A Maldição da Aranha

Jack Flynn is attacked while driving home. His teenage daughter Carol and her boyfriend Mike go searching for him and find a giant spider in a cave. The Sheriff doesn't believe them. Their teacher Kingman is able to convince him to send a posse. Armed with DDT, they are able to kill the giant spider. They bring the spider back to town and store it in the high school gym. As the kids practice rock and roll, the spider revives and terrorizes the town. Meanwhile Carol and Mike go back to the cave to find her lost bracelet.

It's a campy 50s creature feature. The giant spider is a fun visual. The acting is bad. The story is simplistic which actually helps. I certainly don't want too many explanations about giant spiders. That can't be any good. It's a B-movie with a few fun unintentional silliness.

When you sit down to watch a Bert I. Gordon picture, you know you're in for a bad movie.

And, knowing that you can have a real good time.

The story is about a giant spider that attacks a town. No more need be said about the plot. The acting is horrendous. It's awful inconsistent too, half the time the characters do really dumb things, and half the time (well part of the time) they are actually smart too. That's the bad news, here's the good news, it is fast paced and fun. While the movie came out the same year as "The Blob", and both movie feature "kids" (AKA teenagers) who first witness the monster, in "The Blob" nobody believes the teens until it's too late. Not in Earth vs. the Spider! At least some of the adults totally accept that there is a giant spider on the loose, right from the get go. And that's what you, the viewer have to do here to - there is no explanation for what caused the giant spider, or why there are no other giant spiders, it just is, and you have to accept it. It also features a great rock and roll number, effects that run the gamut from real cheesy to real impressive, the world's oldest teenager, "hep" 50s dialogue, a theremin soundtrack and "spider noises"!

At just 73 minutes, it never gets dull, it's up there with some of the best so-bad-it's-good movies ever made. So grab some friends and a 12 pack, and check out this - the original 1958 version of "Earth vs. the Spider"!

This is a typical drive-in movie horror film from the late 1950s. Like all similar films (such as ATTACK OF THE GILA MONSTER, THE KILLER SHREWS, etc.), this one had a very low budget, was quickly made and featured small-time actors. Naturally, the dialog was poor at times and the overall plot laughable, but in a strange way the film was still a lot of kooky fun. The spider special effects were generally very good and the story kept my interest. While those who love Shakespeare and art films probably won't appreciate this film, for those who love the genre this is a film that will most likely satisfy. As for me, I like these silly old flicks and recommend the movie--but I also can't rate it any higher because of its questionable aesthetic value and cheesiness.

PS--Look at the marquee at the movie theater. One of the films on the bill was THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and the other was ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE--both films by director/producer Bert I. Gordon who made this film.

I remember many years ago on WUTV, originating from Buffalo, New York, a bunch of us would watch the Saturday afternoon "Creature Feature" and "Monster Movies" and laugh our heads off. How ludicrous they were.

Now this was back in the late 70's, early 80's when we were "grown up", so to speak. If we had see these movies when they came out originally in the theaters or drive ins, we probably would have been scared out of our wits.

Now this movie, Earth vs the Spider, a true creature feature, stuck in my mind over many of the other ones. The scene that I remembered for years afterwards and hoped like crazy that they would show the movie again, was the scene when the band starts playing that real hot music in the gym with the spider listening in. I just couldn't believe how anyone would want to be in the same room as the spider.

I was so happy when they showed the movie, I guess, maybe a half a year later. I was ready. I set up my tape recorder and waited patiently for that particular scene and when I got that music on tape, I got REALLY excited!!!!!!

That was the only thing that I had from that movie until about 3 months ago. I found a video store that had the movie!!!!! I couldn't wait to bring it home and play it in order to find out what was the rest of the movie all about.

Yes I did remember all about the spider itself and how it reeked havoc in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I remembered about the useless sheriff, Gene Roth, and his attitude towards the townsfolk and the kids (funny he plays a lot of those kind of parts). Plus I remembered the fellow who played Mr. Kingman, the "hero". He used to play Commander Corry in Space Patrol which was on television in the very early 50s.

The scene with the band in the gym with the spider and the drama class still was very powerful. I just couldn't get over how funny it was.

To me, that made the whole movie a joy to watch!!!!

For Saturday afternoon fun, where you don't have to think, rent this one!!! You won't be disappointed!!!!

Somehow I'd missed seeing this AIP '50s monster flick, so I recently gave the new Lions Gate R1 DVD a spin. It's rightly considered a rip of Universal's TARANTULA, but this still turned out to be brisk and enjoyable, and a lot of cheesy fun. When a young girl and her boyfriend search for the girls' missing father, they stumble across a giant spider's cave and, naturally, the monster eventually crawls around town. Better-than-average special effects for this type of cheapie, with some surprisingly vivid shock moments and the required helping of some typical teenage 1950's rock n roll music. Gene Roth is a hoot as the doubting sheriff, and there are some shameless plugs for some of Bert I Gordon's other pictures like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE. *** out of ****