“SPIDER BABY feels like the kind of movie you stumble upon after everybody else at the sleepover has fallen asleep with the TV on, and you can’t find the remote. It’s the Platonic ideal of the cult-horror genre, leaving you with a feeling of unease that lingers long after your parents pick you up the next morning.” —Alexandra C, Channel programming

Directed by Jack Hill • 1967 • United States
Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Jill Banner

Something like THE ADDAMS FAMILY meets THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, this gloriously schlocky cult classic from exploitation legend Jack Hill (SWITCHBLADE SISTERS, FOXY BROWN) tells the demented and darkly comic tale of the Merrye children—Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn), Virginia (Jill Banner), and Ralph (Sid Haig)—all of whom suffer from a rare genetic malady that causes them to mentally regress to a condition of “prehuman savagery and cannibalism.” Sequestered in the old family mansion under the guardianship of chauffeur Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.), the children terrorize anyone or anything who passes through the gates. So when the family is visited by a pair of distant relatives and their greedy lawyer, the stage is set for a wild night of murderous thrills.