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Category:    Home > Reviews > Camp > Horror > Comedy > Cult > Spider Baby – Director’s Cut (Dark Sky Films/DVD)

Spider Baby – Director’s Cut (Dark Sky Films/DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: B-     Film: C-

 

 

No matter what cut you see, Jack Hill’s cult classic Spider Baby (aka Cannibal Orgy, or The Maddest Story Ever Told) is a very bad film; Ed Wood bad for that matter.  Trying to capitalize on films like Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the film is about three young adults with mental complications who murder the more they regress.  Two young ladies (Jill Banner and Beverly Washburn) are half-dressed and their brother (a young Sid Haig) might as well run around with an adult diaper.  With Lon Chaney Jr. as Bruno, The Chauffeur, this could have been interesting, but Hill’s script and directing make it a mess.

 

Dark Sky has issued this extras-loaded DVD to enhance its release and appeal.  The film is a hoot, but a little can go a long way, because it is not so bad it’s good.  It is just plain bad.  The film wants to be a comedy and horror thriller, but any laughs are unintended and anything scary is from the script being so bad.  More frustrating is that if this has been taken more seriously and Hill could have balanced these ideas with some tension, this could have worked on some level.  As it is, it is an all time free-for-all curio with some interesting casting, groovy music, decent black and white shoot and amusing animated opening credits.  Could be played with the sound down while listening to Monster Mash.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image looks better than previous clips and versions we have seen, though one too many segments are softer than we’d have liked.  However, when this does look good, Director of Photography Alfred Taylor does deliver some good shots and humorous images intended and not.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age more so, which is to be expected from an independent film.  The picture does not look as old.  The combination is good for its age.

 

Extras include an interesting feature length audio commentary with Hill & Haig, Hatching Of Spider Baby making of featurette, Spider Stravinsky: The Cinema Sounds Of Ronald Stein about the groovy music he has created for films like this & other notable B-films of the time, The Merrye House Revisited featurette, stills, amusing alternate opening title sequence with the Cannibal Orgy name and even an extended scene.  All in all, it is everything you’d want to see and know about the film.  Dark Sky has done this notorious classic justice.

 

For more on the 50 Worst Movies Ever Made DVD, check out this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2427/The+50+Worst+Movies+Ever+Made

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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