Spider Baby & Foxy Brown: Iconic Jack Hill Double Bill (Review)

Jack Hill is the greatest… I think that Hill is a really terrific director. He was the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking.

Quentin Tarantino

Even if that box quote does cut Jack Hill as a vital figure in the exploitation film world, what’s even more worthy of note is Arrow Film’s commitment to releasing high-quality pressings of the directors consistently difficult to find output. The films that it has opted to start with are his rare 1968 début Spider Baby and one of the most respected classics of the Blaxploitation era in Foxy Brown.

In 1968 Jack Hill directed his début film Spider Baby or the maddest story ever told, an early and vital influence on everything from the psycho’s you’d find in slashers to the dangerous redneck sub-genres. Simply put, if Spider Baby wasn’t released chances are we’d have no Texas Chainsaw Massacre, one can’t understate how monumental the influence Tobe Hooper’s masterworks has.

As the film opens Peter Howe (Quinn Redeker) delivers a monologue to camera whereby he tells the story of the Merrye family who has been cursed with a regressive mental state unique only to their bloodline. This bloodline no longer exists thanks to the events of ‘that night’. During which, siblings Peter & Emily Howe (Carol Ohmart) visit the afflicted branch of the family to get to know them and potentially become the careers of Elizabeth, Virginia & Ralph (Sid Haig) Merry. To Peter & Emily’s obliviousness, those three siblings have murderous tendencies, and as you’d expect from any type of horror film (new or old) bad things start happening.

Now Spider Baby is not a good film, it’s poorly made and many of the performances leave a lot to be desired. As an article in the collector’s booklet suggests, just because something is bad that doesn’t mean it’s beyond praise. The murderous kids are good value for money especially with Virginia (Jill Banner) ‘playing spider’, turning something innocuous and playful sounding into a murderous game of spider and the fly.  Another notable characteristic of the script is the way Bruno (Chaney Jr) interacts with people. Whether that means his incessant referencing of his deathbed promise with the children’s father or his suggestive comments about hating being a bad thing when the children go a little too far.

Like earlier suggested Spider Baby is a significant name in horror history and is often true, the creators don’t quite perfect their ideas. The problem for this is the brevity of the film, meaning many of the films better aspects have to hit the ground running. One of the later developments may often be vaguely hinted at, when the true extent of Merrye syndrome shows itself the film finishes, barely giving the viewer an opportunity to process what they are watching. Much of this swiftness is forgivable as its fun in the long run, but the way it ends is all too sudden. Instead of fleshing out the true extent of this condition, Hill opts instead for the horror ending of choice – the end with a question mark, literally. 

The glue that holds Spider Baby together is Lon Chaney Jr, he is subtle and simple, the perfect counterpoint to the hysterical acting and gung-ho progression. It’s an awkward recommendation for horror fans. This brilliant re-mastering of Spider Baby should be seen by horror fans who aren’t scared off by dated production values. It’s a recommendation not because it’s a classic or well made, but because it’s the point where many horror tropes began in all their crude glory.

From 1968 and Spider Baby to 1974 and Foxy Brown, between which Hill worked on Blaxploitation classic Coffy and with Roger Corman on the Big Doll House. The difference in his ability as a filmmaker is as clear as day. In Foxy Brown he works with Pam Grier for the third time, here she stars as the titular Foxy Brown. Blaxploitation films could rarely be praised for their storytelling and Foxy Brown is no different. The essence of the story follows Foxy getting revenge on a gang who murdered her Federal Agent boyfriend.

Even if Jack Hill clearly progressed as a filmmaker, with a better cast and more money at his disposal but Foxy Brown is still a long way from a good film. The action choreography that Hollywood borrowed from Asian cinema makes anything from before that period of transition look awfully antiquated. Early on there’s a scene where Foxy’s brother is failing about through the sunroof as a man she ran over clings to her car bonnet. It’s an image that is hard to greet with anything but laughs, and there are more occasions like this scattered throughout. For modern sensibilities, this could be a problematic thing to watch.

The modern connotations of that previous paragraph suggest that Foxy Brown is a bad film and that Jack Hill is finding his feet as a director. Maybe that is true within the grand scheme of his career, however, the 70s is a far different age in film history and Jack Hill brings with that an absolute lack of cynicism. For a film that takes a busty actress and places her in a revenge scheme instigated through a high-class prostitution ring, it would be expected that this film is a thinly veiled excuse to get its star naked. That isn’t the case; Jack Hill is more playful than that. This extends throughout the film, from the script and action to the more sexual exploits.

Foxy Brown is as funny as a film as she is aggressive in her ambitions for revenge. Early on a scene in which Foxy Brown meets her boyfriend, who has recently had reconstructive surgery, they have been apart a while so they get a bit frisky in the hospital bed. After a minute or so of sounds through a drawn hospital curtain, a typical sassy black nurse enters the scene and in a few small seconds, she has one of the funniest moments of the film. Continuing on that tone, there’s a barroom brawl in which Foxy responds to a karate black belt by smashing her over the head with a barstool, brilliantly quipping “And I’ve got MY black belt in barstools!” Simply put Foxy Brown is fun.

Of course, the tone gets more serious when the situation demands it, it’s to be expected in a film about murder and revenge, but it’s never too strong of a contrast thanks to the raw way the film has been put together. Yes, it’s badly put together and wildly dated, but so are most 1970s action films, that doesn’t make them all bad, far from it, that rawness is their crowning glory.  Foxy Brown is the pure midnight cinema made all that more satisfying thanks to the soulful soundtrack by Motown’s Willie Hutch.

It’s fairly clear to see that through these two arrow video releases, that opening quote Quentin Tarantino made in 1995 was onto something about Jack Hill.

Thank you for reading our double Jack Hill review of Spider Baby & Foxy Brown

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