Movie Club: Arachnophobia
Welcome back everyone to another Movie Club review, this time covering a personal favorite of mine, Arachnophobia.
Now right off the bat, I will say this is a childhood favorite of mine, so I think my opinions may be a bit biased, but let’s get into the plot summary so we can unravel these opinions more.
Arachnophobia follows Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) and his family, who have just moved from San Francisco, to the quiet Canaima California, where Ross was promised the role of sole town Doctor by the current retiring physcian. But alas, the current physicians screw Ross over, and decides to continue working, leaving Ross to scrounge for clients, which is hard, but gets harder as his patients keep dropping dead after seeing him. Now, as you may have guessed, this is not due to medical malpractice, and is instead the result of deadly spiders that have hitch-hiked their way from Venezuela to Canaima, courtesy of a dead photographer being sent home for his funeral, leading the spiders to begin breeding, running rampant, and spreading chaos and death. Ross and a few other notable townspeople then bring in a spider scientist, who conveniently was part of the expedition where the previously mentioned photographer met his eight-legged end, and he along with his assistant begin to track down the spider-nest. They also bring in Delbert the exterminator (John Goodman), who on the grounds of passion for spider death, giddily volunteers to help kill the spiders. The group then finds that the main spider nest is in the barn outside Ross’s house, they race back, pull his family out while being pursued by hundreds of spiders, while Ross falls into the basement, and has a final confrontation with the Queen spider, which he ends up shooting with a fire arrow, pinning her to her eggs, and saving the town. The movie then ends with the family deciding to move back to San Francisco where it’s safe, and there’s a really funny bit where in the midst of their conversation on the safety of the city, a massive earthquake strikes.
Ok, with the plot out of the way, I will once again say that I adore this movie, and I think it has no faults. It’s funny, suspenseful, it’s aged amazingly in terms of effects, practicality, and humor, and I honest to God can find no fault here.
Also on the note of things I love, the entire cast is phenomonal, and while it sounds like a nightmare to have to work with so many real spiders, they all did amazing. Jeff Daniels is a really great lead, and it’s absurd his career didn’t launch into the stratosphere after this. John Goodman is also amazing, he’s hilarious, and his character appears just enough to where you find it funny and enjoyable, without him overstaying his welcome and becoming stale. Really, the entire cast is great, and I could talk all day about how much I loved each performance.
I also think for a movie that focuses on homicidal spiders, it’s really suspenseful, and akin to many slasher movies. There are tons of scenes where characters are either nearly bitten and killed, narrowly avoid a spider nest, or where the spider(s) just disappear after a kill, all of which keep you on the edge of your seat, and blend so well with the dark humor that’s omnipresent.
I also think an underrated aspect is the score. It’s nothing aweinspiring like Interstellar, or classic like Star Wars, but it fits so perfectly with this movie. It makes the funny scenes funnier, the suspense more suspensful, and I appreciate that a quality score was included. As I’ve said in past reviews, I think a good score can make a good movie excellent, and a poor sound design/score can make an ok movie bad. So good on you Arachnophobia, and I wish more movies would at least try to focus on this more, because it’s important, and I think audiences know and appreciate when love and care has been put into the score.
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What I really appreciate about this movie and movies of the same kind/quality, is that it takes a relatively absurd idea, and creates something so memorable in the best kind of way. I love movies like this that are just one-offs of really unique ideas that show up, impress, and leave without demanding never-ending sequels and spinoffs of lessening degrees of quality. I think this idea I presented is even more impressive here, because let’s be real, the margin for error here was so slim. If everything was not written, filmed, acted, and presented in the way it was, this movie would certainly have been ridiculous, and bad in a way that isn’t even entertaining. But lucky for us, I think they nailed every aspect of this movie, and I think it’s a damn shame that Arachnophobia is not at the very least a cult classic.
On this note, classic or not, I think Arachnophobia deserves a theatrical re-release, because I think modern audiences need to experience this movie. You already know why I love it, and I really think the general movie going audience would as well, and I hope that for its 40th anniversary, it gets a wide re-release. I think this is unlikely, but hey, a guy’s got to have hope, right?
With that all said, I think it’ll be no surprise that I rated this movie as a 5 star on Letterboxd, and I of course gave it a like as well.
Conclusion
Ok, I’ll say it, the past two movie club reviews have been rewatches, which I know is not what I said I’d focus on, but you know what, I don’t regret it.
I enjoyed talking about broader movie trends last week, and rewatching a childhood favorite of mine this week was a good detox with something I knew I would love. So all in all, no regrets.
Looking ahead, my long-awaited review of Reminders of Him will come out on Friday, and our first official April movie review will be coming next Monday, April 6th, and it will be on either The Drama or The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and the one that I don’t review Monday, will be seen, reviewed, and posted next Friday, April 10th.
So as always, there’s plenty more on the way, and you’ll all be seeing plenty from me soon!
