‘Spider Baby’: the hilarious horrors of an underrated cult classic
Before Jack Hill became known for his blaxploitation movies Coffy and Foxy Brown, both featuring Pam Grier, the filmmaker made a bizarre comedy-horror that now remains a cult favourite – marvelously twisted and arguably ahead of its time. Spider Baby, released in 1967, came straight from the mind of the exploitation filmmaker, who managed to cast horror heavyweight Lon Chaney Jr in the low-budget film alongside a string of lesser-known stars.
Advertised with the tagline “SEDUCTIVE INNOCENCE OF LOLITA. SAVAGE HUNGER OF A BLACK WIDOW,” this is a movie that firmly exists in the B-movie realm of the 1960s, aided by its grainy black-and-white film stock and campy approach to its outrageous themes. When distant relatives of three orphaned siblings arrive at their house in the hopes of taking ownership of the property, they’re soon drawn into this strange web of bizarre behaviour and murder. It turns out that the siblings have a rare syndrome that causes them to increasingly revert back to a primal state of being, acting simultaneously childlike and animalistic, much to the horror of their guests.
When we first meet Virginia, played by Jill Banner, she ensnares and kills a delivery man, clearly unfazed by the act of murdering in cold blood. The sisters often wander around the house in delicate silk nightgowns, yet it only takes a moment of being in their presence to discover that they’re anything but normal young women. Instead, they are incredibly strange and intense, occupying a world of both innocence and experience.
Hill isn’t afraid to be comical and lighthearted, with the opening credits featuring a song performed by Chaney, who sings, “Screams and moans and bats and bones /Teenage monsters in haunted homes /The ghosts on the stair /The vampires bite /Better beware, there’s a full moon tonight.” Paired with cartoons that decorate the title cards, it’s shamelessly in your face, encouraging audiences to let themselves get carried away into this world of frightful fun.
The truth of the siblings’ demented ways, which Chaney’s caretaker, Bruno, does his best to hide, soon comes to the surface as the guests find themselves subjected to an uncomfortable dinner before discovering the true insanity they’re dealing with. A severed ear, spiders, a corpse – these are things that you might expect to find in the haunted mansion that the siblings so gladly occupy.
Hill perfectly balances humour and ridiculousness with genuine fear, aided by the uncanny and unnerving performances given by the siblings, played by Banner, Beverly Washburn, and Sid Haig. They are often framed with genuinely gorgeous compositions, however, with cinematography moving between dream-like sequences and dark, shadowy shots, creating a captivating and haunting atmosphere.
Spider Baby is a quintessential cult film, and it even inspired a musical in the 2000s, which I can’t help but imagine being a deeply unsettling performance to behold. Hill’s film certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you’re into low-budget exploitation and horror movies from that bygone era of indie filmmaking where directors got away with practically everything, then Spider Baby is not to be missed.
As the film comes to an end with a seemingly happy ending, Hill winks at the viewer with an ambiguous final scene, cementing his genius as an exploitation filmmaker with genuine skill. This isn’t some cheap throwaway horror B-movie – it’s one that truly digs into the absurdities and perversions that can be found behind closed doors where you least expect them, reminding viewers never to underestimate the power of a strange teenage girl. Satirising everything from social expectation to the nuclear family, Spider Baby is a curious yet underrated film that deserves to live on as one of Hill’s most compelling creations.
