Spider Baby (1968)

Starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner

Directed by Jack Hill
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A loyal chauffeur has for years looked after the members of the Merrye family, who each suffer a sort of mental regression resulting in vicious behavior, but he may no longer be able to protect them after the arrival of a greedy relative after the family fortune.

Part disturbing horror film, and part wicked black comedy, this effort from writer/director Jack Hill is certainly unique and still shocking today, even though for the most part any gore is kept off screen.  Creepy black and white photography, an effective score by Ronald Stein, and a good performance by Chaney as the chauffeur help propel the film along to its predictably violent conclusion.  There's also some nice casting on display here, with Ohmart from House On Haunted Hill and 1940s comedy star Mantan Moreland as an early victim for the "Spider Baby" of the title.

The Fear Chamber (1968)

Starring Boris Karloff, Julissa, Carlos East, Isela Vega, Yerye Beirute
Directed by Juan Ibanez
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A scientist and his assistants discover a creature made of living rock underground that feeds on the chemical generated in the human body when experiencing extreme terror.

According to IMDB, this is one of a quartet of horror films made in Mexico that incorporated scenes featuring Boris Karloff filmed in America by director Jack Hill.  They would be among Karloff's last films, and do not have a reputation of quality.  This one is certainly watchable, and does an effective job of presenting the terror-filled "fear chamber" the scientists create to shock young women into providing the chemical to feed the creature.  However, while Karloff is always worth watching, the rest of the film doesn't measure up, with poor special effects standing in for the creature, and the transformation of a dimwitted lab assistant into the movie's central villain coming off as pretty comical.

Blood Bath (1966)

Starring William Campbell, Marissa Mathes, Lori Saunders, Sandra Knight, Carl Schanzer
Directed by Jack Hill & Stephanie Rothman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

An artist who paints gruesome depictions of murdered women hides the secret that he is a vampire and the women he paints are in fact his murder victims.

This horror film from Roger Corman's production unit is hard to judge without acknowledging it's history.  As related in Wikipedia's entry on this film, it originated as a spy thriller, which was then refashioned by director Jack Hill as a horror film featuring Campbell's murderous painter and comic relief scenes with a group of beatnik artists, and then was further revised by Rothman, who added the vampire sequences.  That the film is coherent at all considering that history is something remarkable.  Unfortunately, as Campbell was unavailable for the final reshoots, a different actor who does not resemble him plays the vampire, making for a bit of a jarring contrast.  Regardless, as a whole, it's not a bad film, and it's fun to watch to guess which scenes were filmed when and by whom.