Released in 1958 and shot in B&W, "Earth vs. the Spider" details the events of a small town in Southern California when a colossal spider living in a cave comes to town.

While "Earth vs. the Spider" is great when you're 8 years-old its flaws surface when viewed as an adult. For one, the spider's size changes according to the sequence: In the cave it's huge, but when it's on display at the school it's noticeably smaller; then when it traverses the town it's gargantuan. Inconsistencies like this don't make for great movies. It's entertaining in some ways, like being a period piece of the late 50s, but it pales in comparison to Sci-Fi giants from the 50s like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) and the monumental "Forbidden Planet" (1956). It doesn't help that colossal animal/monster movies made in the decades since are just all-around better, including being in color. Still, "Earth vs. the Spider" is worth catching if you favor these kinds of flicks and want to go back in time to the late 50s, not to mention there are some effective elements, like the horrific sounds the spider makes and the drained remains of its victims.

The film runs 73 minutes and was shot in Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park and Los Angeles, California, with additional footage from Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

GRADE: C

I really enjoy Bert Gordon films (although the apparently necessary middle initial continues to evoke images of Johnny Depp in "Ed Wood" continually insisting on the "D") and this is one is pretty typical. The photography is always good, and the effects are passable.

It may be a difficult point to make, given that we never see the spider's method of consuming the precious bodily fluids it seems to crave, but I think the spider just wanted to be left alone. Perhaps the first victim merely happened along its path during a hunting foray.

It is obvious however, later in the film, after the spider escapes the gym, destroying doorway-ignoring school janitors along the way, the spider simply wants to go home. As he re-enters the cave, you can clearly hear the spider saying, "Ho-ome. I'm ho-ome." If you thought that was an amplified spider's voice, it actually seems to be a human voice, distorted somewhat, so you may have to "undistort" the voice as you're listening.

I feel sorry for the spider, and even until the final scene I was hoping that it would survive man's fury. But alas, it wasn't so. :( Not even glimpses of an egg sac that would have allowed a sequel.

Somehow I'd missed seeing this AIP '50s monster flick, so I recently gave the new Lions Gate R1 DVD a spin. It's rightly considered a rip of Universal's TARANTULA, but this still turned out to be brisk and enjoyable, and a lot of cheesy fun. When a young girl and her boyfriend search for the girls' missing father, they stumble across a giant spider's cave and, naturally, the monster eventually crawls around town. Better-than-average special effects for this type of cheapie, with some surprisingly vivid shock moments and the required helping of some typical teenage 1950's rock n roll music. Gene Roth is a hoot as the doubting sheriff, and there are some shameless plugs for some of Bert I Gordon's other pictures like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE. *** out of ****