{"id":12215,"date":"2015-09-17T14:41:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T18:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12215"},"modified":"2015-10-01T14:31:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T18:31:28","slug":"br-spider-baby-1967","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12215","title":{"rendered":"BR: Spider Baby (1967)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"SpiderBaby1967_BR\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Near-Perfect<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Arrow Video \/ MVD Visual<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A, B<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 June 9, 2015<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Horror \/ Black Comedy<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0The lives of a greedy couple and their lawyer are endangered when they attempt to wrestle an estate away from deranged relatives.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>2007 Audio Commentary with director Jack Hill and actor Sid Haig \/ 2007 featurettes: \u201cThe Merrye House Revisited\u201d (8 mins. + \u201cSpider Stravinsky: The Cinema Sounds of Ronald Stein\u201d (11 mins.) + \u201cThe Hatching of Spider Baby\u201d (32 mins.) \/ Extended Scene (4 mins.) \/ Alternate Opening Title Sequence (2 mins.) \/ Stills Gallery \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 2012 AMPAS \u201cFilm to Film\u201d Cast & Crew Panel Discussion (34 mins.) \/ Jack Hill\u2019s 1960 UCLA Student Short: \u201cThe Host\u201d (30 mins.) \/ 38-page booklet \/ Reversible Sleeve featuring art by Graham Humphreys \/ Bonus DVD featuring main extras.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Film<\/strong><\/p>\n

Filmed in 1964 but unreleased until 1967, Jack Hill\u2019s first solo gig as writer-director remains a highly influential horror comedy, even though the director describes it as a story of unconditional love.<\/p>\n

In terms of its comedic tone, Hill seemed to take some inspiration from the Roger Corman\u2019s Bucket of Blood<\/strong> (1959) and The Little Shop of Horrors<\/strong> (1960), both written by Charles B. Griffith, but instead of building the story around nerds and losers who briefly manage to enjoy a little fame or notoriety before their grim behaviour\u2019s unmasked (and they\u2019re chased to their doom), Hill fashioned a tale of a fractured family who remain tight, living quietly in a creepy house on the hill, and messing with society only when it pokes its nose where it doesn\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n

Their world gets turned upside-down when greedy relatives Emily (Carol Ohmart) and Peter (Quinn Redeker) comes armed with a lawyer (Karl Schanzer) and his movie-loving assistant Ann (Mary Mitchel), with the intention of snatching the house and the family fortune from the sole heirs, sisters Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Virginia (Jill Banner), and brother Ralph (longtime Hill stock company member Sid Haig). Little do the interlopers know that the California stem of the Merrye family suffers from a rare genetic disorder in which as young adults the kids will revert to a toddler I.Q., ultimately \u2018regressing\u2019 to a kind of pre-homo sapiens state \u2013 primal, utterly non-verbal, and very cannibalistic.<\/p>\n

To Hill\u2019s credit, the characters of Elizabeth, Ralph, Virginia, and unofficial guardian Bruno (Lon Chaney, Jr.) remain consistent and compelling, and the caricature relatives and slimeball lawyer (who sports a loud Hitler moustache and bowl haircut) provide a variety of comedic moments. Auntie Emily is less fearsome of her younger relatives and the creepy house, whereas uncle Peter lives in a world of blissful ignorance, un-creeped by drooling Ralph, spider-eating Virginia, or punchy Elizabeth.<\/p>\n

Redeker admits to playing the good-natured Peter as a Cary Grant variant, a nice guy who laughs and sees good in all, unaware, like his equivalent in the cannibal tale Arsenic and Old Lace<\/strong> (1944) that he\u2019s being slated for sacrifice. Lawyer Schlocker (yes, that\u2019s the character\u2019s name) is punchy and often in a state of mid-level outrage, while Peter and assistant Ann are headed for a romance before a return trip to the house endangers their lives.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most surprising about Spider Baby<\/strong> is how well it plays today, poking fun at the horror genre, at lead star Chaney with various werewolf jokes, and maintaining a very<\/em> fine balance between comedy and genuine horror: the kids are very<\/em> creepy, and there\u2019s no doubt Virginia\u2019s own regression has her fully believing all strangers who wander into the web that is the Merrye household are bugs, and are fair game to be drained of their \u2018juices\u2019 \u2013 as happens to a poor mailman (played by iconic Charlie Chan<\/a><\/strong> sidekick Mantan Moreland).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a severed ear which feels like a portent to David Lynch\u2019s own ear gag in Blue Velvet<\/strong> (1986) \u2013 another film about dysfunctional people who live beyond the neat fringes of white picket fence suburbia.<\/p>\n

Self-styled genre auteur Rob Zombie clearly patterned his hillbilly clans in House of 1000 Corpses <\/strong>(2003) and especially The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/strong> (2005) after Hill\u2019s little family (Zombie told the director the film was in fact his second favourite film of all time), but Hill\u2019s characters are more likeable because they\u2019re not trashy, loud-mouthed hillbillies raiding and raping nearby pockets of tourists and locals for fun.<\/p>\n

Being passive aggressive, the Merrye family is more palatable, and the film\u2019s finale is admittedly neat but fitting, because it shows Bruno willing to preserve the family by making a supreme sacrifice: in a Zombie film, innocents would be trapped as rats with their torturers, whereas Hill has Bruno encouraging anyone still sane and mobile to get out fast before a big kaboom ends the Merrye family\u2019s most deranged genetic strain.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of unusual plot turns in Spider Baby<\/strong> \u2013 not twists, but peculiar turns which characterize Hill\u2019s own determination to let characters dictate the story, if not permit a few plain weird episodes that still add resonance. The dinner scene is hysterical \u2013 grisly and ghoulish but never cloying, exceptionally well paced, and perhaps a portent of Tim Burton\u2019s own weird \u2018Day-O\u2019 scene in Beetlejuice<\/strong> (1988) \u2013 and the sisters confronting Schlocker in the basement is initially comedic, but steers into stark horror largely because Alfred Taylor\u2019s lighting is so atmospheric, keeping the sisters silhouetted until a stark reveal that\u2019s also a great horror jump.<\/p>\n

Ray Storey\u2019s art direction isn\u2019t as subtle as Hill thought \u2013 backgrounds sometimes have demented and damaged child dolls hanging, resting, or stuffed in places to infer childhoods that have been dumped in the crapper by disease \u2013 and he created an eerie environment using a budget of nothing, be it the dining room, or the basement where the family\u2019s other elder relatives apparently survive in their most primal states.<\/p>\n

Chaney delivers a compelling performance with sly comedic touches in a career that was petering out in the sixties with low budget westerns, TV guest spots, and the swan song dud Dracula vs. Frankenstein<\/strong> (1971). Washburn and Banner are a perfect comedic killing team with reactions, head bobs, and fast banter, and Haig is amusing in an over-the-top performance playing a very politically incorrect version of a mentally challenged lad who ultimately chases and assaults auntie Emily.<\/p>\n

That scene forms the strangest of Hill\u2019s Universal horror film homages, with Emily waking up from the assault in a state of post-ecstasy, become the \u2018bride\u2019 to Haig\u2019s \u2018monster.\u2019 Although it\u2019s unlikely Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder were inspired by the scene near the end of Young Frankenstein<\/strong> (1974), Emily\u2019s transformation to a \u2018bride\u2019 is similar to Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) being transformed into a literal hissing hussy, sporting a classic Bride of Frankenstein<\/strong> (1935) afro with streaking white highlights.<\/p>\n

American International Pictures had already curried homages to horror through the endeavors of Roger Corman in anthology shockers like Tales of Terror <\/strong>(1962) and The Raven<\/strong> (1963) starring horror greats, but these were tongue-in-cheek tributes with period tales tied to the tone of literary great Edgar Allan Poe, not present day tales larded with cheeky pop culture references. The exception within AIP\u2019s output may be the Beach films, but those entries \u2013 Vincent Price in Beach Party <\/strong>(1963), Peter Lorre in Muscle Beach Party<\/strong> (1964), Boris Karloff in Bikini Beach<\/strong> (1964), \u00a0Elsa Lanchester in Pajama Party<\/strong> (1964) – tended to feature horror icons in quirky roles rather than integrate horror elements, although Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff played a villain and ghost, respectively, in a haunted house farrago of slapstick nonsense that is The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini<\/strong> (1966).<\/p>\n

Spider Baby<\/strong> wasn\u2019t the first tongue-in-cheek homage to Universal spookfests \u2013 William Castle\u2019s period-set Mr. Sardonicus<\/a><\/strong> (1961) is a worthy candidate – but it\u2019s perhaps the most thoughtful attempt up until 1964 to have fun yet cross the line into icky territory. It also feels contemporary because Hill winks sparingly at audiences, and his direction and editing are more advanced than Castle\u2019s or Corman\u2019s, especially in cross-cutting between 2-3 distinct storylines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spider Baby on Home Video + Extras<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Jack Hill recounts in the commentary track with Sid Haig (recorded in 2007 for Dark Sky Film\u2019s Special Edition DVD), the movie has had a peculiar release history going as far back as its intended release date around 1964. The original producers ran out of money and litigation kept the film locked up until 1967, when occasional schlock movie producer David L. Hewitt (The Wizard of Mars<\/strong>, Monsters Crash the Pajama Party<\/strong>) came to the rescue.<\/p>\n

The film reportedly vanished from a brief distribution before bootleg copies emerged on home video, prompting Hill to track down any residual copyright holders and whatever materials remained locked up in a lab. In a crafty scheme, Hill was able to get a transfer made under the nose of the lab execs, enabling a legal home video release, but the original elements were still trapped in a lab.<\/p>\n

In 1997, Hill\u2019s Switchblade Sisters<\/strong> (1975) had been released on home video by Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Rolling Thunder shingle via Miramax, and that influential relationship enabled Spider Baby<\/strong>\u2019s legal headaches to be cleared up, resulting in a Special Edition a year later via Image Entertainment. The new transfer contained an extra scene shorn by the distributor which Hill found in a well-preserved answer print, and was accompanied by a Q&A from a 30th anniversary screening.<\/p>\n

In addition to porting over the 1998 commentary, Dark Sky\u2019s 2007 DVD augmented the extras significantly with great featurettes that covered many aspects of the film\u2019s genesis, production, and release: the making-of \u201cThe Hatching of Spider Baby\u201d has Joe Dante, Hill, Haig, surviving stars Mary Mitchell, Beverly Washburn, and Quinn Redeker recalling their oddball characters, and co-star Jill Banner, who died in a tragic car crash; the tongue-in-cheek score and Chaney-crooned theme song are profiled in \u201cSpider Stravinksy: The Cinema Sounds of Ronald Stein\u201d with the composer\u2019s widow providing poignant memories of a classic unsung, skilled, prolific genre composer; and Hill accompanies the cameraman to the restored and now inhabited house that was used as the creepy location in \u201cThe Merrye House Revisited,\u201d which (incredibly) sits on a busy and tightly packed suburban street.<\/p>\n

Also included is an opening title sequence sporting \u201cThe Maddest Story Ever Told\u201d moniker, and an extended scene where there\u2019s a follow-up to aunt Emily\u2019s first encounter with wordless, drooling Ralph.<\/p>\n

Arrow Film\u2019s U.K. and identical U.S. Blu-ray (released on this side of the pond by MVD Visual) offers a newly cleaned up HD transfer with sharp picture and sound, all of the Dark Sky extras, and a few more goodies, making this the final special edition in Spider Baby<\/strong>\u2019s long path to perfection on home video.<\/p>\n

While the 30th anniversary screening footage seems to remain exclusive to the 1998 Image laserdisc, Arrow\u2019s added a new Q&A that was sandwiched between a double-bill screening of Spider Baby<\/strong> and Carnival of Souls<\/strong> (1962), both restored from their negatives with cleaned up audio, and screened via newly struck prints in the academy\u2019s Film to Film series. The 2012 Q&A has Hill, Redeker, and Washburn on stage, and while a nice bonus, most of what\u2019s discussed is already present in both the featurettes and the commentary, so there are more than a few echoes of production and personnel anecdotes.<\/p>\n

The featurettes and commentary are pretty exhaustive, but it\u2019s the latter goodie that\u2019s the star extra, in spite of being recorded in 1998. Hill and Haig provide great career snapshots of themselves and the cast & crew, with attention given to some of the figures no longer alive, including stunning Ohmart (best known for House on Haunted Hill<\/strong>), who dons teasing Fredericks of Hollywood naughties which makes Ralph go berserk; and Banner, then a newcomer to acting but a total natural, and perfect fit as the film\u2019s eponymous villainess.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s soon learned that Banner was both working for Marlon Brando and reportedly deeply beloved by the actor when she died in a horrific car accident in 1982. Among Banner\u2019s clusters of TV roles are a handful of rare film appearances, including the shocker Weekend of Fear <\/strong>(1966), the Tony Anthony spaghetti western A Man, a Horse, a Gun<\/strong> (1967), and the comedy The President\u2019s Analyst<\/strong> (1967).<\/p>\n

Haig and Washburn would co-star (as full-fledged adults) in Hill’s other masterwork, the stock car racing ‘art film’\u00a0Pit Stop<\/a><\/strong> (1969).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Host (1960)<\/strong><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the other unique extra, Hill\u2019s short film The Host <\/strong>(1960), filmed while he was still at UCLA, and apparently useful as a calling card to get the directing gig of Spider Baby<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Originally appearing on the Rolling Thunder release of Switchblade Sisters<\/strong> as a bonus short, Hill\u2019s film makes its HD debut here, but viewers will notice more than a few odd aspects that might take away from this otherwise creepy story inspired by James Frazer\u2019s \u201cThe Golden Bough,\u201d an examination of mythology and religion from 1890.<\/p>\n

The core story has Sid Haig (Hill\u2019s UCLA classmate) playing a roguish thief who finds a ruined Spanish hacienda in a valley. A Spaniard with a gun pins him inside the main building, where a priestess urges him to hill the shooter and become their God. Greed ultimately motivates the thief to follow her bidding, and he soon discovers the woman heads a blood cult that requires human sacrifice to bring rain for their crops. He quickly realizes he will be their next victim come the next drought, and the question is whether he can escape on horseback in time, or remain stranded.<\/p>\n

As Hill recounted in an excellent 2002 interview with DVD Talk \/ Cine Schlock-O-Rama\u2019s G. Noel Gross<\/a>, the film was never completed, existing as a 16mm work print with rudimentary sound effects and dialogue, but with Tarantino and Miramax bankrolling the restoration and release of Switchblade Sisters<\/strong>, Hill took their financial goodwill as an opportunity to record new sound effects, fix some missing dialogue, and commission a new score so the short would be more refined.<\/p>\n

The cleaner sound does smoothen out the print\u2019s splices, but the music is very much an economical all-synth work circa 1997, which dates the film; a few pieces in Ron Feuer\u2019s score do work, but the synth emulations don\u2019t quite match the kind of minimal orchestral or acoustic score that would\u2019ve suited the short.<\/p>\n

The Host<\/strong> is part curio, part important footnote in the making of Apocalypse Now<\/strong> (1979), as director Francis Ford Coppola \u2018appropriated\u2019 the concept of a man treated like a fertility God by locals until he too is destined to be sacrificed, or as Hill related to Calum Waddell in the 2009 tome Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Milius wrote the script and Francis thought it was great but he did not like the ending. In fact, he didn\u2019t come up with the right ending until he was over in the Philippines shooting it. So he knew my student film very well and I got this straight from Steve Burum, who … was my cameraman on “The Host” and he was the second unit cameraman on Apocalypse Now and he said, ‘We were all laughing and saying that we were doing Jack Hill\u2019s student film.’<\/em><\/p>\n

The Host<\/strong> is also of note because cameraman \u201cSteve Burum\u201d is also Stephen H. Burum, the fine cinematographer of The Entity<\/strong> (1982), Something Wicked This Way Comes<\/strong> (1983), Rumble Fish<\/strong> (1983), and Body Double<\/a><\/strong> (1984), the latter the first of many collaborations with director Brian De Palma.<\/p>\n

Also buried among the credits is \u2018visual effects\u2019 by Donald Shebib, the Toronto-born, future director of the CanCon classic Goin\u2019 Down the Road <\/strong>(1970). Shebib had gone to Hollywood and worked (uncredited) on Roger Corman\u2019s The Terror <\/strong>(1963), and Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s Dementia 13 <\/strong>(1963), which contained additional footage shot by Hill.<\/p>\n

After multiple home video releases, it\u2019s pretty fair to conclude Arrow\u2019s Blu-ray is the ultimate special edition for a long-admired cult film that continues to rope in new fans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a>\u00a0— Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filmed in 1964 but unreleased until 1967, Jack Hill\u2019s first solo gig as writer-director remains a highly influential horror comedy, even though the director describes it as a story of unconditional love.
\nIn terms of its comedic tone, Hill seemed to take some inspiration from the Roger Corman\u2019s Bucket of Blood (1959) and The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[3942,3938,1778,3937,3941,3939,3940,3944,3936,3943],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3b1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12288,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions\/12288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}