Earth Vs. The Spider

Earth Vs. The Spider (1958)
The Plot: A giant spider enters a suburb and gets more than he bargained for!

  The stakes are high in this movie. It's not just someone vs. the spider, or the town vs. the spider. No. It's the whole flippin' earth vs. the spider. Now I'm not sure the spider knows it's the entire earth vs. him. He doesn't seem to inclined to actually leave the confines of the sleepy town. He just doing things a spider would do. You know, live in a dark, cool cave, spin webs, attack passing motorists, whatever!  His mistake was getting the high school kids to start investigating. He would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids! Now, when i say kids, it is quite obvious that none of these "kids" are high school age. A quick IMDB search shows that the hero's best friend was played by a 35 year old man passing as a high schooler! It was the 50's. Things were different. He does conduct the swingin' high school rock n roll band though.
I've been going to this school for 21 years, i'm no dummy!
  Many people in this movie are stupid. they may seem smart, but they're not. The high schoolers may be learning about electrical currents in class (hmmm, foreshadowing much?), but that is the end of anything smart. The town officials, led by the sheriff, DDT the spider and i appears to die. That's good right? Well, then they display its dead body in the school gym. That's bad. It was not killed but merely stunned for , what 24 hours maybe? until it comes to life while the rock n roll band is playing. Or maybe Rock n Roll just has the power to revive dead giant spiders. It could really go either way. The spider then goes on a rampage where it almost actually interacts with people on the screen, but not quite. In a series of split screens, we see the spider climb on buildings, cars, etc.
It's split screen terror!
  The cops send one guy on a motorcycle for help. Now I wasn't alive int he 50s but i'm sure they had long distance calling. Perhaps a phone call to the army, or other agency for help would do here in this situation? Anyway, the spider bites the cop and drains him of all his blood (off screen of course! Hey! how much money do you think this movie had!) Meanwhile, the kids go back to the cave where they originally found the spider to look for the "high schooler" Carol's bracelet that she dropped in there. I don;t care if I dropped the hope diamond, you probably wouldn't get me back in that cave. But they go there and that is when the giant spider goes back to the cave. The townsfolk dynamite the cave shut only to discover the kids are trapped inside. OOPS! Back to the drawing board. The dig the kids out and then, in a shocking conclusion (pun most definitely intended) electrocute the spider as foreshadowed by the science class scene.
What happens when you spend too much time in the sun at the beach
  Earth vs the Spider may have grander ambitions than it could deliver. It would have been better if they could've shown the spider interacting with any other object on the screen, but alas, it could not. I give this one 5 thirty five year old high schoolers!


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