The Giant Spider

He is a fan of all things cheese. The 50s b movies were cheese. With the lack of technology Hollywood took a chance on movies like plan 9 and the day the earth stood still, war of the worlds and other aliens, giant bugs, etc. Christopher Mihm is a name you should always remember if you like 50s bugs, aliens, and space travel. He uses most of the same main cast. Mike Cook, Dan Sjerven, and his family, and a few from the Kaiser family. A few movies are tied together: the monster from phantom lake, terror from beneath the earth and the giant spider. He does one about every year or two, as it's low-budget. They are all black and white. Generally good family fun. Some of the kids may not get the references. Amazon has a lot of his movies. You won't be disappointed if you like cheese from the 50s. They look terrible by today's standard.

I've been following Christopher R. Mihm's film career for a couple of years now, and The Giant Spider is easily the best, most accomplished film he's made. Mihm has made a career of mounting reverent homages to 50's horror/sci-fi films, and the polish of each of his films (this is his eighth!) grows with each film. The pacing, acting, special effects, directing, and technical achievement of The Giant Spider is pretty darn impressive for an independent film-maker - some stand out elements for me: The "spider" simply puts all other film beasties to shame - compare it directly with 1955's "Tarantula" and you can see how much better this one is filmed and presented. The puppetry is AMAZING! The close-up of the spider's face is really, really first rate. And the theme song has been stuck in my head for days! Love, love, love it. A film that made me laugh out loud several times (not AT it, WITH it), and left me with a great big smile. Perfect film for fans of the genre.

I agree with most of the comments of the other reviewers. I just want to add that there is a lot of satire around the male-female relationships and the male-female stereotypes of the 1950s. The writers and director are obviously poking fun at the idea that all a woman wants is to be admired and married, and every man wants to be a hero.

Spider A+, acting D-. I had high hopes for the Giant Spider, being that I love old black and white horror movies. Sadly this did not live up to those expectations.

Christopher R. Mihm's THE GIANT SPIDER is another of his purposefully cheeezey, intentionally hokey, terminally low-budget, 1950's sci-fi homage / parody films. As such, it's almost as stellar as his THE MONSTER OF PHANTOM LAKE.

The characters -military, scientist eggheads, reporters, etc.- are funny, the story is suitably silly, and the titular, superimposed tarantula is a hairy horror, especially its close-up "face", which is a nice nod to the awesome arachnid in THE BLACK SCORPION! Toss in the catchy, opening theme song and this is great Saturday night entertainment. Recommended for all of the other Mihm-iacs out there!

P.S.- Also contains some stupendous stock footage during the final conflict!...