Arachnophobia

Starring: Jeff Daniels, Harley Jane Kozak, John Goodman, Julian Sands, Stuart Pankin
Directed by: Frank Marshall
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Thriller
1990

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A rare, deadly Venezuelan spider is accidentally shipped back to the United States, where it begins to breed. The deadly spiders are soon unleashed on a small town, killing various residents. Only a local doctor (Jeff Bridges) who suspects something is amiss can stop them before they destroy the town.

Review:

Tim: I am not a big fan of spiders. I won't go so far as to call it a phobia, but I don't like them one bit. That being said, this was not the easiest movie in the world for me to watch. Director Frank Marshall and producer Steven Spielberg give us a creepy, scary, disgusting movie that had me itching and jumping around because I was convinced spiders were crawling all over me. This was a difficult movie to get through, but it helped because this was an entertaining, truly scary movie.

The spiders were pretty scary. The film did take it to ridiculous lengths (would spiders really be all over the place, attacking people like that?) but despite the unrealistic aspects, this did result in a frightening movie. The film is pretty relentless- you have to be on your guard at all times, because the spiders could be (and are) everywhere. There were very few tense-free scenes. I really liked that Marshall made this an overwhelmingly suspenseful movie.

The cast is fairly decent. Jeff Daniels was truly the right choice for this role. I love that our protagonist is an every day, ordinary guy. It would have been so easy to make the lead role a spider-expert, but not nearly as effective. Daniels is very good and I really enjoyed him here. His performance makes the movie. I also enjoyed John Goodman's small role, simply because it is so strange and unexpected. He really hammed this role up and had some fun with it. The rest of the cast is fairly good as well, although there aren't any real standouts.

I enjoyed this movie because it is a different take on the creature feature. So many of those movie involve giant creatures or other hard-to-believe concepts. This movie achieved the same level of fear, but using small, more realistic creatures. Yes, it is still silly to think spiders would take over an entire town, but they are instantly relatable- everyone has seen a spider, and you were probably grossed out by it. It's not a stretch to wonder what it would be like if those spiders were deadly. They are small, and silent, so they could literally be crawling over you and you wouldn't necessarily know. That is really scary, and a major why this movie is hard to shake.

Arachnophobia is not a flawless movie. It gets less and less believable the longer it goes on, and Marshall trades realism for frights too often. While this hurts the movie, it doesn't prevent this from being a memorable, frightening experience that makes a more lasting impact on audiences than you might expect. I hated this movie because it is was so tough to watch- but that is also why it is such a good movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



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