In the mid-1950s the horror genre began to become influenced by science using radiation as a catalyst for gigantism namely film such as Godzilla [1954], Them! [1954], and Tarantula [1955] it is that film that heavily influenced, this movie, and American International Pictures (AIP) already having a firm hold on the teenage market, thanks to two films they released in 1957 I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein wanted domination in the going market. Hence director Bert I. Gordon teamed with screenwriters Laszlo Gordo (The Mole People [1956])) and someone who knew to how to a story a raise it to gigantism levels, George Worthing Yates (It Came from the Beneath the Sea [1955]) while reteaming for the fourth time with executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff (Love at First Bite [1979] and James H. Nicholson (Matango [1963]). For those sadly unaware, Gordon was an early form of today’s indie filmmaker as he wore several hats, cinematographer, writer, special effects, you name it he accomplished it on any given movie, striving for the best work on highly limited budgets, but always returning a respectable profit on the production. One other aspect that seems to find itself lost with this movie the marketing which is still used with today’s movies, especially the direct-to-consumer models, the main title design and promotional artwork redone to read Earth vs. the Spider. kind of thing still goes on today in the direct-to-prior to the film’s released the film had a title change from “The Spider” to “Earth vs. The Spider” however when The Fly [1958] was released and became an instant box office success this changed itself back to the original title to cash in the creepy crawly aspect for film fans. Although that change was only on the promotional artwork and not the film print, hence producers are always watching the trends in other films and studios releases.
Ed Kemmer and Gene Roth
June Kenney and Eugene Persson
Gordon makes sure to deliver most of his story in a rapid pacing, in fact by the 31-minute mark one learns about main characters, the monster and the current situation. Why is the setup so quick, because he understood the intended audience, teenagers, their attention span was limited, hence needed to capture them fast. Therefore, pardon any spoilers, the film opens with a middle-aged man driving down a lone country road late at night, with a gift beside him for Carol suddenly crashing due to strong cables strewn across the roadway. Then a cut to the next day we meet two central characters Mike (Eugene Persson (Bloodlust [1961])) and Carol (June Kenney (Attack from the Puppet People [1958])), and he’s attempting to court her and offers a birthday gift, some more pieces are put together for the audience, and learn her father never came home last night. After school the young couple borrow Joe’s (Troy Patterson) little hot rod, and locate her father’s wrecked pickup truck, eventually walked to a cave, which was Carlsbad Caverns; but has a horrible reputation. Soon enough they find human remains but not her fathers, they almost get stuck in webbing material then behold the horrors a super large tarantula approaches them. The terrorized teens flee from the monster, go to the police but dismiss it, as they always do in these movies. It isn’t until the science teacher Professor Art Kingman (Ed Kemmer (Agiant from the Unknown [1958])) is told and gets Sheriff Cagle (Gene Roth (Attack of the Giant Leeches [1959])) and a posse together and investigate. The small-town simple life of the 50s. On a return trip to the cave, they discover Carol’s father’s corpse, after which the police fired multiple bullets into it and spray a lot of DDT into it supposedly killing the monstrosity. Kingman, treats it as a science project and makes arrangements for the carcass and haul it to the local high school gym and workout we never see how they did it. His plan is to recoup his money and sell it to a university, yep what could go wrong with this plan? Ready for the bizarre moment, the local rock band needs to rehearse in the gym, and the teens trick/ take advantage of the janitor, Hugo (Hank Patterson (The Amazing Colossal Man [1957])) into letting them advance their education. Their music has the beat to awaken the beast, maybe it has some nifty footwork to show-off. The third act, involves many of the common tropes from these gigantism movies of the 50s, such as calling the governor, needing the army to kill the spider, and there’s at least two damsels, in distress moments, one involving Kingman’s wife Helen (Sally Fraser (War of the Colossal Beast [1958])) and more of Carol, who keeps losing the gift from her father and there’s tagalong Mike. A piece information from earlier in the film foreshadows the solution and that is the end of The Spider, then again who knows what else lurks in the Caverns.
The Spider
A Victim
Time to explore this tangled web, first just like sharks, spiders don’t have vocal cords, the hunt in stealth mode all the time, creepy around you right now; however herein the spider has a loud screech-growl. Aside from that aspect Gordon did need to use creative filming techniques since he really wanted to film on location of the Carlsbad Caverns (used by other films such as Gargoyles [1972] and The Bat People [1974]) but at that time the National Park Services, disallowed him; because the fear of the large heated lights could cause microbiological outbreak upend the fragile ecosystem which exists inside the cave. Therefore, faced with the dilemma he used many postcards of the area cut them in fragments thereby concocted a perspective which forced what he wanted to frame and made his trick-shots. In addition, most of the action sequences delayed and the audiences see the after-shot of chaos, but when the spider needed to make an appearance the head spider wrangler Jim Dannaldson (Fangs [1974]) assisted. He’s aided by both Paul and Jackie Blaisdell who handled a spider-leg prop for the special close-up scenes. Some the dialogue is quite goofy especially line from Carol’s mother:
Carol: Why did I drop it [the gift from her father] in that cave
Mrs. Flynn: You have your homework to get ready for tomorrow
This is very strange, that the daughter isn’t allowed to mourn her father’s loss but rather return to school the next day, shows the mother as emotionless, she’ll repeat the attitude later. One minor aspect, that many might miss, is at the end of the film the usage of the theremin instrument used in many sci-fi films, here it was performed by Samuel Hoffman (The Thing from Another World [1951]) with the booming score by Albert Glasser (The Monster Maker [1944]). For more information concerning the Theremin a short clip to understand the uniqueness of it:
Lastly, something for the horror genre collectors, Joe, in one scene has a copy of issue #1 of the Famous Monsters of Filmland, which is ultra rare and valued between $500 to $1,000 depending on condition.
Troy Patterson
The movie is exactly what one expects, nothing more the characters are typical tropes of that era, and there’s no depth to them or the actions, the lack true emotions reigns supremely true throughout the story. Nevertheless, the audience doesn’t care about that intrigue the core of them seek the thrill of a fun ride, it’s a giant spider movie whenever it occurs on the screen the creature feature fans of spiders flock to see it.
TAGLINES:
- IT MUST EAT YOU TO LIVE! (original print ad-all caps)
- 50 TONS OF CREEPING BLACK HORROR! (original print ad – all caps)
- ..won’t kill it! Flames…can’t burn it! Nothing…can stop it!
- The Spider will eat you alive!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051570/
IMDb Rating: 4.5/10
Baron’s Rating: 4.5/10
Remade as: Earth vs. the Spider [2001] – TV Movie