Referring to the fear of spiders, Arachnophobia features a particularly deadly species of spider that manages to make its way from the Venezuelan rain forest to a small California town, thanks to the many oversights of entomologist Julian Sands. Yuppie doctor Jeff Daniels, fed up with the dangers inherent in big-city living, has resettled in this town on the assumption that nothing untoward could ever happen here to himself and his family. Before long, however, Daniels is trying to make sense of
a series of sudden deaths-and to figure out why each of the corpses has been drained of blood. The audience, of course, knows that the culprits are those pesky South American spiders, which grow larger with each kill. To make matters worse, Jeff Daniels suffers from a profound case of arachnophobia. John Goodman supports the cast as a slovenly exterminator, and Frank Marshall, longtime producer of Steven Spielberg's films, makes his directorial debut in Arachnophobia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Frank Marshall's sophisticated feature directing debut never indulges in ultimate gross-out effects and carefully chooses both its victims and its means of depicting their dispatch.
That sound you hear in the background is the ''ugh!'' heard round the world. Luckily, ''Arachnophobia'' will also be generating its share of boisterous, nervous laughter.
It's a one-joke movie, a funhouse ride, the cinematic equivalent of having a rubber spider thrown in your lap. But it doesn't matter if you reject the wispy script or the plot, which has as much substance as a spider's web; you'll jump every time.
Frank Marshall, a constant Spielberg collaborator, makes his directorial debut in this genial horror movie, a sweet infestation that creeps and crawls but wouldn't scare anybody.
This is the kind of movie where you squirm out of enjoyment, not terror, and it's probably going to be popular with younger audiences - it doesn't pound you over the head with violence.
Preys upon that dread in a wonderfully cinematic manner, elegantly keeping the antics lighthearted enough to encourage a viewing, but eventually digging into spiderific panic -- pure candy to horror junkies on the prowl for the perfect thrill.
Offbeat horror/comedy is neither "ha-ha" nor "shiver-shiver". It is simply a clever, delightful parody of how Hollywood scared its audiences--using spiders to make clear the true stupidity of those classic scenes.If you don't quite understand what I am saying, allow me to give you an example: The
famous shower scene from the 1960 horror/thriller PSYCHO is parodied somewhere in the latter half of the film. Instead of having an adult woman be stabbed to death, though, the scene shows a spider crawling down the body of a teenage girl, who freaks out in a ridiculous manner.That's the kind of humor you'll find in almost every other scene: farcical, overblown, satirical, yet subtle takes on FRANKENSTEIN and the like. What is best about ARACHNOPHOBIA (the film, of course, not the phenomenon) is that it's simply impossible to find a film that slightly resembles it.It's odd when we hear this one's a comedy, we're not laughing...but we're still somehow glued to the TV.
August 7, 2011
Alexander Diminiano
Super Reviewer
I watched with a Friend who has arachnophobia, still she wanted to watch this Movie very badly. Okay. It wasnt fun for me to hear her scream next to me whenever the Spiders appeared on the Screen and who has seen the Movie it was 95%, so anyone can imagine what Screams I had to suffer. lolLong time ago someone
recommended this Movie to me and I didnt actually paid attention, ironically a friend who has Arachnophobia told me to give it a try.Spiders dont bother me at all. It began a tiny bit "suspense" or in this case "oh this is the beginning" but later I noticed it was more "humourous" and not even CLOSE TO A HORROR. The only Horror were the Screams of the Friend during the whole Movie. Jesus Christ I had a headache at the End.
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