The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

With a plot only a drive-in could love a strange phenomenon occurs that creates a black hole in rural Wisconsin!  And as if having a black hole in your neighborhood isn’t bad enough it becomes a gateway for giant spiders from another universe to show up and stomp around the countryside.  The local sheriff, played by the late great Alan Hale (Skipper from Gilligan’s Island), isn’t really up to the task of protecting the locals.  Lucky for them a crack team, well okay really just one guy, from NASA is there to save them all.  He drops some sort of science thing into the black hole to disrupt it, but not before the giant spiders terrify the locals and eat a couple.

This is a bad movie that I like to watch and get some enjoyment out of.  The story is silly, filled with goofy dialogue and some of the worst pseudo science this side of creationism (sorry to all my religious friends, but cowboys riding dinosaurs?).  I mean right from the begining you have Alan Hale deliver the line, “Hello little buddy”.  That sets the tone right there for a cheesy little movie that doesn’t take itself seriously.  Of course not taking itself seriously doesn’t make a good movie.  If that were true most of the independent camcorder flicks I get in the mail would be worth watching.  The real trick with the Giant Spider Invasion is that it doesn’t take itself seriously and it is fun to watch and never boring.  There is always something interesting on screen, even if it is something silly.  Speaking of silly I could go on and on about the science stuff that is discussed in the movie, but I won’t.  Let me just leave you with the little factoid that there is a black hole in Wisconsin.  I got a D in science class, but I’m pretty sure that a black hole in Wisconsin would probably destroy the Earth.  But this is the sort of thing that makes me really like this movie. 

Lets talk about the technical bits and pieces for a minute.  Bill Rebane directed this movie and I’m a huge fan of his.  But he isn’t exactly the best filmmaker ever, I think mostly due to the miniscule budgets he had to work with.  There are quite a few obvious mistakes in continuity and some of the day for night shots (night scenes that are shot during the day and them made to look like night either thru film processing or filters) are really messed up.  Normally that kind of thing would really bug me, but in this movie I laugh it off and move on.  Perhaps my expectations are lower, or these sorts of mistakes just add to the overall fun of a movie like this.  I am impressed with the Giant Spider itself, which is a Volkswagen Beetle covered in a costume.  Sure it looks phony, but I love rubber-suited monsters.  And if you cover a car in a costume I love it even more. 

So be warned that this is a really cheesy movie.  If you are looking for a serious monster movie then I recommend popping in Alien or something like that.  But on the other hand if you are up for some fun and want to have a couple good laughs then I recommend The Giant Spider Invasion. 

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer