Arachnophobia (1990)

Plot Outline: A deadly South American spider hitches a ride inside a coffin back to the town in America where the person lived. It escapes and breeds with a local species of spider, creating an even more deadly offspring which proceed to start killing the local townspeople. They think that it is the result of the new doctor who has moved into town giving people bad treatment. How wrong they could be.

The Review: Successfully mixing elements from the comedy, horror and thriller genres, Arachnophobia was always going to be a hit by being associated with Steven Spielberg. It manages to create a lot of scares, plenty of laughs and some tension whilst at the same time being a reasonably easy film for youngsters to watch. The film doesn't resort to gore to get itself over and combined with the comedy element, it weakens the horror aspect at times. I mean not many people like spiders so the theme is ideal for the picking. There is some natural in-built fear of spiders in most people and the film tries to play on that. Frank Marshall uses POV shots for the spiders so that the audience knows where they are hiding but the characters do not, which really adds to the tension. Like Jaws, we know what is coming and don't particularly want to find out the hard way! The toilet seat scene is the perfect example of this. Have you ever checked around it before you take a seat? You never know what may be lurking there. Jeff Daniels is likeable as the doctor struggling to win over the townspeople and suffering from arachnophobia. The scene where he has to exterminate the queen by walking through the house filled with spiders is tension-inducing stuff. But it's John Goodman's bug exterminator who steals the show with a hilarious performance. He swaggers around with his ridiculous outfit and waves around his chemical hoses like Clint Eastwood would a rifle.

Final Verdict: Arachnophobia is an excellent film but it's hard to really class as horror because it's not scary. The fun from this comes not from behind scared, but from being entertained. Thus it's the perfect "gentle" horror film to start and bring your kids up on.

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