Somewhere in the Californian desert, Dr Aranya (Jackie Coogan) is turning spiders into beautiful women for world domination purposes, though its hard to see how Z-grade starlets in bad wigs (actually dyed mop heads) are supposed to take over the planet. Its also hard to care about a movie scored with a monotonous guitar and piano mix (also used in Ed Woods Jail Bait) that will set your teeth on edge every time you hear it. Supposedly begun as a different movie, the picture was left incomplete when original helmer Herbert Tevos took a hike after one too many arguments with the cast and crew, leaving director Ron Ormond to cobble something together from the existing elements. For years afterwards, the resulting trainwreck was believed to be the work of Ed Wood under a pseudonym, what with its fractured narrative, bad acting and redundant voiceover. That gives you some idea of how lame the final picture is, but it differs from Woods oeuvre in one regard its not bad enough to be funny.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
