Cast:
Ed Kemmer (Mr. Kingman), June Kenney (Carol Flynn), Eugene Persson (Mike Simpson), Gene Roth (Sheriff Cagle), Hal Torey (Mr. Simpson), June Jocelyn (Mrs. Flynn), Mickey Finn (Sam Haskel), Sally Fraser (Mrs. Helen Kingman), and Troy Patterson (Joe) Directed by Bert I. Gordon (#929 - Tormented)
Review:
Okay, so it has been a while since I covered a Bert I. Gordon movie (seven years, in fact). Gordon was a filmmaker for over three decades, specializing mostly in effects-based features of varying quality. He served as a co-producer on Serpent Island (as directed by Tom Gries in 1954) before becoming a true director with King Dinosaur (1955). He added effects to his foray with his 1957 trio of films that started with Beginning of the End (1957). The following year, he directed three more films with War of the Colossal Beast (1958), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), and this one; amusingly, both films are mentioned in the film as part of a double feature here for a film that is sometimes referred to as just "The Spider" (I'm going with the title that takes me back to Earth vs. the Flying Saucers [1956]). This actually was among Gordon's last to go big (pun intended) on effects until Village of the Giants in 1965; it was also the fourth film of his with distribution by American International Pictures, but he stopped his association with the company due to money issues he had with them until the 1970s. The movie was written by László Görög and George Worthing Yates, each of whom had done their share of horror scripts (the former did The Mole People [1956] and the latter did the story for Them! [1954] along with five total film scripts for Gordon).
Admittedly, it had only been three years since that other movie about spiders with Jack Arnold's Tarantula (1955). Earth vs. the Spider proves quite the chuckler, particularly since it just goes on a quick start in someone running right into the spider right then and there. In fact, the movie doesn't even play with the whole "finding out the creature is real beyond all doubt" (except for one grouchy sheriff played by Roth, who I should mention *sees the spider himself*) or even wonder how the big spider is, well, aa big spider, it just is there making noise (don't ask if spiders sound like that). This is a being that can take plenty of DDT (ask your grandpa) that only seems to knock it out temporarily before the power of rock-and-roll music (yes, you see a spider in your gym, and it means it's a *swell* time to rock!) bring it right back up again. I especially like that the spider leaves skeletons with no missing bones for folks to discover in caves, since the spider likes to chew flesh like it was cheese of the pizza. At least of the two lead actors were under the age of 25 when they made this film involving teenagers, and while the script sure has them lend themselves to plenty of silly stuff (surely, I must go into this cave to get a bracelet back that my dead parent gave me, also he happens to be in the cave because of that deadly spider thing), they aren't exactly grimacing in being stick with this film. The effects are about a notch above, say, The Giant Claw, for better or worse (Paul Blaisdell apparently made a giant spider leg to use for the film). One has to love that after the plan to simply cave-in the big ugly goes by the wayside, their next plan is to simply electrocute them with the use of power lines that ends up with the monster then falling onto stalagmites...and then they dynamite another cave-in. As a whole, it is cheesy and one-dimensional in a predictable but somewhat comforting way. You expect a silly monster movie with a title like that and you pretty much get exactly what you expect with a hokey mess here.
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
