Eric Polk & DBH Presents: Terror Bowl 1!

Greetings Reaplings, Eric Polk here live at Cowboys Stadium in Big D where today it is the inaugural Terror Bowl! Tonight, it's Wisconsin's own, director Bill Rebane, and his classic, The Giant Spider Invasion vs. the Pride of Pittsburgh via NYC, director George Romero and the original Dawn of the Dead!

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)-

It featured a huge prosthetic spider powered by a pair of VW Bugs(seriously), it featured The Skipper from Gilligan's Island as the sheriff(seriously), it was mocked on an episode of my favorite t.v. show Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

The central plot of the film revolves around the spider invasion, which occurs when what appears to be a meteorite crashes down in rural Wisconsin, and spawns spiders of varying sizes. (The titular spider is large enough to swallow a man whole, and crawl onto the roof of a house.)

Believe it or not, even you don't watch the MST3K version(which you should because I feel it is the best episode of the Mike Nelson/Scifi Channel Era), this movie is unintentionally funny just for the casting alone. I mean The Skipper, Perry Mason's secretary/love interest? This is pretty much one of those When-Nature-Goes-Nuts movies that came out in the wake of Jaws. Worth a viewing and laugh.

This movie can attack Dawn of the Dead with its punishing cheese game, it's unintentionally funny moments, and it has THE SKIPPER FROM GILLIGAN'S ISLAND!!!!

But....

Dawn of the Dead (1978)-

As horror fans, we know the story, we've seen the original film at least a dozen times. We know it's a classic. Some of us feel Dawn is the greatest zombie film ever made. Many of us take it as a satire of American consumerism. I take this as a damn fine gory horror film! Oh sure Giant Spider Invasion can exploit the weakness of Dawn since that film didn't have a slow middle, but as far as gore, depth, and good acting are concerned, hands down the winner of the first annual Terror Bowl is....

(Was there ever any doubt?)