SPIDARLINGS: An Incoherent Camp Experience
Where do I begin? This may have been the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had watching a movie, including both Lost Highway and Howling For Sade. Spidarlings is not a masterpiece or even a film with much of a point to make, but its weirdness allowed it to become truly captivating throughout the bloated two-hour runtime, and I can’t say that I haven’t been thinking about it and coming back to it for a while after watching the thing.
I struggled for some time on establishing a succinct synopsis for this movie, but here it goes: a young, punky lesbian couple, Matilda and Eden, navigate English urban poverty amongst a series of surreal experiences involving a disgruntled landlord, a serial killer, and a pet spider named Reiner. None of this does director Salem Kapsaski’s film justice though, as it automatically implies a sense of cohesion and potential plot progression, of which there is very little. Rather than attempting to theorise what is truly going on as one may be tempted to do with a film like Mulholland Drive or The Phantom Of Liberty, whether an analysis is warranted or not, you instead just sit back and try to enjoy the ride.
Camp Energy
When the incoherent nature of the film made it falter somewhat, the unstoppable campy energy kept Spidarlings – and my attention – going. Every line reading is over the top and reminiscent of pantomime acting, particularly from Rahel Kapsaski as Matilda, whose giggling and cheers become strangely endearing even late into the movie. The animated sections, particularly the opening credits by Camden Coxson, are lively and brilliant, to the extent where I was disappointed that the majority of the film turned out to be live action. Most of all it’s the overblown musical numbers that bring Kapsaski’s movie to life, ‘The Hammer Will Fall’ and ‘Juicy Girls’ being my own personal favourites that have been stuck in my head since the first viewing.
Immediately when watching this movie, you will notice the incredibly low production values – think amateur YouTube video quality and Birdemic: Shock and Terror level sound mixing more often than not. This will either feel endearing or be aggravating to you, but I lean towards the former, as I found that the grainy image quality, a camera that flip-flops between shaky and immovably static, and the unusually long takes contributed to the exploitation feel.
By far the closest resemblance in aesthetic is to early John Waters movies like Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, in which the scandalous content was given a verisimilitude by the poor quality video, almost like a kind of documentary realism despite the bizarre content.
Influences
There was clearly a broad range of cinematic influences on Kapsaski in making this movie, whether made overt onscreen or not. A large Eraserhead poster looms over the couple following a scene in which Eden is seemingly impregnated by a spider, reflecting David Lynch‘s surrealist analysis of fatherhood. There is also a poster advertising Paul Morrisey and Andy Warhol‘s Flesh, which the sexually surreal content of Spidarlings certainly lives up to.
Mostly though, it is obviously the influence of The Rocky Horror Picture Show that lingers over Kapsaski’s creation. From the vibrant colour palette to the out of the blue drag queen musical numbers and proudly filthy content, it feels like a love letter to the most infamous of midnight movies. Only time will tell whether Spidarlings will become a camp classic in a similar vein, shown at midnight in a packed out theatre to patrons dressed as characters in homemade costumes. For my money though, I think a film like this is far less shocking in 2018 than in 1975 and can be easily outdone in raunchiness by 90% of images on the internet.
Conclusion: SPIDARLINGS
I wrestled for some time over whether the positives outweigh the negatives in Spidarlings, but I think the film has played on my mind enough since I watched it that it has accomplished all it wished to. If you enjoy the works of John Waters or B-Movies at large, you need to see this movie. Otherwise, it may not be for you.
Do you think Spidarlings is worthy of sitting alongside other camp classics? Let me know in the comments!
Spidarlings will be released on Blu Ray in the US on July 10, 2018. International release dates can be found here.
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