Wolf Eyes x 'Spider Baby'

Giggles and gore on eight legs: legendary avant-noise duo Wolf Eyes takes on the pitch-black horror comedy 'Spider Baby' at Videodroom. A downright camp classic and without a doubt one of the strangest cult films of the 1960s.

'Spider Baby'—also known as 'Cannibal Orgy' and 'The Maddest Story Ever Told'—from 1967 is a bizarre piece of exploitation cinema. Too intense to be a true comedy but too 'cutesy' to be pure horror, it hovers somewhere between 'The Addams Family' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. A cartoonish slice of grindhouse that revels in its own contrarian nature and twisted anarchy. Who else but Wolf Eyes would want to provide this film with a brand-new score?

Wolf Eyes (John Olson and Nate Young) formed in Michigan in 1998 and are known for their unique & uncompromising sound: putting noise, industrial, free jazz, and avant-garde into a blender, resulting in hypnotic and unpredictable performances that are intense from start to finish. With countless releases on vinyl, CDR, and cassette, they are one of the most active and inspiring experimental acts of the past 25 years.

The story: In a dilapidated mansion, the last descendants of the Merrye family live in complete anarchy. Due to a genetic disease, they have regressed into a childlike state, giving in to cannibalism and homicidal urges. The youngest daughter, Virginia (Jill Banner), believes she is a human spider and creeps through the house looking for prey. Meanwhile, the eldest son, Ralphie (played by cult actor Sid Haig), hunts stray cats to serve for dinner. The orphans are cared for (and kept in check) by chauffeur and butler Bruno (a brilliant role for horror icon Lon Chaney Jr.). When a few distant relatives and their lawyer unexpectedly visit with their eyes on the inheritance, all hell—naturally—breaks loose.

'Spider Baby' was the brainchild of cult director Jack Hill—famous for blaxploitation and camp classics like 'Coffy', 'Foxy Brown', and 'Switchblade Sisters', and affectionately described by Quentin Tarantino as 'the Howard Hawks of exploitation cinema'. The freaky performances by Sid Haig and others, the atmospheric black-and-white cinematography, and the pitch-black humor gave this low-budget schlocker a trompe-l'œil 'punk rock' vibe avant la lettre. No wonder it's one of John Waters' favorite movies.

'For anyone who has ever felt different or out of step with the world in general, Spider Baby will likely strike a chord, in addition to providing a unique horror experience, transcendent of the time period' – Cinematic Randomness