Arachnophobia

Amazon.com

Most horror movies depend on giant monsters; Arachnophobia gets just as many thrills out of creatures only a few inches long. A scientist (Julian Sands, Warlock, A Room with a View) who's hunting a vicious new species of spider in Venezuela unknowingly ships one back to the U.S. It ends up in a small town where a new doctor (Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Something Wild) is trying to establish a practice. When his patients start suddenly dying, Daniels suspects spiders--but no one takes him seriously because he's had a phobia about spiders since childhood. Arachnophobia builds a slow but relentless sense of menace and creepiness, mixed with a sneaky satire of small town life. If you're squeamish about spiders, this will get under your skin. Also featuring the ever-dependable John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink) as a comically zealous exterminator. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment deliver the year's most electrifying big-screen roller coaster ride of a movie! Everyone is afraid of something ... for Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), his phobia is downright embarrassing. But when he moves his family to a small town, the one thing that bugs him most is now harming the townspeople at an alarming rate. For this unlikely hero, overcoming a childhood fear of spiders might just save the community, but it may already be too late! Directed by Frank Marshall (Executive Producer, BACK TO THE FUTURE, Producer, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) and also starring John Goodman, this critically acclaimed breathtaking hit entertains with its terrific mix of thrills, chills, and laughter!

Customer Reviews:

Watch it with the lights on!.......2007-09-11

My first exposure to this film was overhearing a bunch of my fellow students at UCO describing going 'fishing' with a plastic tarantula at a local theatre's showing of "Arachnophobia." Yes, the unlucky theatre-goers caught by the bait had the predictable reaction.

Notwithstanding their illicit activities, my classmates said the film was one of the funniest they'd ever seen.

I was dubious, but based on their recommendation, I went to see "Arachnophobia" one weekday afternoon at the same theatre where they'd pulled their prank.

First off, I have never been to a show where the threatre staff is standing at the door watching for suspicious bundles. Anything long that could house a fishing pole or whatnot had to be checked.

Then, when the previews were over, the houselights never went down. One of my fellow audience members went to ask why and the theatre management announced that due to some mischief they were keeping the lights up.

Plus--we had an usher in attendance throughout the whole show.

Yep, my classmates were right. I did laugh my head off. "Arachnophobia" pokes fun at every killer spider movie as well as our own fear of spiders. I went back to see the film again and still laughed.

"Snakes on a Plane" caused me to revisit some of my favorite parody films. Started out on a rainy day with the lights off. My Siamese cat jumped up behind me and I screamed like a highschool girl.

Yep--I put all the lights on in the room and I was back to laughing again. After all these years, "Arachnophobia" is still a lot of fun and one of the best parodies I have ever seen. The cat even liked it--he had a great time trying to catch the spiders on the screen.

Uhhhh---just keep the lights on and lock your cat out!

A Funny Web of Fear!.......2007-06-26

Kona's January 2005 review (the current Spotlight Review) is all you really need to get a handle on this film, but I'll throw in my two cents anyhow.

For those with real arachnophobia, like myself, this film is a humdinger that is sure to give you the creeps and have you laughing as well with its campy humor not unlike Slither. The cast is perfectly lead by the ever reliable Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, Terms of Endearment). John Goodman's small role as the pest exterminator is a sheer delight.

It doesn't take much for these phobia-filled genres to scare us as we can all relate to a fear no matter what kind and just about everyone was afraid of a spider at some point, but this film will have you searching your house before bedtime. On the down side, the effect of the larger spider (AKA "The General") is rather laughable and not frightening in the least. The "soldier" spiders flinging themselves down on unsuspecting humans is where the real frightening moments occur.

If you like creepcrawly kinds of films, then let me recommend a few other cheesy ones that are still fun to watch: Frogs with Ray Milland and a very young Sam Elliot (Ghost Rider, Hulk, and Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts). Ignore the cover art which totally misrepresents the film. This film isn't about giant frogs or insects, but rather nature going amock with carnivorous spiders, leaping lizards, sneaky snakes, blood-thristy leeches, prowling crocks, etc. Another little classic is Kingdom of Spiders with the ever enjoyable to watch hammy acting of William Shatner (do I really need to put his credits here? --lol). Eight Legged Freaks is also a lot of fun with more campy humor and very decent effects. Lastly, Squirm is another minor little classic about worms that eat people.

Enjoy, and leave a light on at night! ;>)

Who's afraid of Spiders.......2007-05-13

A well done film for it's age, how did they get the spiders to comply withe the script, I can imagine that would have been many a re-take, without the anamatronics used today!

Good Film , but where's the Spider?.......2007-05-07

I laugh every time I see the cover art for this movie. I own the original movie poster for the film , which is almost identical to the one pictured here EXCEPT! There is supposed to be a Spider dangling from the top and hanging in front of the moon. Why they removed the spider in a film called Arachnophobia has puzzled me for years. It is a decent campy scare film regardless.

Great film, DVD transfer not so good........2006-11-26

I won't go into the movie's worth as entertainment here - suffice to say that I think it's awesome and well worth 5 stars. But in this review I'm focusing on the technical aspects which I feel detract from the DVD.

This DVD (ASIN: B00000IQC4) features a transfer that is known as 'matted widescreen' which works fine on smaller 4:3 TVs, but which looks awful on larger screen or widescreen TVs. I believe that every DVD today should be made in 'anamorphic widescreen' format so that the image is enhanced for viewing on a larger screen. If it's not then I think that the low image quality should be clearly marked in some way, as the lack of an anamorphic transfer makes a big difference in quality. In the case of this particular movie the image is very poor mostly due to the matted widescreen format that results in what's known as 'gutterboxing' (black bars all around the image) when the movie is played on widescreen TVs. Some TVs allow zooming in to fill the screen in cases like this, but then the image becomes very grainy - so much so that it's probably better to watch it in the 'gutterboxed' mode.

So in conclusion, those with the older standard 4:3 TVs under 30 inches probably won't notice any loss of resolution. But for folks like me with big screen TVs I advise waiting until this movie gets an updated DVD treatment. Alternatively, if you own a DVD player that can play region 2 discs, the British version (ASIN: B00004D07J available from Amazon.co.uk) is an anamorphic transfer.

Kingdom of the spiders / The Giant Spider Invasion (2 pack) - Region 1

Average customer rating:

Kingdom of the spiders / The Giant Spider Invasion (2 pack) - Region 1

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000GASZ38

Product Description

1. Kingdom of the spiders (Full Screen) also have feature like Dolly Digital, Mono. It is a cult classis starring william shatner special Twenty-Fifth anniversary edition! 2. The Giant Spider Invasion dvd have crawly things and Free comic book inside dvd.

Average customer rating:

Watch it with the lights on!
A Funny Web of Fear!
Who's afraid of Spiders
Good Film , but where's the Spider?
Great film, DVD transfer not so good.

Arachnophobia [Region 2]
Starring: Jeff Daniels , Harley Jane Kozak , John Goodman , Julian Sands , and Stuart Pankin
Director: Frank Marshall
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00004D07J

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Watch it with the lights on!.......2007-09-11

A Funny Web of Fear!.......2007-06-26

Who's afraid of Spiders.......2007-05-13

A well done film for it's age, how did they get the spiders to comply withe the script, I can imagine that would have been many a re-take, without the anamatronics used today!

Good Film , but where's the Spider?.......2007-05-07

Great film, DVD transfer not so good........2006-11-26

Average customer rating:

Watch it with the lights on!
A Funny Web of Fear!
Who's afraid of Spiders
Good Film , but where's the Spider?
Great film, DVD transfer not so good.

Arachnophobia [Region 2]
Starring: Jeff Daniels , Harley Jane Kozak , John Goodman , Julian Sands , and Stuart Pankin
Director: Frank Marshall
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00004RYXM

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Watch it with the lights on!.......2007-09-11

A Funny Web of Fear!.......2007-06-26

Who's afraid of Spiders.......2007-05-13

A well done film for it's age, how did they get the spiders to comply withe the script, I can imagine that would have been many a re-take, without the anamatronics used today!

Good Film , but where's the Spider?.......2007-05-07

Great film, DVD transfer not so good........2006-11-26

Average customer rating:

Arachnophobia [Region 2]
Starring: Jeff Daniels , Harley Jane Kozak , John Goodman , Julian Sands , and Stuart Pankin
Director: Frank Marshall
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004VYRK

DVD:

DVD

DVD