Spider Baby is absolutely delightful B-horror movie schlock and I love it. I feel like it nails the perfect level of camp right on the head, endearingly innocent tastelessness in its prime. We follow one of cinema's very first maniac families, with Lon Chaney Jr. (of Wolf Man fame!) as Bruno, caretaker of the degenerate Merrye's 3 crazy children - all afflicted with a condition that causes them to mentally regress as they physically develop. Bruno is such a warm character, as the film's backbone he brings a sense of love and sorrow to the table, while Jill Banner, for me, steals the show - simultaneously creepy and adorable as the eponymous spider baby. At one point in the film she grabs a spider from the table and scarfs it down, her sister quipping "spiders don't eat spiders." Her response? "Cannibal spiders do." A wonderful internal logic that justifies any level of preposterousness.
I haven't even mentioned how fantastic the title theme is, it captures the film in a nutshell:
Isn't it marvelous?
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