"Spider Baby" is one of the more popular low-budget horrors of the 1960s, and gives off an aura consistent with the creepy film fare of the time. While watching it, I found myself cycling through a series of wildly varied reactions, from intentional amusement to unintentional amusement, sympathy, apathy, fear, and a pervasive weirdness that was hard to shake. The opening credits, with their cutely foreboding imagery, sets the tone for what is bound to be a campy horror romp (which it certainly is), but "Spider Baby," flaws and all, turns into a genuinely creepy experience, helped immensely by the devoted cast. A group of lawyers, land-grabbers, and estranged relatives pay a visit on the Merrye clan, presided over by surrogate father Lon Chaney; in an effort to push the family (including 3 mentally handicapped children) out of their home, said visitors wind up spending a wild night at the house. "Spider Baby" has its flaws--the 'normal' supporting players hardly give memorable performances, and the pace sometimes drags. But writer-director Jack Hill gets incredible mileage out of the screw-loose Merrye family, a portrait as believable, unsettling, and weirdly humorous as the cannibals in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Chaney, Sid Haig, Jill Banner, and Beverly Washburn turn what could have been another forgettable B-movie into something very odd and endearing.