Spider baby

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Movie
German title Spider baby
Original title Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1967
length Theatrical version: approx. 81 minutes
Director’s Cut version: approx. 84 minutes
Rod
Director Jack Hill
script Jack Hill
production Gil Lasky
Marvin Levine
Alan Riseman
Paul Monka
music Ronald Stein
camera Alfred Taylor
cut Jack Hill
occupation

Spider Baby is an American horror film from 1967 that was shot in black and white. Directed by Jack Hill . The film was shot in just twelve days. The budget was $ 65,000, Jack Hill put the budget at $ 50,000 in 2012. The film premiered on December 24, 1967 in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA.

action

Three children of the Merrye family live in a remote country house with their carer and chauffeur Bruno. The children suffer from a hereditary disease, Merrye Syndrome. They are socially, mentally and physically degenerate. Other degenerate relatives with the same syndrome live in the basement of the house and are more affected by it. Ralph, Virginia and Elizabeth are especially dangerous. Ralph grunts to communicate, Virginia eats insects, and Elizabeth murders and occasionally mutilates people. When distant relatives arrive with their lawyer to claim the house, disaster takes its course.

So far Bruno has managed to shield the family from the outside world as far as possible. After the relatives arrive, they murder one of the family members and the degenerate relatives in the basement begin to eat the corpse. After Ralph committed a rape, Bruno sees his last chance in blowing up himself and everyone in the house.

At the end of the film, Peter, who escaped, reports that all genetic material carriers are now dead and that Merrye syndrome has thus been erased. The last camera shot shows the youngest daughter Peters, who, like Virginia, is very fond of spiders.

Production and publication

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Karl Schanzer (Mr. Schlocker) worked as a private detective in the early 1960s and was friends with Jack Hill. Schanzer had two clients, Paul Monka and Gil Lasky, who worked in the real estate industry in order to later get into the film business. The two of them had already read countless film scripts when Karl Schanzer told them about Jack Hill. He wrote a draft that both liked because it was completely different. He could have got the idea for the film from a conversation with Sid Haig. With an estimated budget of $ 65,000, Monka and Lasky produced the film under the production company called Lasky-Monka. The title of the film was Cannibal Orgy or The Maddest Story Ever Told; The Maddest Story Ever Told was based on the film The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). The shooting took place in August 1964 and lasted about twelve days. The film was shot at Smith Estate, 5905 El Mio Drive in Los Angeles. The house is still standing today and can be visited.

The cast and crew was a mixed bag of veterans and bloody beginners. For the role of Bruno you could win Lon Chaney junior , who was a veteran of the US horror film. Chaney initially turned the role down because the $ 2,500 was too little for him. They called John Carradine because he had the same agent as Chaney. When he found out that Carradine was being offered the role of Bruno, Chaney finally agreed, because he saw the chance to play comedy here. At the time, Chaney was already a heavy alcoholic and the hot temperatures during the shoot made him feel troubled as the money was insufficient for air conditioning. He also drank while filming. In order not to attract attention, he drank vodka mixed with orange juice. His contract said that he could have a few drinks after shooting was over.

Chaney also sang the theme song “Spider Baby” which has many allusions to his past at Universal, for example the line “Beware! There's a full moon tonight “a reference to his role in the film The Wolf Man .

Beverly Washburn was discovered in a shop by Bart Patton - he took over the functions of production manager and assistant director - and was invited to a casting. She was an experienced actress and had been in front of the camera since she was a child. She got the role of Elizabeth. During the casting, she met Jill Banner, who got the role as Virginia. It was her first role. Jill Banner was only 17 years old at the time, in order not to conflict with the protection of minors, it was claimed that she was 18 years old.

Sid Haig took on the role of Ralph. He and Jack Hill had worked together before.

Mary Mitchel played the role of Ann Morris. She was the wife of Bart Patton and has played victim roles in other films such as Panic in Year Zero .

Carol Ohmart played the role of Emily Howe, she was known from the movie The House on Haunted Hill , but had not been able to land a hit after that.

Mantan Moreland played the postman. The special thing about it was that after a long period of US horror films, an African American took on a role again that did not correspond to the typical cliché for African Americans in horror films (in the horror cult film The Night of the Living Dead from 1967, an African American plays a role for the first time Leading role in a horror film).

Quinn K. Redeker took on the role of Peter Howe.

The relatives who lived in the pit in the basement were played by the make-up artist, the cameraman's girlfriend. The third person is unknown.

The music was composed by Ronald Stein. Alfred Taylor was responsible for the camera work and John Broadrick and Lee Strosnider for the sound. The art director was Ray Storey.

Shortly after the film was shot, it was shown to some movie theater owners. These left the demonstration after a short time. The producers mistakenly assumed they didn't like the movie, but their departure had other reasons. The producers then asked Jack Hill to cut out the opening sequence with the postman, as they made this scene for the supposed failure. Hill initially refused to do so, but eventually did because he was concerned that a stranger might damage the footage while it was being edited. There were also massive problems synchronizing the sound with the video. This process had to be repeated several times, which resulted in additional costs. By 1965 the US real estate market collapsed and producers were bankrupt. Years of legal battle ensued.

Around 1968, distributor David L. Hewitt called Jack Hill: He had seen the film and wanted to market it. The litigation over the film ended and the opening scene was reinserted. Hewitt changed the film title from Cannibal Orgy or, The Maddest Story Ever Told to Spider Baby . Around 1970 he changed it again to The Liver Eaters . Presumably, the first change to the title was supposed to increase the chances of commercialization (the cannibal film genre only flourished in the late 1970s and early 1980s). The title change from Spider Baby to The Liver Eaters was probably made because of competing films, which sometimes had very sensational titles.

The cinema premiere was on December 24th, 1967 in Corpus Christi, Texas. The distribution was taken over by American General Pictures.

In order to generate as much profit as possible, the film was then shown in drive- in theaters all over the USA, presumably regular cinemas can show great interest in the film and so it was decided to take this step. Since the film was shot in black and white, it could only be shown as a double feature (two films for the price of one). At the time, black and white films, especially horror films, were unpopular (with the exception of George a Romero's Night of the Living Dead ).

With the introduction of the Video Home System in the USA, there was another illegal distribution channel for Spider Baby in the form of pirated copies . The VHS copies appear to be from a 16mm copy. However, in the early days of the video home system, this was the only way to get films on VHS cassettes. Films on VHS were still very expensive, if they were available at all, and there was no distribution system. Therefore, one made do with private exchange networks. People sent each other lists of their film collections in the mail, sent each other films on VHS cassettes the same way, which were then copied and sent back.

This is how Spider Baby became known and “kept alive” and over the years has developed into a bizarre cult classic. One of those movie enthusiasts was Johnny Legend . He saw the film in 1969 at the Tower Theater in Los Angeles. In the late 1980s he called Jack Hill to get a copy of the film . Jack Hill actually found a 35mm copy of the film in 1994. On April 1st, 1994, the film was shown in the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles with cast and crew for the 30th anniversary and reunification. Johnny Legend released the film on VHS tape on 9/14/1994 with additional footage from the re-release of the film. In October 1996, Spider Baby was released on Laserdisc with a digitally restored soundtrack. It was later released on DVD .

On May 13th, 2008, the website for the film was registered under the domain spiderbabyonline.com, which went online in 2009.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences restored and archived the film in 2012. On September 29, 2012, the restored version was premiered at the first Academy “FILM-TO-Film” festival.

Subkultur-Entertainment released the film for the first time on July 14, 2017 with a German synchronization in the restored Directors-Cut version on Blu-ray and DVD in Germany.

Trivia

As defined on urbandictionary.com, Spider Baby is an incredibly attractive young woman who loves things that are so perverted that you might die in the process.

Jack Hill was writing a sequel to Spider Baby. The title was Vampire Orgy .

Lon Chaney nicknamed Jill and Beverly. He called Beverly "Bubble Butt" (German: Wackel-Arsch) and Jill "Cracker Ass" (German: Knackarsch).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ spiderbabyonline.com - The Maddest Story Ever Told . Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  2. ↑ The Academy Honors 'Spider Baby' (or The Maddest Story Ever Told) . Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  3. ↑ Spider Baby (1967) - Release Info . Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  4. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , p. 22
  5. ^ Wheeler Winston Dixon : Film Talk: Directors at Work. Rutgers University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0813540788 , pp. 88-89
  6. ↑ Smith Estate5905 El Mio Drive, Los Angeles, California 90001 USA .
  7. ↑ Bryan Senn : A Year of Fear: A Day-by-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films. McFarland, 2007, ISBN 978-0786431960 , p. 309
  8. ^ Brian Albright : Wild Beyond Belief !: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436897 , p. 108
  9. ↑ Tom Weaver : Eye on Science Fiction: 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmmakers, McFarland, 2007, ISBN 978-0786430284 , p. 342
  10. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , p. 23
  11. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , p. 23
  12. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , p. 21
  13. ↑ Tom Weaver : Eye on Science Fiction: 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmmakers, McFarland, 2007, ISBN 978-0786430284 , pp. 339-340
  14. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , p. 21
  15. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , pp. 21-22
  16. Jump up ↑ Robin R Means Coleman : Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present. Routledge, 2011, ISBN 978-0415880206 , p. 103
  17. ^ Brian Albright : Wild Beyond Belief !: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436897 , pp. 107-108
  18. ^ Brian Albright : Wild Beyond Belief !: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436897 , pp. 108-109
  19. ↑ Calum Waddell : Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0786436095 , page 24
  20. ↑ Bryan Senn : A Year of Fear: A Day-by-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films. McFarland, 2007, ISBN 978-0786431960 , p. 308
  21. ^ Spider Baby (1967) release info . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  22. ^ Spider Baby (1967) . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  23. ↑ Johnny Legend presents Spider Baby . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  24. ↑ The VHS empire - as the cinema came home, directed by Dimitri Kourtchine, Country: France, Year: 2016, Origin: ARTE F . Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 23, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arte.tv
  25. ↑ Jack Hill: An Interview . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  26. ↑ SPIDER BABY 30TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  27. ↑ What Ever Happened to Spider Baby VHS . Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  28. ↑ Johnny Legend presents Spider Baby . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  29. ↑ JACK HILL COLLECTION . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  30. ↑ THE FIRST ACADEMY "FILM-TO-FILM" FESTIVAL . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  31. ↑ Spider Baby on Blu-ray from July . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  32. ↑ TOP DEFINITION . Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  33. ↑ INTERVIEW: JACK HILL . Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  34. ↑ Current Issue Sample . Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 24, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.videoscopemag.com