Earth Vs. The Spider

Despite its bad reputation and pedigree (schlock king Bert I. Gordon, infamous for cranking out senseless, shoddy movies he apparently didn't give enough of a shit about to try and forge into something decent), I have always had a soft spot for Earth Vs. the Spider, and it remains my favorite giant spider movie (admittedly a small genre).  Bill Warren, hardly an apologist for Gordon, notes in his classic Keep Watching the Skies that it is one of Gordon's "least terrible" films, and that it's "so simply conceived that it verges on elegance."  Fair enough.  

It starts out with one of several strong scenes: a man is driving on a deserted road.  He unexpectedly collides with something (it appears to be the leg of the giant spider).  I remember this as being pretty startling.

It turns out the man is the father of Carol, the Prettiest Girl in School.  Her boyfriend Mike takes her out to the road to look for any trace of the old man, and they end up exploring a local cave (despite numerous warning signs and a rep as a dangerous place).

I remember the cave scenes as being very spooky and effective, as they come across skeletons and finally, an enormous spider web (another strong memory), before fleeing from a giant, screaming spider.

The kids encounter lead to the spider being blasted with DDT and taken into town, where it is put on display at the high school gym (I didn't say the plot made any real sense, did I?).  When the kids hijack the gym to put on a (lame - couldn't they ever have hired Hasil Adkins or someone for one of these?) rock`n'roll show, the spider is revived and goes on a spree through the town.  This too was a memorable scene for me, as the spider sticks a giant leg into a woman's living room, and leaves a sobbing infant in a pool of spider venom.  

Eventually the science teacher, sheriff, and other Responsible Adults chase the spider back into its cave and off it with a massive electrical jolt.

Bill Warren summed Earth Vs the Spider up fairly: "Almost everything in the film relates to the giant spider menace, giving it a strong narrative thrust; the climax is well-conceived for suspense; there are few of the scenes one usually expects in a giant-bug movie.  In hands other than Bert Gordon's, Earth Vs. the Spider might have turned out well enough to be regarded as one of the best of the big-bug movies." (Aycorn)