Earth vs. the Spider

In a small American town, teenager Carol Flynn sets out with her friend Mike Simpson to find her missing father, whose car is discovered near the entrance of a cave. Inside the cave the two encounter a spider of enormous size, and when they bring word back to town, the sheriff organizes a hunt for the creature. The spider is apparently killed, but it is kept in the high school gymnasium, where it is revived and the town must fight for its survival.

Bert I. Gordon directed and produced this 1958 release, working from a screenplay by George Worthing Yates and László Görög. The cast includes Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Eugene Persson, Gene Roth, Hal Torey and June Jocelyn, with twenty credited performers in all. Made by American International Pictures with Santa Rosa Productions, the film runs 73 minutes and sits within a cycle of 1950s science fiction and horror films about oversized creatures. It is the earliest of the five titles listed for Gordon, preceding Tormented, Picture Mommy Dead, The Food of the Gods and Empire of the Ants.

On TMDB it holds a rating of 4.8 out of 10 from 71 votes, a low score that reflects the modest reception typical of this kind of low-budget monster picture. The premise places a giant mutant spider at the center of the story, with the town's teenagers and their science teacher among those who confront it.