A quintessential camp classic, Earth vs. The Spider is a '50s creature feature that could have only come from Bert I. Gordon. One of the premier directors of quick, low-budget giant monster flicks, Spider was his seventh attempt at cashing in on a Hollywood craze. Like his other films, it has a cheap charm it can call its own, but it's hard to defend this even from the perspective of a Gordon fan.

Borrowing the same special effects technique used in 1955's Tarantula, Gordon plops in a real spider in various ways to interact with the meager cast. Its effectiveness is nowhere near what it was in the previous oversized spider movie. The interaction with the cast is barely noticeable, and only one prop leg (far too small in scale to match the size of the spider) is used to show people being picked off by the beast.

To be fair, there are some impressive matte shots and brief miniature work. These few moments are when the film makes a couple of moves to becoming a success. Still, it's hard to make up for the scale problems (the spider changes sizes multiple times) and lack of any real attacks on the townsfolk.

On the human side, we're given a generic '50s teen love story, a teacher who believes a massive spider exists with little questioning, cops who don't buy the concept, and a 35-year-old-actor (Troy Patterson) playing a high school student. The dialogue is priceless at times, especially from the school kids. It's a good thing they're dense too, since their stupidity sets up most of the film's action.

At a brisk 73-minutes, Earth vs. The Spider is a quick get-in-get-out type of film. You'll either laugh all the way through or enjoy a few sharp special effects and continue laughing from there. Spider is one of those films that makes it so easy to parody this era and genre. It's a lot of dumb fun because of it too.