Damn I
hate spiders. I mean the monsters like in Eight Legged Freaks or Tarantula
don’t bother me because they are giant bugs. But the normal sized little
bastards send chills up and down my spine. Of course, somehow my wife decided
that I was the spider killer in our relationship so… IT SUCKS! But I like
movies that scare me so Arachnophobia has always been one that I enjoyed.
Though I haven’t watched it in a few years it made its way back onto my list
for this past October’s movie marathon.
The movie
opens with a photographer joining an expedition in the jungle. They are going
to an isolated valley to collect insects and along the way discover a new
spider species. One of which hitches a ride back to camp and after killing the
photographer gets sent along with his body home to a small California town.
There it hooks up with a lady spider and makes babies. Unlike normal spiders
they are organized like ants with soldiers that go out and attack! Oh yeah and
these normal little spiders are deadly. One bite and you are toast.
Tossed
into this is Dr. Jennings, played by Jeff Daniels, who has moved to town to
take over for the retiring doctor. Well that was the plan anyway. The old guy
decides not to call it quits which leaves Dr. Jennings without patients and no
one trusting the “new” guy. When people start to die everyone ignores Jennings
because what does he know he is new in town… Eventually they have to pay
attention and better yet get in touch with the spider expert Dr. Atherton
(Julian Sands playing a good guy!) who also happened to be the leader of the
expedition where the photographer died. Toss in a local exterminator, John
Goodman in an awesome glorified cameo, and you have the characters together to
do battle with the creepy little bastards. Did I mention I hate spiders?
Even if
you don’t have an aversion to arachnids this one is still fun. The story is
solid and believable. These aren’t giant spiders from space or mutants caused
by the A Bomb. What we get here is an invasive species that breeds with local
spiders and makes an apex predator that has no natural enemy. Maybe that exact
thing hasn’t happened but similar situations have. So, you have a creepy ass
horror movie with deadly spiders that isn’t that unfeasible. Let that stew in
your noggin’ for a few minutes. Kind of scary no?
Delbert is awesome! |
The cast
is very good with Jeff Daniels doing most of the heavy lifting. His character
is central to the story and everything revolves around him. Luckily the guy can
act and has some charisma so he carries the movie without issue. Julian Sands
has a small part but is as good as horror fans know he can be. But the best is
John Goodman’s exterminator character Delbert. He provides some much-needed
comic relief and steals every scene he is in. There are other familiar faces in
the cast that I won’t mention other than to say they also do a solid job in
their roles.
But let’s
talk about the real stars of the movie, the spiders. After some initial big tarantulas,
we get mostly small ones. They sneak around the sets, crawl in popcorn (damn
you filmmakers!), hang out in cereal bowels, drop in showers and even crawl in
the toilette (another nightmare scenario for me!). I was so hoping for a
“Ghoulies” kill… But alas I was disappointed. This is one of those movies that
doesn’t go for jump scares but maintains a creepy skin crawling feeling
throughout most of the runtime. That is pretty awesome. Consider it
recommended.
© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer
No comments:
Post a Comment