Rating: 
Summary: Have A Merrye Old Time!
Review: Unearthing "Spider Baby" was one of the greatest finds in cinematic history. It features one of the best performances of Lon Chaney, Jr. in his entire career. Lon plays Bruno, the lovable chauffeur, who becomes the caretaker of the Merrye children after the death of their parents. Ralph, Elizabeth and Virginia Merrye suffer from the Merrye Syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by generations of inbreeding. It causes them to regress mentally as they get older. Bruno does his best to raise the children in isolation, but two cousins, their lawyer and his attractive assistant come to claim their inheritance on the estate. Carol Ohmart, an obscure screen sex symbol, is a standout as cousin Emily. She spends a good deal of the movie wearing nothing but sexy lingerie, which Ralph (Sid Haig) and I greatly enjoy. The scene where everyone first sits down to eat dinner is priceless. Grass and weeds serve as the salad, and a cat is the main course. Ralph normally is not allowed to eat meat since it aggravates his condition. However, he happily digs into this meal, since he is allowed to eat anything that he killed! Lon Chaney, Jr. was a well-known alcoholic. According to writer/director Jack Hill, Lon stayed sober for the entire shoot, and it shows. He dominates every scene he's in. Virginia (Jill Banner) and Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) really shine as the Merrye girls. They have a genuine, warm chemistry with Lon. They sit in his lap and worry that he'll hate them when they do something bad, like murder the mailman! As he explains, he could never hate them. "It's not nice to hate." I hate spiders (sorry), but I love "Spider Baby!"
Rating:
Summary: a gem among cult classics
Review: what more could you want from a movie? a bizarre plot, lon chaney (singing the title song, no less...woo-hoo! ) and all the bad acting and inappropriate lingerie moments that take a b-movie to cult status. see this movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Definitive "cult" movie - not for all tastes
Review: What to write about THIS one? I have to be honest, this is a tough call to make, because I just haven't seen anything quite like this before, and maybe that's enough of a recommendation in itself. Some reviewers have likened it to "The Addams Family", but I'd say "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is another candidate for comparison. The Merrye family suffers from a degenerative disease ("rots the brain" - that's what my dad used to say about comic books!) which causes them to regress to, eventually, homicidal, psychopathic cannibals. There's no denying that Lon Chaney does a superior job as the family chauffeur and as the sole voice of reason in the madhouse. Carol Ohmart, as a relative visiting to reclaim the estate, reprises her sexy ice-queen role from "House on Haunted Hill", this time stripping down to the black lace (in one of the more gratuitous moments in a gratuitous movie!) There's no gore, at least nothing like what you commonly see in today's poor excuses for "horror movies". In fact, the "rat scene" from "Hideous Sun Demon" is probably more of a pure gross-out than anything on camera in this movie. But the *implied* violence is there, in spades. And folks, it's weird. Do NOT expect to sit there and yawn. It may have been done on a low budget, but all that means is that today's directors are wasting money. "Spider Baby"'s director, Jack Hill, did some work with Roger Corman before knocking this one off in a mere 12 days of shooting. The movie was lost in legal limbo for years, and that lack of exposure at a time when it could never have made it to television probably ensured it's future as a true "cult" film. The print is excellent - no complaints at all. The missing 8 minutes isn't the usual well-deserved cut, either: in this case, they lopped off important background information. (I wish that they had restored it into the film instead of having it as an "extra", but hey! We're lucky to get ANYthing here!) Bottom line: you can't call yourself a "cult movie fan" if you haven't seen this one. It is in no way similar in plot to "Carnival of Souls", but I'd have to say that it ranks right up there with that classic for pure strangeness.
Rating:
Summary: tHIS MOVIE CULT-ROCKS!
Review: yOU JUST HAVE TO SEE IT. sID HAIG IS A GENIUS. tHE GIRLS ARE REALLY OLD SCHOOL PRETTY. PRETTY PSYCHOTIC. yOU'RE NOT GIONG TO HATE IT, BRUNO TOLD YOU IT ISN'T NICE TO HATE...
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