Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

This is a perfect starter for Halloween, just enough scares and fun to get you in the mood. 'Arachnophobia' would have been an even better film if it was scarier and funnier. It all seems pretty "middle of the road" to me. It's an enjoyable film unless you can't handle watching spiders, but it seems a bit uneven in tone. The DVD transfer is OK, but could be improved also. All in all, it's a good family horror movie, nothing too intense, but a lot of fun.

If you can get past the corn factor here then `Arachnophobia' can be a lot of fun. It's chilling at times, especially if you are afraid of spiders (I am deathly afraid, so yes, I was itching all over) but the film has enough comedic timing to offset the would-be fright-fest.

The film opens with scientist who specializes in spiders trying to find a new species in Venezuela. When one of the spiders makes its way back to the states in a coffin (it bit someone) it soon begins breeding and infesting a small country town. The new doctor, Ross Jennings, is deathly afraid of spiders and so when he starts suspecting that the sudden deaths taking place within the town are spider bite related he isn't taken very seriously, by anyone. But when he calls in Doctor James Atherton (the scientist who discovered this deadly breed) his suspicions are confirmed and the hunt for the queen mother bug (go Ashley Judd ~ inside joke, sorry) is on.

This film is really pure camp when you look at it objectively. Certain scenes are truly terrifying (when they are trapped in the bathroom I was seriously squirming in my seat) but the overall film is more laughs than thrills, some of which are unintentional (true definition of camp).

The acting is decent, at times even great. Jeff Daniels is not one of my favorite actors (he was Oscar worthy in `The Purple Rose of Cairo' but aside from that he's never really reached me) but he does a decent job here as Dr. Jennings. His fear of spiders is beyond believable (yeah, that would be me pressed against the wall in fear while the spider crawled along the table) and his heroic turn in the end is only a tad forced. Harley Jane Kozak floats through this as Daniels wife and both Stuart Pankin and Henry Jones are effectively horrible (not in performance but in character). The real star here is John Goodman who delivers a `Bill Murray in Caddy Shack' type performance as the dim-witted exterminator Delbert McClintock. His delivery is a little annoying at first but quickly grows on you as he transforms into the films comic relief.

The one thing that disappointed me about this film was the ending. When Jennings has to `battle' the spider the film turns from effectively funny to borderline ridiculous and it loses the edge it helped create with the whole `spiders are infesting the house' tactic. When the spiders start coming from all corners of the home it creates this truly claustrophobic and utterly terrifying vibe, but the corny fight sequence better Daniels and the mother bug is so ridiculous it kills the fear and inserts irritation.

So, in the end I say that `Arachnophobia' works to an extent. It has its chilling moments and it has its funny moments, and then it has its ridiculously mind-numbing moments. All together they build a decently satisfying film that is not all it could have been but no where near as bad as it could have been either. It's serviceable, and sometimes that's all that matters.