Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

mark.waltz When dancing teenagers can stir a supposedly dead giant tarantula back to life, that gives evidence to the 50's square adult's belief that "Rock and roll has got to go!" Unlike the giant dancing duck in "Village of the Giants", this giant spider does not have rhythm, only an appetite for human body fluids, setting a trap with giant rope like sticky webbing to block the road near the deep and dank cave it lives in. Searching for her father out in the middle of this unexplored area, the rather naive June Kenney and her boyfriend (Eugene Persson) search for him inside the cave, already marked with a warning of "Do not enter!" Falling into the giant web, they are disturbed by the sounds of the approaching spider which seems to be speaking to them in anticipation of his lunch to be. Kenney and Persson manage to escape, but Kenney is frantic when she realizes that she has dropped the birthday present for her that she found near the wreckage of her father's pick-up truck. The discovery of shriveled up bodies with all the liquid sucked out (I guess spiders are only drinkers, not eaters) scares the bageebers out of Kenney, but that doesn't stop her from getting Persson to take her back to the cave after they believe that the spider has been killed and removed from the cave for research on how it got to be that size. Like other movies where they remove the supposed carcass of a giant creature, it is never explained as to how they do it, and even more importantly, the objections of those given that assignment who wouldn't touch a small bug let alone a large one!I guess you have to suspend disbelief that a spider can go into suspended animation when shot full of bullets and tied up in a school gymnasium. The school security guard gets trapped after a bunch of students decide to have an impromptu dance in the gym with the spider hanging in the background, and when his body is discovered, it is a hysterical variation of what a Dali painting might look at if it had once been human. I did find the special effects not bad, having seen much worse before when a giant creature is chasing townspeople, but the whole situation just becomes plain stupid when another teenager arranges for the spider (whom he has discovered trying to devour an entire house) to chase him back to the cave where Kenney and Persson have gone to look for that darn birthday present she dropped. Just then, the local law shows up to close up the cave and unknowingly lock Kenney and Persson inside, with them having gone into other areas of the cave with no way of escape. While Kenney overacts in her attempt to display grief for her spider lunch father, his widow (June Jocelyn) seems to show no grief over her husband's nasty death, only showing any emotion when her daughter is revealed to be trapped inside the cave with the spider. It's a fun bad movie that is easy to dissect for all of its absurdities, but can also be enjoyed on an extreme camp level, whether it be the ludicrous situations, the high school students played by bad 30 something year old actors or the fact that at the end Kenney and Persson are not even given a slap on the wrist for their stupidity.

Scott LeBrun Near the small town of River Falls, a bird spider that's grown to enormous proportions is discovered inside a mountain cave. It's supposedly killed by the authorities, and taken to a temporary holding spot in a high school gym in preparation for transportation elsewhere. Wouldn't you know it: the beast hears the strains of some groovy rock 'n' roll and comes back to life! Among the intrepid heroes who must destroy the monster for good are the local sheriff (Gene Roth) and know-it-all science teacher Art Kingman (Ed Kemmer).Considered by some to be one of director Bert I. Gordons' best "giant thing on the loose" sci-fi thrillers, "Earth vs the Spider" benefits from a fairly snappy pace, and special effects that aren't TOO, too bad. Even though his character should know that spiders are arachnids and not insects, Kemmer is a decent enough lead. Roth is an absolute hoot as the lawman who is understandably skeptical of the idea of a giant spider. Eugene Persson and June Kenney are reasonably engaging as the kids who get themselves into tons of trouble by heading back to the caves to retrieve a bracelet. Hal Torey is good as Perssons' dad, as are Jack Kosslyn as Mr. Fraser, June Jocelyn as Kenney's mom, and Hank Patterson as Hugo the janitor. The eight legged menace is appropriately creepy, and it's amusing that these filmmakers have the thing screaming like a banshee.One effective, unnerving touch is to see two dead bodies that are victims of the creature. And another is a tracking shot that shows some of the devastation wrought by our villain, ending on a crying child.After this, Mr. B.I.G. wouldn't make another special effects, size oriented picture for several years, until he made "Village of the Giants". The man sure knew how to promote himself: posters for his past work can be seen at a theatre.Seven out of 10.

Woodyanders A giant mutant arachnid goes on a destructive rampage in a small town. Director Bert I. Gordon, working from a tight script by Laszlo Gorog and George Worthing Yates, relates the entertaining story at a steady pace, makes effectively creepy use of the Carlsbad Caverns, further spruces things up with a few fairly gruesome touches (the spider sucks out the juices from its victims and leaves dried-out pruney corpses in its lethal wake), maintains a serious tone throughout, and builds a reasonable amount of tension in the thrilling climax. June Kenny as the fetching Carol Flynn and Mike Simpson as the likable Mike Simpson make for an appealing teen couple. Edward Kemmer does well as smart and helpful high school science teacher Professor Art Kingman. Familiar character actor Gene Roth has a neat part as the initially skeptical Sheriff Cagle. Granted, the special effects aren't so hot (or convincing, for that matter), but they do add to this film's considerable innocent charm. Jack A. Marta's crisp black and white cinematography does the trick. Albert Glasser's spirited shuddery score hits the robust'n'rousing bull's eye. The concise 73 minute running time ensures that this picture never becomes tedious or overstays its welcome. Moreover, this movie possesses a certain sweet and inoffensive wide-eyed sincerity that's impossible to either resist or dislike. A fun little flick.

delibebek I really enjoy Bert Gordon films (although the apparently necessary middle initial continues to evoke images of Johnny Depp in "Ed Wood" continually insisting on the "D") and this is one is pretty typical. The photography is always good, and the effects are passable.It may be a difficult point to make, given that we never see the spider's method of consuming the precious bodily fluids it seems to crave, but I think the spider just wanted to be left alone. Perhaps the first victim merely happened along its path during a hunting foray.It is obvious however, later in the film, after the spider escapes the gym, destroying doorway-ignoring school janitors along the way, the spider simply wants to go home. As he re-enters the cave, you can clearly hear the spider saying, "Ho-ome. I'm ho-ome." If you thought that was an amplified spider's voice, it actually seems to be a human voice, distorted somewhat, so you may have to "undistort" the voice as you're listening.I feel sorry for the spider, and even until the final scene I was hoping that it would survive man's fury. But alas, it wasn't so. :( Not even glimpses of an egg sac that would have allowed a sequel.