Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told *** (1967, Lon Chaney Jr, Carol Ohmart, Quinn K Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, Sid Haig, Mary Mitchel, Karl Schanzer, Mantan Moreland) – Classic Movie Review 7871

Writer-director Jack Hill’s 1967 black and white low-budget ($65,000) black horror comedy Spider Baby is one of those rare movies that has gone obscurity to cult status, so it is memorable if only just just for that, as well as for its incredible weirdness. It is 81 minutes of peculiar perverse pleasure.

Lon Chaney Jr stars as Bruno, the chauffeur and caretaker of three demented, degenerate, inbred orphaned siblings after their father’s death. They are the Merrye family and they suffer from Merrye Syndrome, a genetic condition starting in early puberty from the age of 10 or so, which causes them to regress mentally, socially and physically.

Bruno covers up the siblings’ various indiscretions – that is until greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of their dilapidated rural mansion home.

Carol Ohmart, Quinn K Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, Sid Haig, Mary Mitchel, Karl Schanzer (as Schlocker) and Mantan Moreland also star.

It has a 100 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It was shot in 12 days in the heat of August of 1964 on a small sound stage in Glendale, California, with no air conditioning, and Chaney had to be wiped down between every take. He sings the film’s quirky theme song.

Jack Hill and Sid Haig were nominated in 2007 for Best DVD Commentary.

Chaney was paid only $2500 and the other actors were paid $100 a day.

Spider Baby was adapted as a stage musical in 2004.