By EDWARD BROCK

(Once again, it is our pleasure to introduce another new writer to the HORROR-WOOD fold.  In his own words, Edward Brock has been "a monster movie fanatic since age 5, when I saw Tarantula for the first time on my grandma's 13-inch black-and-white TV. I collect monster magazines and books (any and all kinds)."  He has recently began to write about his love of monster movies and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. His review of Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes appeared in the French Horror magazine Tenebres. The near future will also see his articles/reviews in magazines like Filmfax and Scary Monsters magazine. He also has a website that pays tribute to monster movies (and other horror stuff).)

Though you may not realize it, spiders have been a part of our movie-going experience since the early years of cinema. Who can forget the constant moving aside of thick, silky webbing that always seemed to bar the way of every hero and heroine in just about every Horror film? Was it not the spider webs in the Lord of the Vampire’s castle staircase that helped set the mood for the dark, creepy atmosphere in Dracula (1931)?  Castle Frankenstein (Frankenstein, 1931) also bore the heavy cobwebs in its damp, ancient corridors.  Even the tomb of Imotep (The Mummy, 1932) could not escape the trappings of the spider’s snare.

It was inevitable that Hollywood would seek to capitalize on our common fear of spiders by producing films with our arachnid friends as the stars.  Unfortunately, the film industry did not dip into that well of weirdness often, but the when it did, it left us with some memorable, and forgettable, attempts.

The invasion began in a big way.  During the atomic Fifties, Hollywood graced us with numerous films about alien invasions, flying saucers and “big bugs”.  Them!, released in 1954, was a tremendous box-office success and is still considered to be the best of the “big bug” movies.  Though it lacked any 8-legged presence, it did open the door, in 1955, for the release of the first giant-spider movie, Tarantula.

In Tarantula, scientific researcher, Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), is seeking a miracle nutrient to help feed the ever-increasing world population. He has been injecting the serum into various lab animals.  But like most scientists in those distrusting films of the Fifties, he could not be content with lab animals.  He inevitably uses his own assistants as a lab rats and injects them with the serum. But the serum has dangerous side effects and, soon, his assistants begin to mutate.  One escapes and dies in the desert; the other seeks his revenge on the professor and attacks him in the lab. A struggle ensues and the lab is destroyed, but during the struggle, a tarantula, already 50 times larger than normal, escapes. The lab assistant then injects the professor with his own serum and leaves the professor to face the consequences of his own creation.

Enter Doctor Matt Hastings (the great John Agar). He is shown the first victim and determines that the man has died of acromegaly and decides to investigate. The lovely “Steve” Clayton (Mara Corday) arrives to intern with Professor Deemer, and lacking transportation to the professor’s home, gets a lift from Hastings.

Half an hour later the two are racing for their lives as the tarantula, now hundreds of feet tall, has begun a rampage on the countryside; devouring animals and humans alike.  It becomes a battle for survival as the giant arachnid heads for town, thwarting the efforts of our intrepid heroes.  It is the eventual intervention of Clint Eastwood (as a helmeted fighter pilot) that saves the day.

Director Jack Arnold used many live tarantulas (Mexican red-legs) in the film and the traveling mattes shots are superb. You have to look closely to notice the occasional scene where the spider’s legs are missing. The night scenes helped eliminate any offending matte problems and also provided us with the film’s creepiest moments, like watching the giant arachnid standing on the hilltop, surveying its prey. A fine film for any arachnophobe.

The overwhelming success of these two films opened the floodgates and in 1957, no less than 5 films starring “big bugs” opened in the theaters, each to mixed reviews. Beginning Of The End had giant grasshoppers. The Monster That Challenged The World gave us a giant caterpillar. The Deadly Mantis, well, you get the picture. Only The Black Scorpion had any relation to our giant-spider genre, simply by being the spider’s cousin. It was also the only film in the group to utilize stop-motion techniques, as opposed to using live spiders or mechanical props as the other films did.  It also starred the ever-gorgeous Mara Corday, this time as a “cowgirl” running a ranch in Mexico. None of these had the success of Them! or Tarantula, but were all just as charming and fun.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1958) did not star the spider itself, but the frightening battle between the ever-shrinking Robert Carey (Grant Williams) and the tarantula was such a memorable scene, it remains a frightening example of the giant-spider genre.  The film, adapted from the Richard Matheson novel, by the author himself, is part horror and part sci-fi.

After Carey encounters a strange cloud at sea, he begins to shrink and must deal with all manner of obstacles that were, in his normal life, mere annoyances; the house cat, a flooding basement and, of course, a spider. The battle with the spider, while Carey is trapped in the basement, is the segment that seems to stand out in most fan’s minds when you mention the film.

Special effects and props used by Clifford Stine included an 18-foot pencil, a 15-foot mousetrap and a pair of scissors weighing 40 pounds.   Jack Arnold, who also directed Tarantula (as well as the first two Creature From The Black Lagoon films),  seemed to bring the same quality and enthusiasm to this picture.

Film-enthusiasts manage to over-look the fact that tarantulas don’t live in suburban basements and still agree that it is still one of the best sci-fi films of all time.

Before the fifties finally slipped away, another giant-spider film came our way. Earth Vs. The Spider (a.k.a. The Spider) was produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, who, known for salvaging every dollar, didn’t spend too much on this little tale of teenagers, rock n’ roll and, naturally, a giant-spider.

The film opens with a truck driver being killed by a giant-spider on his way home with his daughter’s birthday present. The concerned daughter Carol (June Kenny) convinces her boyfriend Mike (Edward Kemmer) to go looking for her missing father. Searching a cave near the accident site, they fall into a large, sticky “net” and soon are confronted with their father’s killer, a giant tarantula.

They rush back to town and in an unusual twist, the adults actually believe them when they are told of the arachnid. How often will you hear, “My son’s not in the habit of lying,” especially in a “rock n’ roll” monster movie?

The sheriff rounds up a search party and find the spider still in the cave. The cave is then filled with DDT and, convinced that the spider is dead, its carcass is brought back to the town and placed on display in the high school gym. Then, in a notoriously bad move, the teens decide to have a party in the gym where the spider is held and the loud, blaring rock n’ roll party wakes it up and the chase begins again. The hungry spider, after spreading a little death and destruction, is eventually eliminated by electrocution.

Perhaps trying to capitalize on the success of Tarantula, Gordon utilized the same traveling matte techniques and live tarantulas (this time the South American “bird eating” spider), but the spider’s exaggerated “roar” was, for me,  a terrible distraction. A would have preferred the more subtle sounds prevalent in Tarantula. But the film is still a treat to watch and offers a series of exciting moments. A fun addition to the genre.

Oddly enough, the giant spider film would not reappear again until the 1970s. The giant spider itself was relegated to brief guest appearances in such films as: Cosmic Monsters (1966), Destroy All Monsters (1969) and in a desert scene with John Richardson in One Million Years B.C. (1966). It would not be until 1975 that we would be introduced to the worst giant-spider film ever, and one of the worst films of all time.

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) was an extremely low-budget attempt to recapture the horror and excitement of the earlier giant-spider films. But where the earlier films made great efforts to convince us that the arachnids were real, there was no fooling anyone with this stinker.

Extraterrestrial spiders come to earth and begin terrifying a small town.  These little buggers give us a prelude to their larger “leader” by providing some fun and scary moments. There are scenes of spiders in the shower, scrambling over windows and doors, and swarming in fields.  Perhaps the best scene is the famous spider in the blender, but it cannot save us from the big goof.

The giant spider itself is merely a customized Volkswagen Beetle covered with fake fur and strapped with long, scraggly legs, which were then “moved” by a group of handlers to simulate crawling.  Even the headlights remain to be utilized as the spider’s eyes.  The film is fun due to its complete and utter silliness, but even Alan Hale Jr. (the skipper from Gilligan’s Island) as the small town sheriff could save the film from itself.  It eventually became a subject for Mystery Science Theater 3000. But for any true b-movie lover, the film is so incredibly bad you can’t help but have a good time watching it. The Giant Spider Invasion  certainly deserves its place in history alongside Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Several other arachnid films made their way into theaters in the Seventies, but where our former spider stars were giants, these were normal, everyday tarantulas that could be trampled underfoot: Kiss Of The Tarantula (1972), a scene in Frogs (1972), Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) and the frightening William Shatner vehicle, Kingdom Of The Spiders (1977).

But film tastes changed in the late Seventies and early  Eighties, as movie-goers became more intrigued by sci-fi films like Star Wars (1977) and Alien (1979), or by splatter films like Halloween (1978) and Friday The 13th (1980). 15 years after Kingdom Of The Spiders, only Steven Speilberg managed to produce a genuinely creepy film that will leave your skin crawling; Arachnophobia (1990). But, once again, no giant-spiders.

Finally, 25 years after we laughed, or cried, our way through The Giant Spider Invasion, we got one more trip into the giant-spider genre. 2000’s Spiders, released on the USA network, was a sci-fi/horror mix that tried to combine the classic “big bug” films of the fifties with an X-Files mentality.  Unfortunately, it did little to advance the giant-spider film.

After a shuttle mission ends in disaster and a rocket crashes near a military base, a local reporter and her friends decide to investigate.  Thinking the base, called Section 21, holds UFO material, they quickly find that their assumptions are way off.  A secret project titled “ Mother-In-Law” deals with the deadliest spider on earth; the funnel-web spider, which, thanks to the project, is mutating and growing larger.  Soon the group is on the run from the giant arachnid and the government agents trying to keep them quiet.

Various methods were used to bring these giants to life; rod puppets, cable operated and motorized versions, as well as CGI rendered creatures. But even with this technology, the spiders end up looking and acting like a video game anyway.  It was a disappointing attempt and left little enthusiasm for future projects starring our arachnid friends.

But a positive light may be on the horizon. Creature creator, Stan Winston has team-up with HBO Films to produce several remakes of classic AIP films.  The Spider is among them and it is due to air on Cinemax this fall. Keep your fingers crossed.

Arachnophobia is still a prominent and powerful fear amongst the human race and it’s unlikely that we will ever overcome it anytime soon.  But that’s okay.  A little fear can be healthy.  Right?

Hey, what’s that on the ceiling?

Thanks, Edward, for this look at the creepy-crawler flicks that inspire us to keep a can of Raid handy.  Readers, you might also want to check out our article on Tarantula here or on The Giant Spider Invasion here.

Article copyright © Edward Brock

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