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Spider Baby (or The Maddest Story Ever Told) (1968) - Jack Hill

Parody comedy is really something that is hard to pull off, I am really critical of it and I actually hate it more than any other comedy. Directors like Rob Zombie makes a lot of these parody horror movies, that have a real certain flair to them. His movies are more of an homage, yet they have this certain dark comedy to them. This movie is just like any Rob Zombie horror movie. I can see everything in this movie that he uses in most of his movies. Or maybe its just the fact that Sid Haig is in the movie, that could be it.

To touch on what I said above, this movie really feels like a really watered down version of either House of 1000 corpses or The Devil's Rejects. The movie has to do with a crazy family, including Lon Chaney Jr. The family has some disease that is named after them, the disease makes you turn into some sort of crazy beast in a devolution style thingie. The disease makes them kill and mame people, it makes the eldest girl hate everything and the middle child kill everyone. Was that convoluted enough for you?

The movie has a really amazing cast, it stars Lon Chaney Jr. and Sid Haig. They have some of the best roles. Sid Haig plays a "big kid" who is extremely creepy and scary. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the caretaker to the children with this disease. He plays the scariest character, just because he knows what the children do, but he does nothing. Yet when you see him in the movie you feel safer, I don't know exactly how he does this or how he pulls it off. The movie also was made in the 60's at a time when movies like this had to be very buttoned down. The film dealt with murders and even incest, but it does it with a Bewitched sitcom type comedy to it. The music is very apparent in that, you notice it when the movie begins.

All of the murders and gore are left off camera, and you see nothing that would make any censor blush. That I believe makes the movie that much creepier. All of the killings are done from a really weird victim-type perspective. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone that is a fan of Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, or even Toby Hooper. I throughly enjoyed watching the movie and couldn't of been more happy, this movie would prosper from a reboot. I am going to give this movie a 7 of 10. You will really enjoy this, if you haven't seen it before.

For the record I hate Spiders

S!D


  • Filmed in Chatsworth, CA (My Home)
  • The movie had a working title of Cannibal Orgy
  • Shot in 7 days



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