The Giant Spider Invasion

Plot synopsis:
Following the title sequence, a comet or meteor is seen streaking across the night sky. Davey Perkins (Kevin Brodie) stops in to see Sheriff Jones (Alan Hale, Jr.). He works for his Dad's newspaper and is looking for a story. The Sheriff informs him that things are quiet.At a rundown farm outside of town, Dan Kester (Robert Easton) bids his wife Ev (Leslie Parrish) goodbye. He tells her he's going to a revival meeting. The preacher (Tain Bodkin) is giving a sermon to the faithful, but Dan isn't there. Davey stops by the Kester place to pick up his girlfriend, Terry (Diane Lee Hart) and greets Ev on the porch. She is drinking and offers Davey one. Ev and Terry are sisters. Terry and Davey depart, and Ev continues to drink alone. Ev runs out of alcohol and calls Dutch, the café/bar owner and asks him for a delivery. Davey and Terry drive over to a local junkyard and start necking. Dan finishes up with his prostitute/waitress, Helga (Christiana Schmidtmer) and leaves her place and drives home, listening to the revival on the radio. Just as Dan arrives home the meteor crashes somewhere on their property. In addition to a strong wind, electrical equipment starts to malfunction.A B-52 flying on patrol reports a magnetic anomaly and RADAR problems, then crashes. The Sheriff starts getting calls from citizens reporting electrical problems. Dr. Jenny Langer (Barbara Hale) at Montclair Observatory calls NASA again to report further information, now including gamma ray activity. At the Houston office of NASA, Dr. Vance (Steve Brodie) is feeding and talking to his plant. A co-worker, Paul, brings him some reports from Northern Wisconsin. Vance suspects the downed B-52 and the reports are related. Vance leaves for Wisconsin to investigate.Langer finishes a lecture on astronomy to her class when Dr. Vance arrives on campus to meet with her. They walk back to her office and she briefs him on her findings. The Kesters search their property and find a dead cow. In fact they find many dead cattle. Kester proposes to butcher the animals and sell the meat to the local café. As they continue to survey their property, Ev picks up a strange rock. They find more of the same kind and collect them. They finally arrive at the impact spot of the meteor.Sheriff Jones walks into the local café/bar and talks to the owner, Dutch (Bill Williams) and the waitress, Helga. Helga goes into the kitchen to get the Sheriff his breakfast. The Kesters return to the house. Dan tries to break open one of the rocks, but it falls off the table onto the floor, and the geode breaks open. Unobserved by the Kesters, a spider crawls out. Dan retrieves the rock and pulls a crystal out. They are convinced they are diamonds after Dan scrawls a dollar sign on the kitchen window. Back at the café, Langer and Vance stop by to see the Sheriff. Davey stops by and joins the three at the table. He's still looking for a story. Davey tells them about the electrical disturbance and wind the evening before.Ev is hitting the booze pretty heavily and swatting the spiders on the kitchen table with a flyswatter. Dan hasn't seen them yet and attributes Ev's spiders to the DT's. Dan heads back out to collect more rocks, but discovers the dead body of a motorcycle rider. Instead of reporting his find, he buries the body and hides the motorcycle. He doesn't want the Sheriff nosing around the property and finding either the diamonds or the pot they are growing. He returns to the house and tells his wife, Ev of his discovery. That evening, Ev, still drinking, goes to bed, but can't get to sleep. As she pulls open a dresser drawer to get something, a giant spider jumps out at her. She exits the bedroom and the house, screaming, and runs into an out building or barn. There she is attacked by a dog sized spider that kills her.Dan leaves Helga's house the next morning and drives into town to see his cousin, Billy (Paul Bentzen). Billy is a rock shop owner and examines one of Dan's crystals. Billy pronounces them inferior--industrial quality, but still a diamond. Dan drives back home. The Sheriff stops by the Kester farm to make inquiries about the missing motorcycle rider. Dan lies to the Sheriff and denies any knowledge. After the Sheriff leaves, Dan heads back to the impact zone to dig for more rocks. He is attacked and eaten by a gigantic spider, the size of a car. His curiosity whetted, Billy stops by the Kester place to talk to Dan a little more about the diamond, but Dan is missing. He leaves, but on his way home his car hits a huge web, and he is attacked by the gigantic spider. He manages to escape, but in his confusion runs his car into a gas station, and the explosion kills him.Langer and Vance drive around trying to locate the impact zone. They know its around the Kester property, but not an exact location. Meanwhile the Kester house is destroyed by the giant spider with Terry inside. Davey arrives at the house, only to find it demolished. He fires his rifle at the departing spider, then rushes to retrieve Terry who is barely alive. The bullets seemed to have no effect on the spider. Vance and Langer are attacked, but manage to escape the giant spider. Davey takes Terry to the hospital. Langer and Vance make it back to town and inform the Sheriff of the 50-foot spider. The Sheriff gives them a couple of rocks to examine. Davey calls the Sheriff to report the damage at the Kester place and Terry's condition. Dutch organizes a posse to go after the giant spider, but the Deputy orders them home. The mob ignores the order and heads for the Kester place.The giant spider attacks the Gleason Days carnival. The Sheriff is called by Gleason officials and told the spider is headed his way. He calls for the National Guard. Vance and Langer had discussed earlier the possibility of using a neutron device to destroy a mini-black hole that allowed the spiders to invade our planet. The neutron device is shipped to the local airport and loaded on a helicopter. The target is the impact site. Meanwhile, the mob gathers and Sheriff Jones tries to keep them off the Kester property. The spider attacks the mob while they are still in town. The giant spider returns to the impact site, where Langer and Vance direct the dropping of the neutron device. The spider attacks the deputy who is eaten alive. The neutron device is deployed and the giant spider melts into a pile of goo.

Tags: cult

Review:
I was sold.Every kid in town must have seen the `coming soon' poster because the next day in school all halls were abuzz with nervous anticipation of what was going to be the greatest cinematic experience of our young lives: THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION!
Thankfully, our attention was focused off the fact that most of our parents would not permit us to see the `R' rated film when the title: The Giant Spider Invasion filled the screen.For the next 85 minutes, we were treated to a town exposed to a `miniature' black hole' that creates a `space warp' inviting in alien-spiders that grow to mammoth proportions.
The movie played in Aberdeen for only a week, but I must have seen it a dozen times.Years later, I found The Giant Spider Invasion at a video store and immediately purchased it.
Watching it now I chuckle as Alan `The Skipper' Hale delivers lines like, `He's a strange man and he's building up a big head of steam.'  But, seeing the spiders, which seemed so real back in the good old D&R, crawl over the beautiful Wisconsin countryside, still gives me a small thrill.
Even though it's obvious the spiders are badly made up VW Beetles, it still takes me back to a time when all movies I watched were magical.There were giants in those days..
Amazingly, they actually built full sized giant spiders for this film and although they look terrible, it's wonderful to see these massive creatures roaming the Wisconsin country side wreaking havoc where ever they go.
Giant Spider Invasion is good mindless fun that's better than 90% of the horror/sci-fi films being made these days..
It's cheesy, but good; and when I saw it at the age of 6, I thought it was very horrifying!I still...to this day...cannot drink tomato juice...Thank-you Giant Spider Invasion!.
The Giant Spider Invasion was one of the many 1950's type movies (giant bugs, animals etc) that was made in the 70's and I enjoyed this despite reading a lot of bad reviews.A strange meteor lands in a small town in Wisconsin and a load of strange looking eggs are found by it.
After eating several people including the town's Sheriff, the hole where the meteor landed is blown up and the spiders are killed.This movie gets going after a fairly slow start and is clearly done on a low budget.The cast includes Barbara Hale (Perry Mason), Steve Brodie (The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms), Alan Hale Jr. as the Sheriff and Leslie Parrish.The Giant Spider Invasion is a must for all sci fi and bad movie fans.
By the time that thing actually shows up, you're already too numb from the tedium to even laugh at it.Bill Rebane's movies can best be enjoyed when you know all the background to them.
He made a giant spider movie with 250.000 dollars, spent a lot of time with family and friends, actually sold the thing to theatres and somehow people still talk about it more than forty years later.
I saw The Giant Spider Invasion on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, like most of the users on this IMDb page.
But I don't know about think it was totally bad for what it was, I mean it was just a typical low budget horror, despite how ridicules that giant spider looked.Basically in Wisconsin, WOO, GO PACKERS, WOO!, there is a crash from an asteroid.
But don't worry, Dr. Jenny and Dr. J.R. are on the case and are going to save Wisconsin from the giant spider that is attacking young girls in their underwear.The Giant Spider Invasion is your typical low budget horror that reminds you more of those old 50's movies with the sci-fi action.
While this is a bad movie, it's a fun like drive in type of film and has a few silly laughs here and there.
I loved how Jenny's line of screaming the doctor's name at the end turned out and the whole scene of the giant spider attacking the young girl in her undies in her house, that was just classic how fake the puppet was.
Legendary horror cheese filmed in Wisconsin by B movie director Bill Rebane is the perfect example of a film that's so bad it's good!
In a way it's their serious, well semi-serious, performances that make the occurrences even more humorous.The Giant Spider Invasion is one of the most unintentionally hilarious horror films ever made and whether you like it or not, you can't deny that it's entertaining!
I like this film because it gives you that fear of insects crawling around you, and makes you look around the room to make sure no spiders are there!
if you like spiders, science, and large insects attacking people, then watch this film...
The Giant Spider Invasion was never meant to be a comedy...on the contrary, it was meant as a breath-taking monster film that would scare the hell out of people.
Great idea, Mr. Rebane...Don't think that's the only goof in The Giant Spider Invasion...The acting is very laughable ( especially the Sheriff and the waitress are *cough cough* multi-talented ), the other effects are a joke ( that meteor hitting earth !!
Spicy script and a few suspenseful moments are the only redeemable features to this otherwise bland imitation of countless 50's creature craze films, most of whom did it better in all departments.Interesting cast (of who must be said where has-beens when this little payload rolled past their agents' desks) led by Steve Brodie and Barbara Hale as intrigued ring-ins, desperate to understand the peculiar scientific phenomenon, debating astro physics and using lots of five-syllable words, while the locals are just barely managing to avoid being devoured on mass by the colossal arachnid.
The still-beautiful Leslie Parrish delivers some class in her performance as a neglected, alcohol-dependent house-wife to Robert Easton, who also, contributes a watchable, if stereotypical performance as a rugged farmer, suitably concerned about the inexplicable mutilation of his cattle.The pace is creditable, and there are some moments of suspense, though for the most part, this is a C-grade science fiction that looks like it was made in the late fifties (cast included) rather than 1975.
I do understand that most of my entertainment value came at the lack of competency behind the camera, virtually no special effects, a spider that looks and acts like a cheap machine moved by stage hands, the stoic, wooden acting, and the amazingly awful script.
I knew things were going to be bad when the first scene we see with actors(after that pitiful space sequence)had Alan Hale the Skipper himself call another character "Little Buddy." From there on things got worse.
Among those trying to figure out the cause of the creatures' existence, and the means of destroying it, are scientists J.R. Vance (Steve Brodie) and Jenny Langer (Barbara Hale).It's the lack of quality filmmaking in rural productions like this (it's set and filmed in Wisconsin) that makes them quality entertainment.
Make no mistake The Giant Spider Invasion is a bad movie- very bad in fact, the 2.7 rating is about right for it- but not atrocious and a long way from one of the worst movies ever made.
I saw this movie right after the god-awful MONSTER A GO-GO, but unlike this other film, THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION was bad but also kept my interest because it was so silly and a bit trashy--just the sort of film you and your friends can enjoy laughing at because it's so dopey.The worst thing about this film are the special effects.
Like many other films of its type, The Giant Spider Invasion relies on your willingness to squint a bit at the watery special effects and uneven story.
The Giant Spider Invasion is a 1975 sci-fi that does its best to parody itself from the good ol' days of the 1950's B-Movie genre, with great giant monster classics as THEM!
With a history of low, low budget and poor supervision of its script and extremely poor special effects, the chances of the giant spider becoming anything like its predecessors was nearer to being lost and irrelevant in the annals of time and credibility.
Then there is Barbara Hale (no relation), also, and her numerous appearances on the American TV show circuit , for example, A Perry Mason Mysteryas Della Street; The Giant Spider Invasion was not to be their big break.
Jack Willoughby acted as both cinematographer and producer here, and having done time in the camera and electrical department on movies such as Futureworld (1976), Rocky (1976), Sextette (1978) and Cheech and Chong: Up in Smoke (1978) then why, when watching The Giant Spider Invasion is it more akin to watching "a black cat at night"?
_The Giant Spider Invasion_ as a singular movie isn't all that bad.
THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION is one of those fun, amateurishly made attempts to make it big in movie-land.
You've got at least one husband and wife, plus a father and son, starring in this thing, not to mention the incomparable Alan Hale, Jr., who shall be remembered and loved for all time as "The Skipper" (during one of the opening scenes, Alan even gets to greet one of the younger characters as "little buddy").Despite the low production values, bad script, etc., you've gotta love it.
Bill Rebane, probably the worst director ever to come out fromWisconsin, brings to you "The Giant Spider Invasion," the worstAmerican horror movie in the '70s to be released as far assomething humongous is concerned.
Meanwhile, agreasy farmer puts up with his pathetic, boozed-up wife as theytry to figure out what the hell crashed into their pasture.Plus, there's more greasy rednecks running around in this movie,along with a constantly hungry sheriff (played by Alan "DOHH!"Hale from "Gilligan's Island") and a screaming evangelist whoclaims that the giant spider invasion is vengeance from the manupstairs.
Not only were the cinematography and special effects terrible, (complete with a giant spider which is obviously some sort of dune buggy), but this movie also has one of the most disgusting characters I've even seen -- a grubby back-woods casanova who wears a truss for his back.
The best and probably only safest way to view "The Giant Spider Invasion" is to watch it on MST3K.
There are a few good parts--the acting by Barbara Hale and Steve Brodie isn't bad and there's a nicely gruesome scene where you see a man devoured by the giant spider.
I decided to give this B low budget movie , a 10 excellent rating, because when I was 5 years old, and my Dad took me to see the only showing of this movie on the big screen at the Marc 2 on Green Bay, WI East side...it scared the heck out of me, i thought it was the best movie ever & it had the skipper from Gilligan's Island in it, so how cool is that, it's too bad he did not get top billing in the credit's after all he was the BIG star in the film.
Why this movie is called Giant Spider Invasion I will never know.
Really Bad. Giant Spider Invasion, The (1975) * (out of 4) Alan Hale Jr., best known for the Skipper in Gilligan's Island, plays the sheriff of a small Wisconsin town who gets struck by a meteor and soon are being attacked by giant spiders.
The most notorious aspect of this film is a scene where the giant spider attacks a group of people at a baseball game.
It has some remembered actors & scenes for one thing the skipper from "Gilligan's Island" plays the sheriff, Dela Street from "The Perry Mason Show" plays Dr. Jenny Langer one of the people that help put at end to these alien arachnids & there's sexy Leslie Parrish which was a 50's & 60's Blonde Bombshell.
Well, obviously not a popular film.However, I believe considering the circumstances in which this film was made, this film not only was made WELL, but outclasses films from the 90s of astronomical BUDGETS.Although the SPIDER scenes aren't the best, this can be blamed on low budget and low technology.Good acting from Alan Hale.He shouldn't be wrongly thought of because of this film.C'mon people, give it a go?!.
Thus, it's no surprise that "The Giant Spider Invasion" is below a B-movie.
when i saw the giant spider invasion on TV years ago it was pretty good,when i recently watched it i thought it was silly but kind of entertaining,not awful like bill rebanes other efforts.giant spiders have invaded earth inside meteors that also contain uncut diamonds, wow cool concept,a farmer finds them on his land and starts harvesting the diamonds not seeing the huge spiders,his drunken wife and very cute and sexy daughter get chased around by the hairy arachnids,the local sheriff(Alan hale Jr)is baffled,wheres Gilligan when you need him, two scientist types try(Barbara hale,Steve Brodie)try to figure out whats up.i would call this a send up of the classic killer giant bug movies from the 50's.its silly,but to really enjoy it watch the mystery science theater 3,000 presentation.i give this 4 out of 10..
This movie features bad lighting, horrible special effects, lame sound and some really good talent (like Barbara Hale of Perry Mason fame, and Leslie Parrish, whom some may remember asthe Queen of Hearts girl next door from The Manchurian Candidate) absolutelywasted.
The Giant Spider of the title looks like a muppet, and is nowhere near as scary as most of the backwoods cast is.The MST3K version is the only way to get through this film without suffering any ill side effects.
One giant spider + Alan Hale + bad acting = Crap!.
This movie has it all: Lousy acting, a giant spider (and it's the ONLY ONE IN THIS FILM!!!), and Alan Hale.
I guess "The Giant Spider Invasion" is good for some campy laughs, but this movie is utterly unwatchable without the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment..
If you do watch it, make sure those three wonderful people/androids are at the bottom of the screen.The Giant Spider Invasion: 0/10.
One of its character's is a backwoods hick who when investigating the spider's eggs thinks there diamonds even though they look nothing like diamonds cuts the glass on his window and proclaims Look, I Made A R.(because the shape of the cut looks like an r) alan hale or the skipper from gilligan's island  is on hand as a sheriff (every time he answers a phone-the robots in mst3k say pancakes?
I first saw this movie at a drive-in in 1975 at the age of 7, it really freeked me out and that night I went home and watched the skies looking for falling stars and every time I saw a spider I would panic.
The plot involves a meteor crashing into Northern Wis. and unleashing a bunch of small real spider and one really fake looking car-like giant spider, now two scientists must find a way to stop them before, oh forget it, there's no use explaining it anymore.
Other than that, unless you just like seeing little-known (if at all) actors embarrass themselves or even ones with decent day jobs (Easton - look it up for yourself, it's amazing!) get humiliated, steer as far away from "The Giant Spider Invasion" as you possibly can!Unless, of course, you just have a seething hatred of anything even remotely Wisconsin-ish.Four stars for the original, ten for the MST3K version.GO PACKERS!.
People die, the spiders take over, blah blah blah, and the movie ends.Do NOT, repeat do NOT even THINK of watching this crap unless it is the wonderful MST3K version.
Leslie Parrish (alcoholic Ev) in better days was the assassin's cute girlfriend/wife in a great film, "The Manchurian Candidate."  For a moment there she assumed the role of the "Red Queen"; here she seems more like the "Blue Nun."  Say what you will about the quality of this picture, it's lots of fun, especially as seen on Mystery Science Theater..
Alan Hale is one of the stars of The Giant Spider Invasion.
Early on in "The Giant Spider Invasion", Dr. Jenny Langer (Barbara Hale) is lecturing a group of bored students about different types of stars.
What in the cosmos did you think you were getting into by watching a movie called "The Giant Spider Invasion"?
Campy 70's Fun. I think calling this my favorite Bill Rebane film is like saying I have a favorite way to be tortured but it's true,I love this movie.
If you've seen some of the 50s movies like Giant Gila Monster or even the Blob then you won't see anything new here.Yes it's not groundbreaking but it seems to work out O.K. That however, is not what makes this film so appealing.
THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION is one of those especially bad movies that you enjoy for the hell of it.
Hooo boy, "Giant Spider Invasion"...as Monty Python put it, "It's Really Something Other Than Else!!!!" It's obvious that the director and film crew weren't trying to do anything other than crank out a disposable drive-in monster movie, so I can't savage Rebane and crew too badly about this.
For example of this movie's less than zero effects, Leslie Parrish, in a drunken stupor, opens up a dresser drawer and a giant spider that looks like a stuffed animal leaps out at her.
Nothing like a little T&A to thrill the drive-in audiences this movies was made for.Shortly afterwards, Barbara Hale and Brodie come calling to check on the meteor.
Later, Barbara Hale finds his skeleton (still fully clothed!).If you like bad acting, bad dialogue, bad directing and just plain bad everything, rent or buy "Giant Spider Invasion." But, I warn you, you can only laugh so many times before you start crying about the money you'll have wasted..