Movie Review: The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Synopsis: When a meteorite crashes in rural Wisconsin, it opens a door to another dimension. Soon after, local residents are terrorized by giant, man-eating spiders. Their only hope is closing the dimensional door to prevent even more monsters from escaping.
Who's in it? The movie stars Steve Brodie, Barbara Hale, Alan Hale, Jr., Robert Easton, Diane Lee Hart and Kevin Brodie.
Review: It had been a long while since I last watched The Giant Spider Invasion so, when I came across it on Amazon Prime and realized it too was celebrating its 50th birthday, I made sure to add it to my list. My wife and I watched it today and it was about as I remembered it.
The special effects were about what you would expect to see from a movie in this genre made in the 1970s. While there were some very creepy moments involving the smaller spiders (and a few gross ones too), the giant ones were a bit on the ridiculous side. However, the movie's dialog, especially from the sheriff (Hale, Jr.) made it clear this movie also likely wasn't taking itself too seriously either.
If you overlook the special effects, the movie does have a fairly solid and interesting plot. Unlike other movies from this genre, it wasn't as simple as calling in the military to kill a giant arachnid, the two scientists Dr. Vance (Steve Brodie) and Dr. Langer (Hale) needed to figure out a way to close the portal the creatures are coming through as well.
I also liked how the movie wasn't quite as predictable as far as who the spiders' victims were going to be. This is mostly because it does a great job giving depth to certain characters, to the point they seem like they will be instrumental to the plot, only to have them killed later. This, in turn, meant there were no guarantees any of the main protagonists would survive.
I will say this, however. There are parts of the movie not related to the special effects that are kind of dated. As I told my wife, for example, the way grown men were making sexual advances to Terry (Hart), someone I think was supposed to be a teenager (though it's usually hard to tell when movies like this use older actresses), was one of the creepiest things about this film. On the flip side of that, the way she seemed to consider taking those men up on those offers despite having a boyfriend didn't exactly make it clear if she was someone I was supposed to be rooting for.
Of course, she might have just been in the movie solely for the gratuitous nudity and no other real reason.
Final Opinion: It's not a great film by any measure but it is one of those movies that could be described as being entertaining regardless just because it had a good mix of horror and (likely unintentional) comedy.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other movies featuring deadly spiders:
Movie Review: Spiders 3D (2013)
Movie Review: Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977)
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