Bert I. Gordon built his career on the atomic age monster movie. Over the course of the fifties Gordon perfected the formula for giant monster spectacles. Films like The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and Attack Of The Puppet People (1958) established all the tropes and cliches one associates with the genre. Gordon wasn’t one to stray from his formula, churning out picture after picture, each much like the last.
Gordon’s film Earth vs. The Spider (1958) is no exception. The film features all the prerequisite characters from dumb teens to genius science teachers and incompetent policemen. And like most of these films Earth vs. The Spider is set in a small town, pitting average middle class America against a giant mutant spider. These films reassure audiences that the American dream can and will survive the atomic age.
Earth vs. The Spider is laughably low budget. The optical effects used to superimpose the spider onto city streets and in caverns are shoddy renderings of the work pioneered by Ray Harryhausen. Earth vs. The Spider offers the most plastic of illusions and makes no excuses. The result is unintentional camp.
Yet, it is this campy quality that has sustained the popularity of films like Earth vs. The Spider for decades. Audiences love these far fetched tales of atomic menace with all their wooden acting, crappy effects, and haphazard direction. Earth vs. The Spider is a film on the fringes. An American International acquisition designed to cash-in on a popular craze. The weaknesses of the film, from its predictable plotting to its mandatory sock hop scene, are what makes it an endearing and enduring work.
