not bad, I think in a lot of films he was either too restrained or not given enough to do. The latter roles of his I have seen seem to have an edge his earlier roles don’t and SPIDER BABY is no exception. I don’t know if it’s the weight gain, the sideburns, the gleam in his eyes or what, but Chaney is really on fire here and other later roles I rarely see at Universal. He toes the line of caring for these demented children, making excuses for them, lecturing how hate is bad while putting up with their murderous actions all while giving the impression all is not right with him either. The scene where he’s tearing up telling the children he has to go for a few minutes to get them a toy is really a great bit of acting. I won’t give too much more away other than to say towards the end, creatures crawl out of the basement that look straight out of ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, very cool.
There is also an extra plot twist that ends this film I won’t give away other than to say it’s very satisfying. A different era than what I normally review, I will review some other latter horror films in addition to the classic era stuff. SPIDER BABY is a very entertaining late code era horror film on the cusp of a new era just ahead. A great late life role for Lon Chaney, Jr.; perhaps this is his TARGETS, if not thematically, then at least quality wise? Well, they do get a few WOLF MAN references in, so maybe the analogy is not that far off. Anyway, if you like this era of horror and are a Lon Chaney, Jr. fan, I highly suggest SPIDER BABY.
