INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS

Before the advent of the Internet there was a series of over sized trade paperback periodicals called Re/Search. They were about all sorts of bizarre counter-culture subjects, from strange outsider music to pranks to bizarre fiction, movies, and other off-the-wall treasures that you could find nowhere else. The Re-Search series flourished throughout the 1980's through the very early 1990's. Most were edited by V. Vale and Andrea Juno and featured articles, interviews, and essays by a wide variety of writers. My favorite of these books was "Incredibly Strange Films"(Re/Search #10, published in 1985). This book helped turn me on to wide variety of bizarre directors and films. Some in the book I already knew about, but this book helped me learn more about them and discover more of their films. Others I had never heard of, and I immediately and hungrily sought out their work.

"Incredibly Strange Films" is a real treasure trove of information on bizarre American cinema. It is chock full of in depth interviews with directors, essays, and other information on several pieces of classic and unheard of cult cinema, some of which you may have seen reviewed here. There is also exhaustive coverage of several cult cinema sub-genres, such as mondo films, women in prison films and LSD flicks. There are interviews and in-depth coverage of some of my favorite directors their lifetime production of films.

I will give you a list of some of the directors featured in this book, and the movies in parenthesis are the ones that have been reviewed here so far.

Russ Meyer (Faster Pussycat Kill Kill)

Ted V. Mikels ( Corpsegrinders 2, Mark of the Astro Zombies)

Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case 2, Brain Damage, Frankenhooker)

Larry Cohen (Black Caesar)

Herschell Gordon Lewis (Bloodfeast 1 and 2, The Wizard of Gore, The Gore-Gore Girls)

Ray Dennis Steckler (Rat Phink a Boo Boo)

Essay on Jack Hill's Spider Baby

There are a lot of movies featured in this book, many that I have yet to discover, and some that I have yet to share with you. Just pick this book up if you can. Even though it came out in the 1980's, I have not seen another publication to cover so thoroughly the joy and wonders of the American cult film.

SPIDER BABY

"Cannibal spiders creep and crawl,
Boys and ghouls having a ball,
Frankenstein, Dracula, and even The Mummy
Are sure to end up in somebody's tummy"

So goes Lon Chaney, Jr. singing the deranged opening song to “Spider Baby“...and just when you thought things couldn't get weirder, the movie starts.
Spider Baby is about a family that has a peculiar disease. As they grow older, their minds become younger and they become sadistic, murderous, dangerous. They can no longer control their instincts.
This peculiar family lives in a mansion and is overseen by their caretaker, played by Lon Chaney, Jr., in one of his greatest roles. When some distant family members come to visit because they want to sell the estate, all hell breaks loose!
Filmed on a shoestring budget and in black and white, this movie always amazes me. I've seen it too many times to count. The look of the film is eerie, almost dreamlike, thanks to the director, Jack Hill. The acting and the characters are amazing.....and this is what makes the movie. Jill Banner's performance as Spider Baby is haunting.......whimsical and creepy all at once......she likes to play spider by seducing her victims and killing them. Sid Haig's performance as Ralph is out there too......remember him as the clown in "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects"?
Everyone should see this movie. Look for it seek it out it's not too hard to find........
"Do you want to play spider with me?"

Here's the bizarre opening theme song...



And here's a clip from the movie.