And so, farewell, giant spider…
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RIP The Giant SpiderVarious lowlifes are constantly looking for large amounts of unguarded metal to take to scrap dealers to get cash (often to buy drugs). When they happened on the metal frame of the giant spider from “Giant Spider Invasion,” dollar signs probably appeared in their eyes.
32 Replies to “RIP The Giant Spider”Commenting at Satellite News
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Are you kidding me? That spider from “GIANT SPIDER INVASION” was a prop, it wasn’t real.
The next thing you’ll be telling me is that truss the farmer dude was wearing wasn’t real.
Okay now that you’ve ripped my heart out about the Giant Spider ( or giant prop )you may as
well finish me off by telling me all the monsters in the GODZILLA / GAMERA movies are guys in
big rubber suits. What else can I believe in? At least Miley is still pure and a good role model
for young girls. Wait,my wife wants to tell me something………
NO,NO,NO! Big Rubber Hand, Guys in Big Rubber Suits, and a fake GIANT SPIDER. It’s all too much
for me, I’m calling in sick today and going back to bed.
Ironic, then, that in the end it was devoured by dirtbag hicks.
WE CAN REBUILD IT
WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY
WE CAN MAKE IT BETTER THAN IT WAS BEFORE
BETTER…
STRONGER…
FASTER.
I blame a rogue splinter group of overzealous packers fans….
“Drug addicts and lowlifes” seems a little harsh. Probably unnecessary to take a swipe at addicts when we have no idea who committed this crime. That being said, RIP, rusting metal cage attached to rusting chassis of an old Volkswagen chassis! We hardly knew ye.
HeatUpTheDeathRay: Fair enough. There’s currently no evidence that it was “drug addicts” and while I think it is a reasonable surmise, you’re right, there’s no need to speculate. So I have recast the sentence to reflect my suspicion that a drug purchase was the ultimate goal here, but not to blame addicts per se. I stand by “lowlifes,” however.
Seems a perfectly fair revision to me, Sampo. I wasn’t trying to be priggish, just to be clear. And, yeah, the two occurrences of the word “chassis” in my post stand as stark evidence of my earlier lack of caffeination. Anyway, thanks for this post, and keep up the good work!
Oh! The arachnidanity!
Fascinating. It’s just been sitting there all these years and hasn’t been legitimately sold as scrap already by the rightful owners. Perhaps they just couldn’t bear to part with it?
Perhaps the Smithsonian or even the Air and Space Museum would be interested?
[Indy voice]That belongs in a museum.[/Indy voice] Ok, maybe there isn’t a museum for bad movie props, but perhaps it could have been refurbished and used to re-enact the “running of the spider” at the annual county fair. Or at least, it could have made a kick-ass yard prop for Halloween.
On a side note, does political correctness now extend to drug addicts? God forbid someone speculate that a crime like theft may be perpetrated by those poor, lost souls. :( (And just to be clear, by “poor lost souls,” I mean scum.)
If the movie itself is any example of the people there, it’s very likely that the frame was stolen by low-life druggies. :p
Zillamon51: No political correctness here! Based on the national epidemic of this sort of scavenging, most of which — but not all — is drug-related, I think I’m within bounds to suspect it. But I also strive, in my own small way, for something resembling journalistic accuracy, and in the absence of any sort of, you know, FACTS, I didn’t have a problem altering the sentence. Who knows? It might be just some local, down on his luck with nothing more than Pabst running through his veins.
It could have just as easily been a drunken farmer’s sort of hot wife.
Giant grasshoppers from the Beginning of the End vented a collective sigh of relief at the news of the demise of their most dangerous enemy, which had been keeping them in check for decades.
With Peter Graves also gone, we are now screwed.
I can hear Barbara Hale’s “groan/scream” after reading this.
Sampo: Fair enough. What got me suspicious was that it was prompted by one person’s concern over a supposedly “harsh” comment that was a “swipe” at drug addicts.
I was specifically alluding to the conflation of “drug addicts” and “low lifes.” The one does not necessarily equate to the other. Our very own TV’s Frank has been open about his addiction struggle; would you call him a “low life?” Or Cory Monteith, who died of a heroin overdose? I have no problem with being accurate and honest in what we call things and people, but a careless equation of addiction with worthlessness is what I objected to. I understand that probably was not Sampo’s intent, and I sincerely appreciate his clarification.
Although I would like to add that Zillamon has a pretty fantastic avatar there. :)
that spider from “GIANT SPIDER INVASION” was a prop. what next, santa claus didn’t go to mars and didn’t conquered the martians.
*pours out half a can of Old Milwaukee onto the street in honor of a lost cinema hero*
*pours the rest down the drain, cracks open a Leinenkugel to toast the giant spider’s memory*
The giant spider WAS meant to be the hero of the movie, right? Ridding that small Wisconsin town of filthy crackers?
I can assure everyone that the metal carcass is not anywhere near my home in Wisconsin (as far as I know). Perhaps it will find a new life as a float in the next Lawgiver Daze parade.
All these conclusions we’re jumping to regarding who’d steal the ol’ Black-Hole-Widow…just break my heart even more than the loss itself.
Because, was it really so long ago that the most logical suspect in the theft of an eight-legged movie prop would be some young, visionary filmmaker with a dream of having a waning horror icon wrestle the thing as the swan song of a legendary career?
When did B-movies sink so low that there’d be more money in literal recycling than remakes?
I’d have liked nothing more than to see it continue rusting in its Wisconsin field, just waiting to fire the imaginations of future creative types, like the roller-coaster carcass that inspired Ray Bradbury’s “Foghorn/Beast From 20,000 Fathoms”.
Auf Wiedersehen, riesigsten Spinne. Implosions of antimatter speed thee back to planet Gross-Out.
Well, looks like it’s time to start hittin’ the booze again.
Not trying to be a jerk here, but it’s kind of odd that this entire post took such a political position, including reassuring someone hand-wringing over possible “political correctness,” when most Frank Conniff threads get locked down immediately lest someone make a political comment of any kind.
Aaaaanyway, back on topic and to wear the Literal Pants for a second, The Bolem: Many early films, especially silents, were deemed more worthwhile for their silver from the silver nitrate than the actual film itself. Thousands of films were lost forever when the silver was extracted from the film.
I’m sure some people knew the spider frame was still around, but I had no idea. It would have been neat to go see the whole contraption when it was still sitting on Rebane’s land.
GOOO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOO!!! PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAYY PACKERS!!! GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PACKERS!!!
Here’s a timely political statement that ties directly into the thread topic:
U.S. amphibious ships loaded to the gills with hundreds of Marines in the Mediterranean are positioned to launch giant spider armatures onto Damascus and surrounding areas with parachute technology.
“It’s the ending of Charlotte’s Web all over again,” an unidentified source said.
These armatures are exact replicas of the original giant spider that was only very recently reported as having been processed as scrap metal after having been stolen by height-challenged mammals (i.e. “lowlifes.”)
Syria’s chemical warfare is one thing, but our launching venomous props is taking it up to a new level and will send a clear and present message to Syria that we aren’t just jacking around.
Prepare arachnibots for full spinnerets on the ground deployment.
It borders on the Shakespearian.
Supporting Sampo on suspecting the motives behind this. I used to live in a trailer park rife with this kind of activity, and it was always drug-related. Due to my own demons and knowing some of those doing this kind of thing I felt sorry for half of them and saw the rest as, well, low-lifes, so using that doesn’t bother me.
Still, on-topic, quite sad. My descent into bad movies began with the Golden Turkey Awards books and Giant Spider was one of the nominees/winners, so when MST did it I was elated, especially when it lived up to it’s reputation.
we’re in a recession. people are looking for money any way they can. it’s pretentious to call them lowlifes and assume they spent it on drugs.
““The Giant Spider Invasion” was filmed in Merrill and surrounding areas like Gleason.”
One of the reasons I love this movie so much. I live in Wausau, about 20 mins from Merrill. I love it when they reference stuff from the nearby areas.
Has MST3K ever made any effort to make payments to Bill Rebane for the use of his film The Giant Spider Invasion?