Content Warning
As you can see from the title, this film is all about spiders so, if you are no fan of those eight-legged creatures, stay far away from it.
I saw ARACHNOPHOBIA as a teen, and I remember it being far more fun then than I do now — and I am not afraid of spiders. I mostly remember John Goodman’s larger-than-life portrayal of Delbert McClintock, a slightly askew exterminator that isn’t too far removed from his performance in RAISING ARIZONA.
This is a pretty basic Spielberg-ian creature feature, helmed by Amblin stalwart Frank Marshall. In short, adventuring scientist Dr. James Atherton — played a bit too straight by Julian Sands (R.I.P.) — accidentally ends up carting an ancient, killer spider to a small town, a small town that Dr. Ross Jennings, gamely portrayed by Jeff Daniels, has just moved to with his family. Ross is scared as fuck of spiders, and ends up having to confront all of that as he realizes his new home is the epicenter of this murderous species of spiders.
“I think you shared the eight-legged equivalent of Frank Lloyd Wright.”
It’s sturdily shot by Mikael Salomon who will always be remembered for his camerawork on THE ABYSS. Also, almost all of the spiders are shockingly real and required some severe wrangling — with the exception of the ‘general’ spider, Big Bob:
“Even the new and improved Big Bob, however, was not large enough for some of the stunts required of the fearsome General and so a 15-inch mechanical spider was constructed by then rookie Jamie Hyneman, who is now best known as one of the hosts of MythBusters. This beastie looked terrifying enough to handle fearsome close-ups, as well as the physical demands of menacing the lead characters.” (Source)
However, it is a very, very slow burn of a film — in more ways than one — and drags a bit despite being under two hours long. As mentioned above, the highlight is Goodman as he deftly adds some much-needed levity to the film with his overconfident swagger, even if he is under-utilized.
Again, it’s not as fun as I remember — and there’s one pretty squicky token shower scene — but it’s still a good time and emblematic of late 80’s/early 90’s horror.