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Arachnophobia ~ Film Review
In horror, there are many things to be afraid of. Serial killers of all shapes and sizes, demons, the undead… you name it, horror probably has it. Even snakes, sharks, birds and spiders. Yes, spiders. Arachnophobia, released in 1990, is a terrifying film about those lovely eight-legged creatures. And let me tell you this, if you’re afraid of spiders or even creeped out by them, then this movie will haunt you for days. If you’re not afraid of spiders, then it’s still a kickass movie.
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Frank Marshall, this film tells the tale of a rare South American spider that hops a ride in a coffin to California. Upon arrival, this blood-sucking spider finds an old barn to live in and hooks up with a normal house spider. The result is a whole lot of spider hybrids with the power to take down a human with their venom. Spiders — unlike Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees or aliens — are real. We see spiders every day; we even allegedly swallow eight of them in our lifetime. This is a villain every person has encountered or knows of which makes this movie far more realistic than most. That’s the thing about horror films featuring animals/insects/whatever, they are inherently more realistic than any other horror plot and it’s left up to the film to maintain realistic integrity throughout. Sometimes this goes awry, often with shark films, and the creators opt-out of…
