News

Late to the Party: ‘Spider Baby’ (1967)

Published

7 years ago

October 4, 2017

It’s October! That marvelous month of the macabre and mayhem. With a wealth of horror movies to catch up on, I decided to go for something a little retro and that has a lot of retaining influences. With Kelly’s last LTTP post on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I thought it would be fun to follow up with another tale of cannibal clans, madness, and backwoods terror; Jack Hill’s Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told!

And what a story of madness it is.

Image via Wikipedia

The film starts off with a musical cartoon montage about the ‘maddest story ever told’ to set the mood. Then, a man with a book on rare diseases discusses “Merrye Syndrome.” A genetic disorder which causes a degeneration of the inflicted’s physical and mental state, causing them to become childish sociopaths. The last three known Merryes are Ralph, Virginia, and Elizabeth. Ralph is a mute but excitable manchild (played by none other than Sid Haig!). Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) is the more restrained and bullied sibling. And Virginia (Jill Banner) is a violent womanchild obsessed with bugs and spiders. The titular Spider Baby ‘trapping’ a deliveryman in her web before brutally stabbing him to death. Using a pair of knives as her pincers. The guardian of the trio and the estate is their chauffeur Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.), a kindly old man who just wants to keep the poor remnants of the Merrye family afloat and sane. But when distantly related Merrye family members arrive to claim the estate, it will turn into the most fearsome family reunion ever!

Watching the film, it’s interesting to see it as the ‘missing link’ of sorts between the ghosts and ghouls of the early 60’s to the more visceral and brutal human killers of the 70’s and onward. Despite being a more grindhouse style film, there’s a lot of heart to these madmen. Bruno sees the trio of siblings as kids, despite their age, size, and homicidal tendencies. He made a vow to watch over the Merrye clan to the family patriarch, and he intends to keep that oath. Ralph, Elizabeth, and Virginia are sympathetic in that their lot is of no fault to their own, but due to a cruel genetic disease. Virginia also keeping a collection of pet tarantulas such as Barney and Winifred.

Image via Youtube

All three stand out in their own ways. Ralph is playful and funny (The scene of Sid Haig having to wear an ill fitting schoolboy suit to dinner is as hysterical as it is weird) but still a giant of a man. Elizabeth and Virginia are like any bickering sisters, though with a proclivity for blades. And unlike most stories of psychopathic families, we get a lot of perspective from the cannibal clan themselves, something not oft done even in modern horror.

While not necessarily a frightening movie, it really sets the mood. The black and white tones making the dark and forbidding Merrye estate all the more suffocating and eerie. With a subdued pace, it can feel almost like a character study at times. Like an exploitation version of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. Even doing something most films of its time never did, in becoming meta about the horror genre. In a tense but delightful scene around dinner, the visiting Merryes decide to spend the night at the estate despite Bruno’s warnings against the idea. Peter and Ann joking about the place being haunted and their love of horror movies with vampires and werewolves when Bruno notes that there’s a full moon that night before panning to the deranged trio of siblings.

Image via Youtube

A delightfully deranged tale of 60’s style madness and murder, for anyone interested in digging deeper into the roots of these kinds of horror tropes, Spider Baby is worth a visit to the Merrye family…

Join us next week when James Jay Edwards goes the greatest show to ever visit Earth with Killer Klowns From Outer Space!

Feature Image Courtesy Chris Fischer

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“In a Violent Nature” So Gory Audience Member Throws Up During Screening

Published

3 hours ago

May 8, 2024

Cameron McFarland

Chis Nash (ABC’s of Death 2) just debuted his new horror film, In a Violent Nature, at the Chicago Critics Film Fest. Based on the audience’s reaction, those with squeamish stomachs may want to bring a barf bag to this one.

Thats right, we have another horror film that is causing audience members to walk out of the screening. According to a report from Film Updates at least one audience member threw up in the middle of the film. You can hear audio of the audience reaction to the film below.

Audience reacting to a kill from ‘IN A VIOLENT NATURE’ during the Chicago Critics Film Fest screening of the film. An audience member also vomited during the screening.

The film, described as a slasher from the killer's perspective, hits theaters on May 31. pic.twitter.com/KGlyC3HFXa
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) May 6, 2024

This is far from the first horror film to claim this kind of audience reaction. However, early reports of In a Violent Nature indicates that this film may be just that violent. The film promises to reinvent the slasher genre by telling the story from the killer’s perspective.

Here is the official synopsis for the film. When a group of teens takes a locket from a collapsed fire tower in the woods, they unwittingly resurrect the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime. The undead killer soon embarks on a bloody rampage to retrieve the stolen locket, methodically slaughtering anyone who gets in his way.

While we will have to wait and see if In a Violent Nature lives up to all of its hype, recent responses on X offer nothing but praise for the film. One user even makes the bold claim that this adaptation is like an arthouse Friday the 13th.

In a Violent Nature will receive a limited theatrical run starting May 31, 2024. The film will then be released on Shudder sometime later in the year. Make sure to check out the promo images and trailer below.

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Movies

New Windswept Action Trailer for ‘Twisters’ Will Blow You Away

Published

6 hours ago

May 8, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The summer movie blockbuster game came in soft with The Fall Guy, but the new trailer for Twisters is bringing back the magic with an intense trailer full of action and suspense. Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin, is behind this newest disaster film just like its 1996 predecessor.

This time Daisy Edgar-Jones plays the female lead named Kate Cooper, “a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. She is lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. There, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), the charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his raucous crew, the more dangerous the better. As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed, and Kate, Tyler and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.”

Twisters cast includes Nope’s Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane (American Honey), Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders), Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Nik Dodani (Atypical) and Golden Globe winner Maura Tierney (Beautiful Boy).

Twisters is directed by Lee Isaac Chung and hits theaters on July 19.

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News

Travis Kelce Joins Cast on Ryan Murphy’s ‘Grotesquerie’

Published

7 hours ago

May 8, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Football star Travis Kelce is going Hollywood. At least that is what Dahmer Emmy award-winning star Niecy Nash-Betts announced on her Instagram page yesterday. She posted a video of herself on set of the new Ryan Murphy FX series Grotesquerie.

“This is what happens when WINNERS link up‼️ @killatrav Welcome to Grostequerie[sic]!” she wrote.

Standing just out of frame is Kelce who suddenly steps in to say, “Jumping into new territory with Niecy!” Nash-Betts appears to be in a hospital gown while Kelce is dressed as an orderly.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Niecy Nash (@niecynash1)

Not much is known about Grotesquerie, other than in literary terms it means a work filled with both science fiction and extreme horror elements. Think H.P. Lovecraft.

Back in February Murphy released an audio teaser for Grotesquerie on social media. In it, Nash-Betts says in part, “I don’t know when it started, I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s different now. There’s been a shift, like something’s opening up in the world — a kind of hole that descends into a nothingness…”