Watch The Spider For Free

Pretty Good

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Jack Flynn is attacked while driving home. His teenage daughter Carol and her boyfriend Mike go searching for him and find a giant spider in a cave. The Sheriff doesn't believe them. Their teacher Kingman is able to convince him to send a posse. Armed with DDT, they are able to kill the giant spider. They bring the spider back to town and store it in the high school gym. As the kids practice rock and roll, the spider revives and terrorizes the town. Meanwhile Carol and Mike go back to the cave to find her lost bracelet.It's a campy 50s creature feature. The giant spider is a fun visual. The acting is bad. The story is simplistic which actually helps. I certainly don't want too many explanations about giant spiders. That can't be any good. It's a B-movie with a few fun unintentional silliness.

Ah, the '50s. The era of movies about radioactivity turning creepy-crawly things into giants. The most famous of these flicks remains "Them!", but others include "Tarantula" (which features a young Clint Eastwood), and "Earth vs. the Spider". The latter features a gigantic Mexican redleg tarantula that wreaks havoc on a small town.I could easily identify the superimposed scenes, but there's one scene in the movie that really stands out. Mike (Gene Persson) works in a movie theater that's showing "Attack of the Puppet People". B movie connoisseurs will likely know that "AotPP" is another Bert I. Gordon movie that also stars "EvtS" co-star June Kenney: she plays a secretary whose boss shrinks her and some other people to the size of a hand. In that movie, she gets made smaller than most humans, and in this one she's normal size but has to deal with a king-sized arachnid. Can't that woman ever catch a break? Anyway, most of the movie is about what you might expect: the scientists and authorities try to figure out how to stop the humongous Brachypelma boehmei, while the women mostly shriek and sob. The movie is totally corny but very enjoyable. And above all, June Kenney is a REAL FOX!

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.

If you're looking for a classic-style American movie, try out Earth vs. The Spider. I won't say it's an actual classic itself, but it has all the elements that make low budget American drive in horror fun.Emotional teenagers: check. Skeptical, good ol' boy sheriff: check. Bit of mumbo jumbo scientific talk: got it. Killer giant insect: bingo.The whole production has a cheerfulness about it that I like. The small town, the high school janitor, the wanton use of DDt--there's an innocence about all these elements. Remember, with a movie like this, its about fun and not about being scared. Earth vs the Spider is a minor, but fun effort.