Spider Baby (1967) // 2022 revisit

You definitely get your spiders. And the Merrye Manor is certainly plucked from a Saturday morning B Division Universal Gothic.

I gave this four stars just because they dangled the keys at me. During a conversation between Redeker and Mitchell about Universal monsters, they discuss the mummy, with Mitchell doing a Chaney Mummy Kharis quite well! When they talk The Wolf Man, they look over at Chaney, Jr. who remarks that there is supposed to be a full moon that night. Thank you, Jack Hill, for giving that to me since I'm such a Wolf Man mark.

And the extra star for: I truly believe Chaney went method during his melancholic discussion with Banner and Washburn, the two teenage girls, about losing them to men like Schlocker, who would separate them due to the inheritance seemingly owed to their distant cousins, the Howes (Ohmart and aforementioned Redeker). I think he summoned the painful thoughts of being separated from someone he loved dear because my heart just fucking breaks as he talks. The eyes well up, the regret fills his voice, and the disappointment just spills out that he couldn't live up to his promise about keeping the Merrye family together in their own home without interference. Granted, the extremes of dynamite explosives to keep them from separating might have seemed rational to Chaney, the downward spiral had already begun when Miller knife stabbed Mantan Moreland, a postal officer stuck in the window.

The dumbwaiter used to lift bodies and Sid Haig, the basement underfloor "home" for aunt and uncle Merrye ghouls, and the top floor rooms with perched owls just give us a trip through that house and its many eccentricities. Ohmart in black lingerie being assaulted by Haig, who is in severe decline, is thankfully offscreen or the film really would have been such a drag, but her following him for revenge in the basement, even cat screeching is quite memorable.

The scene that is a bit yikes to me -- and perhaps has the right opposite effect for others -- is when 17 year old Banner ties Redeker up in a chair (her "web") and sits in his lap. She gnaws a bit on his face, some cuddling and kissy-cheek, with her legs all flappy, teasing him, asking him if he likes her. Perhaps goes on a biiiiiiit too long.

But Chaney's monologue gets me every single time. I just feel his ache. It is just Chaney right before he goes off the deep end, tugging on the strings. Haig really goes method, too, I think, here. He just seems to completely become / embody this pitiable character. All of them really are pitiable...you can just feel Chaney's Bruno feeling like such a failure despite all his efforts to keep them from any conflict. They can be quite scary, for sure. When the girls grab their kitchen weapons and set their eyes on a "bug", a good stab or slice is almost certain.

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