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Earlier in the week I kinds flew off the handle here about a planned “Spider Baby” remake. Following this, I had the chance to speak with Jack Hill, the genius writer/director behind such classics as “The Switchblade Sisters”, “Coffy”, and “Foxy Brown” while he assuaged my fears and told me the “Spider Baby” remake was shaping up very nicely …

Jack Hill has a career of which I am frankly envious. Not only has he worked with such greats as Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff and Roger Corman, he also practically invented the women-in-prison exploitation genre (”The Big Doll House”, “The Big Bird Cage”) and launched the careers of Pam Grier and Sid Haig.

ZS: Thank you Mr. Hill. To start with, I have to tell you, honestly, “Spider Baby” is one of my all-time favorite films. It’s got just exactly the right mix between humor and the grotesque, the kind that’s really come into vogue among horror fans. Did you feel like it was it ahead of its time when it was released?

JH: Not really. I think that if it had been released in more sophisticated markets than hicksville and skidrow grind-houses it would have found an audience even back then. Problem was, it was locked up in litigation for four years and by the time it was available, the drive-ins wouldn’t show black & white pictures except as 2nd features. Then, later, it became a long-lost classic of sorts, which added to its appeal to cult movie fans, no doubt.

ZS: Your two major Pam Grier films, “Coffy” and it’s pseudo-sequel “Foxy Brown” have really become iconic in that part of American film history. What was your experience working with the unbeatable Pam Grier?

JH: She was very professional from the beginning, on “The Big Doll House”. Always prepared, never complained. Sid Haig coached her quite a bit and she was a fast learner. She gave me some great ideas when I was writing “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown”, and she deserves a lot of credit for that. But the reason her later films were not so successful is, in my opinion, that other writers didn’t know her as well as I did and didn’t really know how to write for her properly, to avoid her weaknesses and emphasize her strengths.

ZS: You worked with A.I.P. durning it’s heyday, what was it like working with Roger Corman?

JH: Roger was very good to work for in that he was a director himself and so he knew that the way to get the best out of you was to leave you alone unless you went completely off the rails. On the other hand, he had mood swings that could drive you nuts. Enough said. I owe him a lot. He taught me how to get a maximum of effect with a minimum of means.

ZS: You did some uncredited directing on his own film, “The Wasp Woman”?

JH: When Roger sold some films to TV, some of them needed additional running time. I added about 20 minutes to “The Wasp Woman”, mostly by creating a sort of prologue with the only actor from the original film who was still available. Another great learning experience courtesy of The Master.

ZS: What do you owe to the current resurgence of the 1970’s exploitation film (for lack of a better term) in everything from “Grindhouse” to popular advertising? Is it people yearning for the style of a simpler time, or is there still something to be said?

JH: I think it’s the originality of some of the ideas in those films that we miss in the clones of clones that are being made today. When bankers rule the business, there’s a lack of courage — by definition, practically.

ZS: You worked with the great Boris Karloff on several films (”House of Fear”, “Isle of the Snake People”, “Alien Terror” and “Fear Chamber”); how did you find him to work with at that point in his career? I understand he was quite a gentleman on-set and off.

JH: Indeed. He was dying from emphesema, and was just happy to be working. He told me, “I want to go out in harness.” Only somebody as crazy as the Mexican producer would have taken a chance on hiring Boris because he was uninsurable, obviously. He would sit in a wheelchair and breathe oxygen from a tank, then get up and do his action, then go back on the oxygen tank. He loved the idea of playing four different characters in four weeks. After the shoot he went straight back to his rose garden in England. I’m only sorry that I didn’t have time to get to know him better.

ZS: Tell me about “Jack Hill presents”, it’s certainly something I didn’t know about.

jackhillpresents.com — people have been suggesting to me for years to somehow do remakes of the pictures that I did with Boris Karloff in 1968. Now it’s finally coming together, I hope.

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