ironhorse_iv Review of Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia (1990)

Arachnophobia probably wouldn't make certain people's skin crawl in terror, but it's mostly a joy to watch for most part.

[6/10 · 31 October 2021]

Although most of the world's spiders have fangs full of poison venom; the vast majority of them are pretty harmless to humans and serve a critical role in controlling pest populations. People still have a fear of them. So, it was not a surprised that this film from producer Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Walt Disney's Hollywood Pictures became a financial success at the box office and received generally positive reviews from critics in 1990. Yet there are those, certain movie goers who kinda hate the written story by Don Jakoby and Wesley Strick, of a fictional fast growing, human killing invasive species coming to Americans towns looking for blood, because it could cause public misconception that all of them are deadly when they are not. Fearing that the film could do serious harm to the ecosystem of spiders. The director and director Frank Marshall and his production crew make great lengths to promote spiders not getting killed by having a cheesy out of place positive pro-arachnid song by singer Jimmy Buffett called 'Don't bug me' in the end credits. That was so bizarre to hear that after seeing many scenes of our protagonist killing bugs. Even the scientists were gases trees in the beginning! Still, the film tries really hard to promote that no serious harm came to the real-life spiders that was used in the film like goliath bird-eater tarantula named Big Bob who played the General. They did this, by using animatronics create by fame Jamie Hyneman, drilling holes in books and boots whenever it looked like they were smush and using dead ones if otherwise. Nonetheless, hearing stories of the crew typing strings on their bodies, poking them with sticks and squirting lemon pledge to make them move in certain ways on film, might rub the truly diehard animal activists in the world the wrong way. Regardless, the creature feature is well shot. Love the low pov camera filming. You really get a good view what the spider might be seeing from that angle. However, overtime, the film hasn't aged very well with me in other departments, especially with the humor. Yes, I know jokes are subjective, but the humor that they gave Jeff Daniels as Dr. Ross Jennings are just so niche and dated. Half the time, I have no clue what he is even reference about. One such example is the joke about spaghetti. What was that about!? The only one of his that got me laughing was whenever he was talking to the coach character Henry Beechwood (Peter John). To tell you the truth, the acting is fine from Daniels, but I found the character really dull. The late add on backstory of why Ross fears spiders is kinda lacking. Even his relationship with his wife Molly played Harley Jane Kozak felt empty and void. That actress wasn't given much to do. To be honest, John Goodman as Delbert McClintock could had written in to carry this whole film or better off have a buddy horror comedy with Dr. James Atherton played very well by Julian Sands as the straight guy, at least, those two were somewhat entertaining, but instead Delbert comes in, way too late and Dr. James Atherton's adventure in Venezuela and discovering the spiders takes too long to establish and felt like a different movie. The movie tone and pacing were somewhat off. The editing is just as bad. I hate that they delete certain moments like awful villainize side characters getting their just punishment and kept others pointless drawn-out scenes around. And finally, there is just the all for nothing running gag wine bottle sudden ending that felt like the camera ran out of time. Honestly, I would have dug the original Alfred Hitchcock 'The Birds' homage type climax. As of the visual effects for the gore. It's works for what the film is, even if it's kinda hard to believe that one spider can cause a body to looked like a mummy in the opening kill. Nonetheless, I did enjoy seeing one coming out of a person's open hole. That was pretty disturbing. As for the action, the forced limitations and plot armor that characters receive is just outrageous too out there to be called realistic especially in the drawn-out climactic battle with the General. Ross and his family should had died a million times over in real life as well as the General. The acting for supporting characters dying is laughable and doesn't look really menacing. As for PG-13 fan service, it was just awkward with the whole flesh tone bodysuit and the fact that we the audience is watching a teenager character shower. I get that it's an obvious nod to another Hitchcock film 'Psycho', but it was really pointless. As for the soundtrack. It's all over the place. Delbert's light hearted blue-collar song does not mix well with the jungle feel of composer Trevor Jones' main theme. Not a great overall listen. There was also a PC game released on several platforms that was vaguely related to the movie, in which the player took the role of the exterminator and traveled to different towns to locate and kill off the spiders. Not really fun to play. In the end, overall: Will this movie make you squirm in terror? Maybe, but its most perhaps not. Still, if your spider sense is tingling and you just need a background movie. It's worth checking out on cable television, DVD or streaming on the world wide web.