Released: December 24, 1967
“The maddest story ever told!” by 1967 standards may well be true! Directed by Jack Hill (Switchblade Sisters, Coffee) and starring Sid Haig as Ralph, Jill Banner as Virginia. It’s the story of a family of shut-in inbred psychotics locked in their old country house with a creative penchant for murderous games. Their only caretaker is an aged Lon Chaney as sympathetic and devoted Bruno. When money hungry relatives and their lawyer decide to come snooping, they meet with a fate they deserve.
Jill Banner was the one time darling of Marlon Brando and an obvious choice for a teenage horror-fanatics first crush. Her character Virginia’s obsession with spiders and creepy affectation put her at the center of the film, sadly her film career brief and after an early retirement she died at the age of 36. Playing her sister, Beverly Washburn was a child actor with many film and TV castings in the 50s and 60s, including a Star Trek role. Sid Haig was a typecast villain in every television show from the 60s and 80s until his career was revived by fans Quentin Tarantino and Rob Zombie.
Carol Ohmart as the female Merrye relation is known for her role in the 1959 ‘House On Haunted Hill’. Playing her brother Peter, Quinn Redeker was a close friend of Robert Redford and played in mostly soaps but appeared in the heartbreaking psychological drama ‘Ordinary People’ with Donald Sutherland.
Lon Chaney Jr. is the true screen veteran in Spider Baby. His repeated roles as Universal’s Wolfman, not to mention appearing in their Dracula and Frankenstein franchises. His father Lon Chaney senior preceded him in the previous generation of horror films as London After Midnight, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phantom of the Opera. As distant relative Peter, Quinn Redeker was a close friend of Robert Redford and played in mostly soaps but appeared in Ordinary People with Donald Sutherland.
[“A caretaker devotes himself to three demented siblings after their father’s death.” IMDb]
Writer & Director: Jack Hill
Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Jill Banner, Beverly Washburn, Carol Ohmart, Quinn Redeker, Carol Ohmart
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058606
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_Baby