spider baby, or the maddest story ever told (1968). jack hill.

this is completely insane and it is so good just because it is completely insane.
originally shot in 1964 but released 4 years later and poorly marketed, Spider Baby is one of the funniest, weirdest, strangest and maddest horror stories ever told.
this is the story of the Merrye family, whose members all suffer from this very unique and exclusive Merrye Syndrom, which means they deteriorate into early stages of childhood n insanity n feral behaviour n also cannibalism n whatever u r willing to come up with. so there is this old mansion where the apparently 3 last active members of the family are nesting (Raph- Sid Haig, Virginia the Spider Baby- Jill Banner, Elisabeth - Beverly Washburn), guarded by the chauffeur, Bruno (Lon Chaney jr.). there they can have fun and be mean and evil and jealous, eat insects, crawl on the ground, grunt, murder-eat-store ear in a box a few ppl. n then one day some greedy relatives and the lawyer show up, they want a piece of all that. much as Bruno tries to make sure the state of the 3 kids is not given away the night ends up in an orgy of gore, blood, cannibalism, exploitation, incest, seduction, murder and finally ending in a big big dynamite explosion.
however, n this is the best part, this bad gene wins in the end to the very shock of the narrator n the very joy of the audience.
the self irony of the film is one of the components that make a good black comedy, and this one is one of the finest. the elegance n frenzy in which the 2 wicked girls move around playfully, completely owning the mansion, assured of the rightness of their purpose, the cannibals in the basement, the desperate trying n trying guardian- chauffeur to cover up the impossible, the high quality of a fast n low production shot in only a couple of days n still flawless, the darkness which doesnt plan to scare but to feed the savage urges in the spectator, the insane hereditary sci-fi factor r among the few elements that make this one a real gem of the 60s, that could only have been shot in the 60s but outgrow all expectations, gaining more and more of a cult following.
dont even bother with remakes.