The Giant Spider Invasion — The Giant Spider Invasion(Blu Ray)
The Giant Spider Invasion appeared in 1975- it was the second film from Riga, Latvia born director-producer Bill Rebane- who was responsible for other cheesy exploitation fare such as The Alpha Incident, The Capture Of Bigfoot, Twisters Revenge, and two episodes of 90’s US TV show Tiny Tim & Friends. The Giant Spider Invasion is well enough directed, well-paced and largely well enough acted slice of B-movie cake- which very clearly nods back to the alien landing/ when creatures attack paranoid films of the 50’s- but is edged with humor & knowing swipes- though it never goes full-on silly parody like say something like the Attack of The Killer Tomato films.
As one would expect with this type of film it’s set in small-town America, in northern Wisconsin. One night the sky is lite flashing red & white, just behind the small rundown small holding of Kester- a lazy, long john wearing & bearded parttime Farmer - played with wonderful gleeful malice by respected US character actor Robert Easton. Next morning he & his sister/ or girlfriend(not really clear which it is) go out to investigate, find dead cattle, a big crater & lots of little stone balls- full, to Kester delight with crystals. Also at first going un-noticed inside each is a tarantula - fairly soon webs are been span everywhere, town folk are going missing. And it’s up to a middle-aged local female doctor, a man from NASA, and constantly japing butterball Sherif to try & figure out what's happening. And basically, they work out that a small black hole has open in the town, and things from another dimeson are coming through…though oddly just spiders- first normal sized tarantulas, then slightly larger roof clinging types, then a huge fifty-five foot one- which chases-then- gobbles up town folk.
Normally with this type of when creature attack films one comes away let down or underwhelmed- but that’s not the case with The Giant Spider Invasion. Firstly you get nicely genre mocking & innuendo lined dialogue, there’s good characterizing, and a good blend of building tension & dread. Sure when the ‘big’ spider shows up it’s still fairly ridiculous, but it looks a damn sight better than some monsters I’ve seen- it has a creepy sucking black office as a mouth, burning red eyes, and of course huge legs- which at one point breaks through the side of a house. There also dabs of gore here & there, along with fleeting female flesh, and very subtle sleaze- which of course you don’t normally get in this type of thing. All in all, I’d say it stands as one of the better/ top tier of when-creatures-attack/ invasion campers- and lastly, and most importantly it’s an enjoyable B-movie ride that lives up to its promise.
Moving onto this recent region free blu ray release, and first, up we have an HD transfer from the original 35mm- and it looks marvelous, really clear ’n’ crisp colors. On the extras front we get a few things- we get two interviews- the first is with director Bill Rebane, this is from 2014 & runs around ten minutes- it finds him talking about how they built the huge spider with little or no budget, actors selected, and on set talk. Next, we get a 2005 interview with lead actor Robert Easton- this runs around twenty-four minutes, and the actor fondly recalling his time on the film, how he got the role, his character & how it plays against his normal type of role, and more. Both interviews are well worth a play- lastly, we get a music video bringing the more up-beat & spacy electronic music from the soundtrack & images from the film.
In finishing, I was pleasantly surprised by The Giant Spider Invasion- it is one of the better films in the when-creatures-attack/ small-town alien invasion genre. The new print is very good, and the extras are most worth it. So if you dig 70’s B-movies this is a must.