It's a Battle of Man Against Monster- It's "Earth VS the Spider"- Tonight!

We promised those of you who want to see more of the drive-in movie/Saturday afternoon horror show type films that we’d have some coming up-and tonight’s the night! It’s a Bert I. Gordon ( notice his initials!) production from 1958 that features teenagers endangered by a big (yes, like the initials) arachnid, whose appearance pits “Earth VS the Spider”! ( Just consider a small town as the entire Earth for about two hours…)

We join Mr. Jack Flynn, driving home from getting a nice birthday gift for his daughter Carol, when tragedy strikes! The next morning, teenaged Carol is headed to high school, worried because her dad never came home that night before- and getting a little angry at her boyfriend Mike, who hints that her father’s absence may be due to some –uh- “liquid distraction”. She knows her dad used to take part in that sort of thing, but the suggestion upsets her as much as him not coming home.

The teens make up, and Carol convinces Mike to borrow a buddy’s car, so they can go looking for her dad. Things look bad when they find his vehicle- but not him. There’s a cave nearby, and Mike wonders if he would have gone in there for shelter. The couple heads into the cave, and, in searching, find the bracelet that her father had planned to bring her. Then, they stumble upon what turns out to be the lair of- a gigantic tarantula that comes after them! They escape, and head to town to tell the authorities.

As you might guess- the authorities find it hard to believe, but fortunately, their science teacher Mr. Kingman stands up for them, and joins the local sheriff, along with his deputies and some pest control men( Kingman’s suggestion) as they go to the cave, with some terrifying and deadly results- they encounter the huge spider for themselves, and attack it with DDT, which appears to have done the job and killed the menace.

Kingman wants to have the spider studied in order to get some answers, and has it put on display in the high school recreation room, where the school photo club practices their art, using the inert arachnid as a model. Of course, we wouldn’t have much of a movie if it ended with that- and, before too long, the big spider miraculously revives, creating a panic, claiming more victims, and threatening the town!

Missing out on this mayhem are Mike and Carol, who have gone back to the cave, in search of the gift bracelet that she dropped when they ran into the spider the first time. Now, to where would that revived spider most likely return? We’ll find out, as new disasters strike in the cave- and Kingman and the authorities must undertake both a rescue and a “search and destroy” mission! Which will come out as the victor- the spider or the “Earth”?!

As mentioned, this film was produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, who specialized in films involving over-sized menaces, like “Village of the Giants”, “The Amazing Colossal Man”, and “Beginning of the End” with its giant grasshoppers invading Chicago. You’ll see some familiar faces in the cast, not just from other Gordon films, but from TV shows and short subjects- we’ll tell you all about them, bring you a new song with Doug Graves, plus a Kerwyn-hosted game show concentrating on –what else- spiders, and we’ll play another round of our drawing game “Too Drawn Out”!

The epic battle of “Earth VS the Spider” begins tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central- if you need help finding the time or channel in your area, please check your local listings or at www.metv.com . MeTV reminds you that you can join in the live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter- just use the hashtag #svengoolie. We also have plenty of real-time commenting every week right here on the blog page! Our local Chicago viewers get an encore of Lon Chaney Jr. in “Man Made Monster” (which was a big hit nationally last week on MeTV) at 11 am on our main local station, CW26 – soon to be the home of the new series about the Man of Steel-“Superman and Lois”!

February, with Valentine’s Day, is definitely a month for love- so be ready for a monthful of some special things for all you Sven lovers! Details coming soon!

Join us when our spider-sense warns of BIG scares tonight on MeTV!