Synopsis: As a mutant giant spider terrorizes a small town, a local reporter teams up with scientists to save the citizens.

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Calamity Brains:

The Giant Spider is a pleasantly campy homage to creature features of the ’50s, complete with army intervention, hometown heroes, and a drive-in theater. Though it draws on the genre as a whole, there is a definite emphasis on The Giant Gila Monster, even down to how the spider appears onscreen. (Like the “gila monster,” the tarantula is filmed separately and then footage is spliced into the movie.)

The acting is painfully campy, but it’s supposed to be. In fact, almost everything this movie does “wrong” feels very intentional. The filmmakers not only set out to make an homage, they set out to be fully faithful to the creature features of yesteryear that we know and love – including b-roll footage, and ridiculous characters.

The Giant Spider is cute – and with such a short run time, it’s definitely worth a watch for fans of old creature features. (Heck, the title song along is worth it.) It also practically begs for a drinking game, so naturally, we made one.

Calamity Brains’ Rating: B-