# The Giant Spider Invasion

The Giant Spider Invasion is a 1975 American independent science fiction action horror film produced, composed and directed by Bill Rebane. Starring Steve Brodie, Barbara Hale, Robert Easton, Leslie Parrish, and Alan Hale, it follows giant spiders that terrorize the town of Merrill, Wisconsin and its surrounding area. The film was theatrically released in 1975 by Group 1 Films and enjoyed a considerable run to become one of the 50 top-grossing films of that year.
The Giant Spider Invasion received negative reviews upon release and has since achieved a cult following after its appearance in a 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film was shown at a Bill Rebane themed film festival in 2005. A musical remake for the film was also planned.

## Plot

A meteor streaks across the night sky as Davey Perkins, a reporter, visits Sheriff Jones for a story, but the Sheriff says things are quiet. Meanwhile, Dan Kester, instead of attending a revival meeting as he told his wife Ev, spends the evening with Helga, a waitress. Davey picks up his girlfriend Terry, Ev’s sister, from the Kester farm, where Ev is drinking. As they leave, Ev continues drinking and later requests a delivery from Dutch, the café owner. Davey and Terry drive to a local junkyard where they engage in a romantic encounter. Dan, after finishing with Helga, listens to the revival on the radio as he drives home. Just as he arrives, a meteor crashes somewhere on the Kester property, triggering strong winds and causing electrical malfunctions.
A B-52 bomber flying on patrol reports a magnetic anomaly before crashing. Sheriff Jones begins receiving calls from locals about electrical disturbances. Dr. Jenny Langer, an astronomer at Montclair Observatory, contacts NASA to report unusual gamma-ray activity linked to the anomaly. At NASA, Dr. Vance receives reports from Northern Wisconsin and, suspecting the downed B-52 and the gamma-ray activity are connected, travels to Wisconsin to investigate. At Montclair Observatory, he meets with Dr. Langer, who briefs him on her findings. The Kesters, meanwhile, discover dead cattle on their farm and come across strange rocks near the meteor site. At the Kester house, Dan cracks open a rock, unknowingly releasing a spider, and believes the crystal inside is a diamond. Ev, heavily intoxicated, swats at spiders that Dan dismisses as hallucinations. Dan later discovers a dead motorcyclist on the property, buries the body, and hides the motorcycle to avoid police attention. That night, Ev is attacked and killed by a giant spider.
The next morning, Dan takes the crystal he found to his cousin Billy, who confirms it is an industrial-grade diamond. After the Sheriff inquires about the missing motorcyclist, Dan returns to the meteor site, where he is killed by a giant spider. Billy, investigating further, is also attacked but crashes his car into a gas station, dying in the explosion. Langer and Vance continue searching for the meteor's impact site, suspecting it to be on the Kester property. The Kester house is destroyed by the giant spider, but Terry survives. Davey rescues her and takes her to the hospital after failing to stop the spider with gunfire. Langer and Vance, attacked by the spider, manage to escape and inform the Sheriff. In response, Dutch organizes a posse, but the spider shifts its attention to a local carnival, prompting Sheriff Jones to call in the National Guard. Langer and Vance, deducing that the spiders likely entered through a mini-black hole, arrange for a neutron device to be dropped at the meteor's impact site. The plan succeeds, and the giant spider is obliterated, dissolving into a pile of goo.

## Cast

* Steve Brodie as Dr. Vance
* Barbara Hale as Dr. Jenny Langer
* Robert Easton as Dan Kester
* Leslie Parrish as Ev Kester
* Alan Hale as Sheriff Jones
* Bill Williams as Dutch
* Kevin Brodie as Dave Perkins
* Dianne Lee Hart as Terry Kester
* Tain Bodkin as Preacher
* Paul Bentzen as Billy Kester
* J. Stewart Taylor as Deputy
* Christiana Schmidtmer as Helga
* William W. Gillett, Jr. as Rider

## Production

Originally conceived as an idea from Richard Huff, he and actor Robert Easton, a friend of Rebane, were tasked to write the script. By the time filming began, creative differences led to a script not being made and only pages of dialogue had been written. To motivate Easton, who was told to write 10 to 15 pages a day, Rebane locked him in a cabin and told him to finish the daily task or he would not be fed. The cast of the film consisted of Hollywood veterans. It was tentatively titled The Great Spider Invasion.
The Giant Spider Invasion was shot in Gleason, Tomahawk and Merrill, Wisconsin in six weeks with a budget of $300,000. The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point was also used for filming. Former mayor of Madison, Wisconsin and future Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge William Dyke was an uncredited executive producer, helping to fund and find a distributor for the film. Special effects artist Bob Millay was hired to design the spiders for the film. Jack Willoughby was the cinematographer. Rebane's wife Barbara worked as the script girl. Tarantulas were used in portions of the film to portray the spider hatchlings, sent from Arizona through trucking by the special effects crew.
While attempting to film a scene where the spider explodes, the effects team covered the prop with gunpowder and had a crew member attempt to ignite it with matches. Despite using the entire matchbox, the spider did not explode and Rebane decided to stop filming. Immediately after they stopped, the spider exploded, causing two crew members to get their hair singed and be taken to the hospital to be treated for severe burns.

## Release

The Giant Spider Invasion was distributed by Group 1 International Distribution Organization. The movie was released in theaters in 1975. In an interview with Fangoria in 1996, Bill Rebane claimed the movie grossed $15 million. Turner Classic Movies claimed the movie made a $22 million return. In the United States and Canada, video rentals of the movie in 1976 grossed to $2,347,000. On television, it was featured on The CBS Late Movie. The Giant Spider Invasion was released on DVD by multiple video companies, including Retromedia in 2002 and a director's cut on May 5, 2009 by MVD Visual. It was released on Blu-ray on June 15, 2015 by VCI Entertainment.

### Reception and legacy

Brandlon L. Chase, the president of distributor Group 1 International Distribution Organization, won the "Outstanding Executive Achievement" award at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Linda Gross for the Los Angeles Times called it a "poorly done combination of science fiction, Jaws, and Day of the Locust." Gross was also critical of the film's script and Rebane's direction, but thought the spiders to be scary. Glenn Garvin from The Delta Democrat-Times described the movie as "self-subconsciously ludicrous". Garvin also recounted during his theater experience kids at the screening were laughing instead of being scared by the film. Albuquerque Journal's Chuck Mittlestadt gave the film a warmer reception, giving positive marks for its editing and direction. Mittlestadt also gave praise to Barbara Hale, Kevin Brodie, and Alan Hale's acting.
Michael Weldon, in The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, while criticizing the special effects and comparing them negatively to The Giant Claw, considered the movie to be funny. Leonard Maltin wrote, "Veteran cast can't do much for this tacky horror opus filmed in Wisconsin." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever gave the film one star, while Robert Firsching from Allmovie gave the movie one star out of five, speaking negatively about Rebane's direction and the movie's use of humor. Blockbuster Entertainment gave the film one star and thought that the unintentional laughs from the film wore thin quickly. The film is listed on 'The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made' in the book The Official Razzie Movie Guide by Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson. Wired listed the movie as one of the "cheesiest movies" ever made.
On May 31, 1997, The Giant Spider Invasion was featured on the Sci-Fi Channel in a season eight episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), a comedy television series in which the character Mike Nelson and his two robot friends Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo are forced to watch 'bad films' as part of an ongoing scientific experiment. Regarding the episode, Director Bill Rebane thought it was strange, but overall accepted it due to its popularity. During the episode, while Pearl, Brain Guy, and Bobo are out camping, they inadvertently unleash Body Snatcher aliens that affected Pearl, Brain Guy and all the Bots, until Bobo destroys the aliens to bring the ones affected back and turn them back to normal. This caused Pearl to force the SOL crew to watch the movie again, much to their horror.
In 2006, Rhino Entertainment released the MST3K episode as part of the "Volume 10" DVD collection of the series, along with Godzilla vs. Megalon, Swamp Diamonds, and Teen-Age Strangler. The boxset was later recalled due to the rights to Godzilla vs. Megalon being disputed. It was redistributed in the "Volume 10.2" collection in 2008, with Godzilla vs. Megalon being replaced by The Giant Gila Monster. On August 15, 2019, The Giant Spider Invasion was featured as a Rifftrax live show.
Bill Rebane had a festival given in his honor; the "Bill Rebane Film Festival" took place in Madison, Wisconsin in May 2005. Hosting the festival were MST3K stars Michael J. Nelson and Kevin Murphy, the voice of Tom Servo. In an article recapping the festival in Scary Monsters Magazine, the two noted that although they lambasted the film during their show, they admired how Rebane was able to pull cast and crew together to get the film made. In 2011, it was announced that the movie was going to be remade into a musical.
In a 2012 interview with Wisconsin television station WSAW-TV, Rebane remarked that he was not sure how the movie became popular, saying it was not an initial hit until it became a cult classic. He also stated that while the movie grossed millions of dollars over the past 35 years, he never saw a fraction of the money, calling the film "one of the most pirated movies in history." Despite his grievances, Rebane was proud of the impact that the movie made for the city of Merrill, Wisconsin.
In 2012, film historian Bill Dexter found the shells of the two 30-feet spiders with the intent on restoring the spiders to their original form. In 2013, the shell of one of the main giant spiders was reported stolen by Rebane. Weeks later, a recycling facility announced that the giant spider was brought to them as scrap metal.