EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (1958)

Truck driver Jack Flynn is heading home one night with a bracelet he bought as a birthday gift for his teenage daughter Carol when, just outside the small town of River Falls, he hits a thick sticky rope stretched across the road and something attacks his truck: the last we see of him is blood spurting from his slashed face. The next day, a worried Carol gets her boyfriend Mike to search the roads. They find the sticky rope and the wrecked truck with her gift inside but no dad. Entering some nearby caves to see if Dad wandered into one, they find some skeletons and fall into a huge sticky web spun by a giant tarantula. They escape and contact the police who investigate, with the encouragement of Kingman, the science teacher, and manage to kill the spider with insecticide. Kingman has the spider taken back and stored in the high school gym so he can study it, but it turns out it’s not quite dead, and when a rock band enters the gym to rehearse for a dance, and a bunch of students follow them, the stage is set for giant spider mayhem, though it’s less Earth vs. the spider than River Falls vs. the spider. This was made during the heyday of horror and sci-fi movies which focused on teenage characters. Gene Persson (Mike) and June Kenney (Carol) were both in their mid-twenties and could more or less pass for students, though Troy Patterson, as Mike's buddy Joe, was 35 and looked it. Their acting sort of passes muster, but it's the special effects that people watch these movies for, and the giant spider is handled pretty well. Mostly we see real spiders photographed up close with a fake background or, most effectively in the gym scene, a split screen effect (pictured at left). Too much time is spent on Carol insisting on putting everyone in danger to get her bracelet back, which she lost in the spider cave. Produced and directed by B-movie royalty Bert I. Gordon; there are references here to two of his other films, ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE and THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN. Also released as THE SPIDER. A fine Chiller Theater watch. [DVD]