MovieChat Forums > Earth vs the Spider Discussion > Filmed alternate ending

Filmed alternate ending


I remember in the days of creature double feature here in boston every saturday for 4 hours was a AIP Dream come true. I remember seeing two versions of THE SPIDER, it's working title back then before it was changed. It's the ending sequence when the spider falls to its death at the bottom of the cave.....he is pierced by the rocks and the camera pans closer and in place of the spiders head is a skull. I read that AIP thought this was a more scary ending, but I have never seen this in print on vhs or dvd...I know I'm not dreaming...this is the version they always showed here on WLVI 56 Boston on Creature Double Feature from the early 70's to the mid 80's before it was cancelled.

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I would love to see it

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Oh, that's interesting - I remember an alternative poster, with a skull in the place of the Spider's head - so that makes perfect sense in light of your recollections.

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What?? Why would a spider have a skull?

If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it copy this and make your signature!

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@cancer-21:
Nope. Don't love Jesus.
Oh, wait - do you mean the cute guy who does my neighbor's yard and takes off his t-shirt when he gets sweaty?
Yeah, OK, I can go with that.

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Don't be a jerk.

I'm riding an elephant to your house. I'll see you at six.

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[deleted]

Here are some lobby cards advertising this film. They include the skull head mentioned in this thread, with some in Spanish (La Arana):

http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/horror/tonyrivers/spider2.html

When you google this film, one of the results includes a page of 'images', one of which is an over-the-top black and white lobby card with the human skull on the spider body. I'd love to find the alternate ending but you'd have to be a super dedicated movie sleuth to find it. It probably exists only in rare prints of the film stored in some dusty AIP warehouse; it probably never made it to VHS or DVD. Any sleuths out there?

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That's an awesome website you listed in the link Lanlguy....I've looked and looked for years for this print, I can't find it anywhere.....I also have looked for the alternate AIP print of "Journey to the 7th planet before they dubbed out the original spider scene and replaced it with the spider from "Earth Vs. The Spider"....I can't find either print and a lot of people don't even remember this. I wish I recorded these back in the 70's when they ran on Creature Double Feature here in Boston back in the day.


The name is Scruffy Nerfherder

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After I posted my link, I went to ebay and looked for Spider movies. The only possibility was a posting on some VHS versions. The description wasn't very specific but I posted a question to the seller to the effect that if these tapes contained the alternate skull-head ending they'd draw more interest from collectors. The seller replied and said they'd look into it, so maybe we'll see an answer soon. Honestly, I'm not optimistic that they're skull heads.

This is the kind of tactic that may turn up a viable lead to our movie. Someone else may read the reply and contact someone who may know someone else, and yada yada someone eventually points us toward a source. Who knows. Keep looking on ebay (and YouTube) and other 'hard-to-find' movie retail sites; contact them with requests for this version of the film. That movie is out there somewhere and if these sellers see some real interest, they're more likely to stock it.


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