SPIDER BABY (1968)

Okay, so I went on kind of a Jack Hill marathon. This one is from 1968, and it’s completely different from everything else I’ve seen from him. All of his other movies I’ve seen are big, fun action movies with women in the lead. This is a horror-comedy that’s like if the TV show The Addams Family was a LOT more disturbing. It’s about a family that’s afflicted with Merrye’s Syndrome, a condition that causes its victims to act more like kids the older they get, until they get so old that they – and get this – “devolve to a pre-human cannibal state.” Yep. You never see people eating people, though. Mostly you see these two sisters who are completely nuts and act like little girls (one likes to “play spider” and trap people in her “web”, and then kill them!), their brother (Sid Haig again! You’d never recognize him!), and Lon Chaney Jr. in one of his last parts. He’s great! A bunch of intruders come into their home to try and get in on the family’s money, and a lot of wacky stuff happens that I don’t want to spoil. All of the acting is great, the dialogue is hilarious, and it’s all creepily filmed in black-and-white. What a movie!