Arachnophobia: Spiders on Screen – article

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In 1990, the spiders went big budget with Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia. Produced by Steven Spielberg, the film was little more than an enjoyable and glossier revamp of Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo.

This time, it’s a “very aggressive new species of spider” that is shaped like a tarantula that sneaks into the USA and crossbreeds with a local species to create a deadly new hybrid. Soon, a small town is besieged by thousands of these bloodthirsty critters. As much a comedy and action-adventure film as a horror yarn, Arachnophobia is not without its moments but invariably suffers by attempting to please as many people as possible.

In Lunatics: A Love Story (1991), Ted Raimi’s character Hank is menaced by a giant spider that is a figment of his fevered imagination.

More basic was 2000’s Spiders and its sequel Spiders II: Breeding Ground, shot a year later. These direct-to-video movies were pretty bad, yet amusing if approached with the right attitude – and it was reassuring to know that B-grade monster movies have found a new audience on VHS.

Spiders tells the story of secret government experiments on dead astronauts which eventually leads to a giant spider being created!

The sequel has no real connection with its predecessor, other than the general theme – this time, survivors of a shipwreck are rescued by a passing vessel, only to discover that it is run by a mad scientist intent on breeding – yes, you guessed it! – giant spiders.

The 2001 version of Earth vs. the Spider bears no resemblance to the original 1950s film. Instead, it’s a horror movie take on the Spider-Man story, combined with elements of Cronenberg’s The Fly:  a bookish student injected with radioactive spider venom gains superpowers but also starts to mutate into a half-man, half-spider with a dodgy appetite!

Eight Legged Freaks (2002) is a tongue-in-cheek retread of The Giant Spider Invasion, with chemically mutated giant spiders rampaging across a small mining town.

This deliberately camp film is pretty amusing, and it’s fun to see big-name stars like David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer and Scarlett Johansson battling it out with huge spiders!

The early 2000s brought us the likes of Jack Sholder’s Arachnid (2001), Brett Piper’s Arachnia (2003) and Deep Evil (featuring a floor full of CGI spiders, 2004).

In the Spider’s Web is a 2007 American made-for-television horror film about backpackers who get involved with a spider-worshipping mad doctor (Lance Henriksen) in an Indian jungle. Whilst it’s no classic it’s certainly worth a watch plus it’s free on YouTube.

The Asylum’s action-adventure mockbuster version of Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) saw the leads being menaced by a poorly rendered CGI giant spider.

And the spiders kept on coming and some became increasingly bizarre. There were Ice Spiders (2007), an Arachnoquake (2012), Spiders 3D, Christopher R. Mihm’s Fifties homage The Giant Spider (2013), Mike Mendes’ Big Ass Spider, and strangest of all, Lavalantula (2015) suggesting that the desire to see monstrous arachnids is not going to go away.

In the latter, Los Angeles was attacked by big lava-spewing tarantulas! It proved to be popular enough to spawn a more comedic sequel, 2 Lava 2 Lantula!, the following year.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how to get a spider out of my bathtub before it sneaks off to start mutating…

David Flint, MOVIES & MANIA (with major additions by Ade Smith)

Addendum:
There have been many more notable movies with marauding spiders – and quite a few giant ones – since this article was originally posted online. Please visit page 4 for more arachnophobia

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