Hooo boy, "Giant Spider Invasion"...as Monty Python put it, "It's Really Something Other Than Else!!!!"
It's obvious that the director and film crew weren't trying to do anything other than crank out a disposable drive-in monster movie, so I can't savage Rebane and crew too badly about this. There is no pretentiousness here, no High Ambition or would-be High Art, just a bunch of people trying to make a light hearted action adventure.
But man, does it ever suck.
For a lightweight movie with no ambitions, there are an incredible number of hurtful and hateful moments that stun the viewer into incredulity. To wit:
There are at least half a dozen jokes and would-be bits of repartee that fall flatter than a steamrolled gopher.
There is a whole lot of "Tobacco Road" sleaziness: the alcoholic wife jumping the bones of the liquor deliveryman (implied), her husband cheating on his wife with the barmaid and chasing the niece around the kitchen table in his long johns, the niece running around the house in short shorts that all but fall off her hips and pooched out little belly.
There are a whole lot of jarringly unappealing closeups : the farmer in red long-johns and a girdle/back brace; Alan Hale with his uniform shirt continually unbuttoned, acting with his tongue and looking like a total "pork vacuum"; the gem appraiser giving the camera a raspberry; almost every shot of the male scientist with the wattles and the hatchet wound on his forehead.
There is some amazingly unconvincing techno-babble and pseudo-science talk, where Wattle Guy and Barbara Hale try to pretend they are scientists and 'brain-storm' where the spiders are coming from, along with a deus-ex machina plot device where Wattle Guy decides to 'overload' the 'Spider-Gate' with a ??bomb?? of some sort. There is a bit near the end of the movie where Ms Hale is sent to fetch a flare gun, goes to a nearby car to get the flare gun, and comes back to join Wattle Man...having forgotten the flare gun. Near the end of the film, poor Ms. Hale also is made to repeatedly scream like a cougar (via overdub) in an attempt to simulate shock and fear.
There are some spectacularly poor special effects and process shots: the most jarring being the scenes where the spider is fully visible and it's obviously a dune buggy with a bunch of streamers.
Still, there is something enjoyable about all of this. I don't find this movie nearly as loathsome as "Eye Creatures", "Monster-A-Go-Go", or "Eegah"...perhaps it's because the energy level of the film overall is much higher. It's a mess, but things keep moving along, and for that alone it gets an extra star.
MST'S take on this movie is great fun, by the way, and highly recommended.
It's obvious that the director and film crew weren't trying to do anything other than crank out a disposable drive-in monster movie, so I can't savage Rebane and crew too badly about this. There is no pretentiousness here, no High Ambition or would-be High Art, just a bunch of people trying to make a light hearted action adventure.
But man, does it ever suck.
For a lightweight movie with no ambitions, there are an incredible number of hurtful and hateful moments that stun the viewer into incredulity. To wit:
There are at least half a dozen jokes and would-be bits of repartee that fall flatter than a steamrolled gopher.
There is a whole lot of "Tobacco Road" sleaziness: the alcoholic wife jumping the bones of the liquor deliveryman (implied), her husband cheating on his wife with the barmaid and chasing the niece around the kitchen table in his long johns, the niece running around the house in short shorts that all but fall off her hips and pooched out little belly.
There are a whole lot of jarringly unappealing closeups : the farmer in red long-johns and a girdle/back brace; Alan Hale with his uniform shirt continually unbuttoned, acting with his tongue and looking like a total "pork vacuum"; the gem appraiser giving the camera a raspberry; almost every shot of the male scientist with the wattles and the hatchet wound on his forehead.
There is some amazingly unconvincing techno-babble and pseudo-science talk, where Wattle Guy and Barbara Hale try to pretend they are scientists and 'brain-storm' where the spiders are coming from, along with a deus-ex machina plot device where Wattle Guy decides to 'overload' the 'Spider-Gate' with a ??bomb?? of some sort. There is a bit near the end of the movie where Ms Hale is sent to fetch a flare gun, goes to a nearby car to get the flare gun, and comes back to join Wattle Man...having forgotten the flare gun. Near the end of the film, poor Ms. Hale also is made to repeatedly scream like a cougar (via overdub) in an attempt to simulate shock and fear.
There are some spectacularly poor special effects and process shots: the most jarring being the scenes where the spider is fully visible and it's obviously a dune buggy with a bunch of streamers.
Still, there is something enjoyable about all of this. I don't find this movie nearly as loathsome as "Eye Creatures", "Monster-A-Go-Go", or "Eegah"...perhaps it's because the energy level of the film overall is much higher. It's a mess, but things keep moving along, and for that alone it gets an extra star.
MST'S take on this movie is great fun, by the way, and highly recommended.