Rating: 
Summary: The Maddest Story Ever Told!
Review: Some movies hit the nail squarely on the head. Usually, those nails are same ones that have been beaten to death by every other film - the nails are the usual ones, and nobody is very surprised when you take a lick with a hammer and hit it.Some movies aim for different nails, in different walls. If they glancingly hit, we say that the film "broke new ground". But sometimes, the aim is perfect, devestating, direct and complete. It is impossible to imagine a more perfect, yet unexpected expression of that particular point. One can only admire.
SPIDER BABY is such a film. It is a great film. The odd, uncertain tone of Shirley Jackson's underrated novel "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is nailed here as well as it is EVER going to be done, as well as it Can Be Done in the movies, probably. It contains Lon Chaney Jr's best performance, which is enough reason to buy it right there. But Spider Baby's charms don't end there. They are valuable and varied, though nearly impossible to put into words. You either 'get it' or you don't. This is one of those few, perfect films which should enter the pantheon. It is a classic which deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with Tod Browning's "Freaks". A few treasured moments: Carol Ohmart's negligee scene which goes on-and-on-and-on. and on, and on. The "Step-Scrape, Step Scrape" line at the dinner table, while discussing The Mummy movies (as a pained but indulgent Lon Chaney looks on helplessly), and the marvelous throw-away line "get me something Sharp!" as the girls explore the house in the dead of night. The DVD is as clear and clean as anyone would have the right to expect. The clarity and immediacy adds immesurably to the film experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too bad
Review: The best description that comes to mind is this: If Russ Meyer had directed, David Lynch wrote and Quentin Tarantino produced The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when they were all fresh out of film school, the result would have been Spider Baby. Spider Baby is a great little drive-in trinket. Clearly the movie was put together quickly and probably just for the fun of making it, a bit like a group of friends jamming. Yet, as in any good jam session, something almost always happens that makes everything sound just right. That something happens many times in Spider Baby. Check it out if you're a Jack Hill fan or if you dig cult 'B' horror.
Rating: 
Summary: spider baddy
Review: There a lot of good movies for children under 5, but this is not one of them. A few laughs due to amateurism alla Ed Wood, but after 5 minutes you can go to hell, thank you. I reject the term 'cult movie' as if I need a degree in order to see the goodness in boring movies with hidden values. A lot of extras for family members though, which must be the ones rating this item with 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: LOW BUDGET GEM!
Review: This 60s era low budget horror flick is a fun film. Despite a really nasty opening that I can only describe as overly cruel, the film quickly settles into a groove of dark, campy humor from which it never deviates. Most of the performances are top-notch, especially by Lon Chaney, Jr. who turns in an exceptionally funny turn as the family retainer. All in all, your money is well spent on this dvd, which features a lost scene with Chaney not included in most prints of the movie. Well worth the cost, and a lot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Kiss of the Spider Girl
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A good, low budget , oddball movie
Review: This is a fun little movie. Campy story, good acting, and all for a minimum budget. It was interesting to see Lon Chaney Jr. playing a somewhat normal character in a movie filled with abnormal characters. I'm sure this was probably a fairly gruesome movie when it first came out, and it still maintains some of that after all these years. I was expecting some kind of cheesy horror flick, but what I got was a fun cult classic. It really kept me interested all they way until the end. If you enjoy obscure, oddball movies, then I highly recommend it. I actually give this movie 3 1/2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: double-distilled pure purple psychotronica!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Spider Baby
Review: This is possibly one of the best low budget films ever made. The story is unique..... the acting is wonderful(especially Jill Banner)..... and the direction is top-notch. Jack Hill's masterpiece looks and sounds great. The commentary is filled with interesting anecdotes and insights into the atmosphere of the shoot. The set design is great and the cinematography is superb. Fun movie. The movie has wonderful moments in it..."Spiders like bugs..... spiders like bugs...." You MUST buy this movie please. Jack Hill at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected.
Review: This was entirely an impulse buy. I never even heard of tihs film until I saw it on this site and bought it immediately. Honestly, I just liked the cover. But when I watched it, I realized that I had purchased a gem that I was proud to have in my dvd collection.
Rating:
Summary: Bizzare but hillarious horror/comedy
Review: Truly one of a kind. If only more movies today were as fun and unashamedlly goofy as this film. Viewers who have a dark sense of humor, and enjoy movies that are just pure unadulterated campiness be sure not to let this cult classic slip by!
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