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Arachnophobia (1990
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- Arachnophobia (1990) was a hit right from the start. Though now over three decades old, generations still look back fondly on this horror comedy creature feature as a ’90s cult classic. Considering they used over 300 real spiders for this spook-fest, you can imagine just how creepy it was behind-the-scenes.
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Starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, the film follows a small California town that becomes invaded by a deadly spider species and the town's residents' struggles against them to avert an ecological crisis. The film was the first produced by Hollywood Pictures, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios.
A new species of South American killer spider hitches a lift to a California town in a coffin and starts to breed, leaving a trail of deaths that puzzle and terrify young Dr. Ross Jennings, who is newly arrived in town with his family. Director. Frank Marshall. Writers. Don Jakoby. Al Williams. Wesley Strick.
- (77K)
- Comedy, Horror, Thriller
- Frank Marshall
- 1990-07-18
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Plot
- Cast
- Development
- Release
- Reception
- Post-release
- Themes
is a 1990 American horror comedy film film directed by Frank Marshall and starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman. It was the first film released by Walt Disney Studios' Hollywood Pictures label, as well as being the directorial debut of Marshall. In the film's plot, a newly discovered Venezuelan spider is inadvertently transported to the small town...
A doctor with a deathly fear of spiders moves to a small town invaded by deadly versions of the same.
Entomologist Dr. James Atherton searches the Amazon rainforest with the hope of discovering new species of insects and spiders. Finding a very aggressive new species of spider, a specimen is captured and chloroformed for research. It is later revealed to be lacking sex organs, thus making it a drone or soldier. A nature photographer, Jerry Manley, unknowingly has a fertile male specimen of the same species jump into his backpack, which later creeps into his sleeping bag and bites him. Manley suffers a massive seizure from the venom and dies. The remainder of the scientists take his body back to the United States, blaming Manley's death on a fever. The spider crawls into the casket and is sealed in with the corpse.
Manley's body arrives at the funeral home in his small town of Canaima, California. The spider finds its way outside, reaching the barn of the Jennings family. Ross Jennings is a family physician, who had moved to the town from San Francisco, in reliance on elderly rival Sam Metcalf's promise to retire and leave his patients to Jennings. Upon Jennings' arrival, however, Metcalf changes course and decides to maintain his practice. Soon, the Venezuelan specimen mates with a female domestic house spider and makes a nest in Jennings' barn, producing hundreds of infertile drone offspring, all of which have a lethal bite. Ross, along with his son Tommy, has arachnophobia, making them targets of ridicule to wife Molly and daughter Shelly.
Ross's first patient, Margaret Hollins, dies after being bitten. The town's residents believe that she died from a heart attack, despite Ross's suspicions that something else was at work. After a spider also kills a football player Ross also treated, he becomes known to the town as "Dr. Death." When Metcalf is bitten and dies, Ross suspects that deadly arachnids could be infesting the town.
Ross and county coroner Milton Briggs perform an autopsy on the victims and confirm Ross's suspicion that the deaths were caused by spider bites. Dr. Atherton arrives in town with his assistant Chris Collins, joining Briggs, Sheriff Lloyd Parsons and local exterminator Delbert McClintock in the spider investigation. They discover that the half-bred spiders have a short life expectancy. Atherton explains that the spiders are soldiers, dispatched by a General spider to eliminate competing predators. He also learns that the General produced a Queen, which it likely mated with to produce a second nest, guarded by the Queen, which will eventually hatch fertile offspring. Atherton elaborates that the transplanted spiders can progressively expand their territory, possibly culminating in their worldwide dispersal. The group sets out to destroy both nests and kill the Queen and General.
•Jeff Daniels as Doctor Ross Jennings
•Harley Jane Kozak as Molly Jennings
•Garette Ratliff Henson as Tommy Jennings
•Marlene Katz as Shelly Jennings
•John Goodman as Delbert McClintock
•Julian Sands as Doctor James Atherton
Pre-production
was first conceived and written by screenwriter Don Jakoby, a former physics student-turned-screenwriter. Jakoby said that, instead of intentionally crafting a campy B-movie, he attempted to improve upon them, taking inspiration from the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers and 1979's Alien, and endowing the lead arachnid villain with an agenda and personality. Frank Marshall, who would go on to direct the film, was in agreement; he distinguished Arachnophobia from "creature features," "nature run amok" films, and other B-movies of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, which often depicted a small town invaded by monsters or aliens. "We're not doing 'a giant spider who ate Cleveland' kind of movie," he said, adding, "We're making a film that is more science fact than fiction," like Jaws and Poltergeist. However, giant bug films, such as Them! and Tarantula, remained influential. Marshall was then an experienced second-unit producer for Steven Spielberg's film production company Amblin Entertainment, involved in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Gremlins, The Goonies, Back to the Future, and the Indiana Jones films, among others. While producing Spielberg's 1989 film Always in Montana, Marshall was approached by Walt Disney Studios producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who personally handed him the script and offered him a directorial debut in the form of the Arachnophobia screenplay, then entitled Along Came the Spider. At the time, Marshall was not particularly looking to direct a film. Nevertheless, the draft immediately appealed to Marshall; he felt that he understood the basic horror elements, having grown up a fan of the genre, and it was not so dramatic or Shakespearean as to stretch him beyond his abilities. He also appreciated the "everyday" aspect of the horror, noting that spiders are "common, everyday occurrences." Marshall saw opportunities for comedy as well. According to the director, comedy was added to lighten the viewing experience and to distinguish Arachnophobia from other horror films; he explained, "it's frightening, but in a fun way," and that "people like to be scared but laughing, like a roller coaster. No one wants to be terrified." He elaborated that laughter was a form of catharsis which balanced the horror. Spielberg was involved with Arachnophobia, being Marshall's mentor, and both are listed as executive producers on the film. Spielberg was "always there," says Marshall, but remained hands-off during production. Nevertheless, Spielberg did provide Marshall with some ideas for shots, including one toward the beginning of the film in which a spider threatens and hisses at entomologist Dr. Atherton. In another scene, Spielberg hid in the extermination truck driven by Goodman's character Delbert McClintock, telling the actor, "We're the only two people who know I'm here." After viewing the first cut, he gave Marshall some suggestions, some of which were incorporated into the film.
Casting and rewrites
Casting was directed by Mike Fenton, with whom both Spielberg and Marshall had long collaborated. Marshall was sure to inform casting prospects at this early stage that the film would involve real spiders; on this news, several actors left auditions or refused to meet when Marshall informed them that the film would involve real spiders. Jeff Daniels, already an established actor, was cast in the lead role of severe arachnophobe Dr. Ross Jennings. After a series of unsuccessful films in the late 80s, including 1986's Something Wild, Daniels found himself in need of a successful movie to continue his career. When his agent notified him of Arachnophobia, to be produced by Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment, Daniels immediately accepted the role, eager to work with such figures as Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. Marshall recalls that Daniels was "up for the game" and agreed after a meeting in which they discussed his interaction with live spiders. Daniels replied, "I'm kind of scared of spiders anyway; I won't be acting a lot of the time." Harley Jane Kozak was cast in the role of Molly Jennings, the protagonist's wife. At that time, Kozak's career was taking off with a small role in 1989's When Harry Met Sally... and Parenthood. When the actress met with Marshall to discuss the role, he asked about her attitude towards spiders, to which she responded that she was fine with them—though she later said that the role was such a big deal that she would not have admitted to any distaste for them. Marshall would then give her the role without need for an audition. Spielberg suggested that actor John Goodman portray eccentric exterminator Delbert McClintock. Goodman recalled in an interview with Vanity Fair that he was cast as Delbert, who would provide the film's comedy relief, after a conversation with Jeffrey Katzenberg. At the time, Goodman had experienced some success with the television series Roseanne and used his time off from the show to portray Delbert. Due to time constraints, Marshall was unable to rehearse Delbert's scenes with Goodman. The actor initially had some difficulty creating a character and personality for Delbert, but as shooting started, he based his performance on both an exterminator he knew and a high school biology teacher that amused him growing up. Goodman had already worked with Daniels on a Butterball turkey commercial. British actor Julian Sands was cast as entomologist Dr. James Atherton, who casting director Mike Fenton found "perfect" for the role. Actor Stuart Pankin, who played Sheriff Lloyd Parsons, received his role with no audition and after a conversation with Marshall, who wanted someone with a comic background. Filmmakers, however, were not yet satisfied with the script. On his first reading, Daniels commented that the dialogue seemed "robotic." Marshall had already shot the film's opening sequence in the rainforests of Venezuela by the time Jakoby's original draft script was sent to screenwriter Wesley Strick. Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, with whom Strick had worked on the film Cape Fear, tasked Strick with rewriting the screenplay over Christmas break of 1989. Marshall wanted the film to resemble more Hitchcock's The Birds, where the eponymous birds served as catalysts to a dramatic story focused on the characters, which inspired his own take on the story. Strick recounts that an Amblin representative delivered him a dozen drafts of the script with studio notes. Working in his garage, Strick read through the drafts and discovered that Arachnophobia had begun as a "messy horror-comedy," but he was "stunned" to find that the story had been rewritten to strip it of horror and humor. The problem, in his appraisal, was that the script had been overly clarified; for instance, the studio wanted the screenplay to specify overtly how the spiders arrived at the barn. To counter this, the writer "focused" the dialogue and restored some of the comedy in Goodman's character Delbert McClintock. He also noticed that the script missed a "big opportunity" for one of the characters to have the titular arachnophobia. Though he at first presumed that the phobia was omitted for a reason, Strick gave Daniels' character Ross Jennings a "raging case" of the phobia, thereby imbuing the story with a dramatic arc. Marshall and Kennedy were thrilled by Strick's revisions. Marshall was particularly impressed with Strick's talent in writing "great characters" and "creepy horror scenes." Daniels was also relieved by Strick's rewrites, saying that Strick's humor "relaxes the audience, so that we can come in and get them again." The screenwriter thereafter remained involved with the production in a limited capacity; Marshall would sometimes phone him from set and bounce around ideas.
Spiders and special effects
Marshall wanted the film to rely on live spiders more than special effects, to imbue realism and believability into the film. He had previously worked with unconventional animals on movie sets; he was placed in charge of the snakes, bugs and rats in the Indiana Jones films, although he found that these creatures were more trainable than spiders. Two kinds of spiders were needed—a hefty tarantula to play the villainous General and smaller spiders to portray his offspring. Arachnophobia's visual effects supervisor, David Sosalla, was tasked with identifying suitable spiders for the roles. Famed "Bug Wrangler" and entomologist Steve Kutcher was hired to handle and manipulate the spiders during filming. Kutcher said that he had no idea how the spider effects would be performed when he first read the script, but that the key was taking advantage of their behavior rather than attempting to train them. Ultimately, at least six spider wranglers were also brought in and assigned at least fifteen spiders each, because some sequences involved several hundred.
Marketing
was the first film released by Hollywood Pictures, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The film constituted Disney's first foray into the horror genre, and the company wanted a family-friendly label to accompany the picture. Producer Richard Vane found that the subject-matter of the film was a cause for concern, saying, "People hear that it's about spiders and it's the last movie they want to see." For this reason, marketing emphasized the comedic and humorous aspects of the film, with the tagline "Eight legs, two fangs and an attitude" and billing as a "thrill-omedy." Actor Stuart Pankin, who plays Sheriff Lloyd Parsons in the film, wrote a song for the film that was bought by the filmmakers and included in the trailer. Initially, the title was misspelled as "Arachniphobia," but this was later corrected. Even then, Hollywood Pictures executives considered changing the name to "Along Came A Spider" due to the word's obscurity and the chosen lighthearted marketing scheme, but ultimately the studio retained the original name. Marshall thought the "Along Came a Spider" title was "too cute," since the film was indisputably horror.
Box office
debuted at #3 behind Ghost and Die Hard 2 with $8 million in its first weekend. Internally, the studio expected the film to make $100 million. The film, though not meeting these expectations, was a financial success, grossing $53,208,180 domestically and going on to gross an additional $30,000,000 in video rentals. This awarded Spielberg the title of fourth wealthiest entertainer of the year, having previously been the second wealthiest. Screenwriter Wesley Strick attributed the film's underwhelming success on the Hollywood axiom that women choose which films to see in theatres, and Daniels believed that the spiders generally kept moviegoers away.
Critical response
On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10, with the consensus "Arachnophobia may not deliver genuine chills, but it's an affectionate, solidly built tribute to Hollywood's classic creature features." In his book, critic Leonard Maltin calls the film a "slick comic thriller" and approves of the acting, warning, "Not recommended for anyone who's ever covered their eyes during a movie." Newsweek associated the film with B movies "about the small town threatened by alien invaders," and said it was well made but "oddly unresonant." Newsweek also wrote that the film "pushes the audience's buttons with Pavlovian finesse, manufacturing industrial-strength adrenaline. First-time director Frank Marshall has long been Steven Spielberg's producer, and he's learned the master's lessons well." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said it made audiences "squirm out of enjoyment, not terror, and it's probably going to be popular with younger audiences - it doesn't pound you over the head with violence. Like the spider itself, it has a certain respect for structure." He listed details in the film that he felt were typical of such films, including "the bright young doctor, whose warnings are ignored" and "the loyal wife and kids," as well as "the usual cats and dogs, necessary for the obligatory scene in which they can sense something even when the humans can't." He gave the film three stars. Meanwhile, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune praised Goodman's performance, saying that it "takes the edge off the horror and makes 'Arachnophobia' palatable for people of all ages." Empire magazine called Arachnophobia an "exciting and thoroughly enjoyable, experience." Entertainment Weekly said that "Arachnophobia is a skin-crawling horror film that never loses its cheeky, throwaway edge." Variety magazine said: "Frank Marshall's sophisticated feature directing debut never indulges in ultimate gross-out effects and carefully chooses both its victims and its means of depicting their dispatch." Not all reviews were positive. Slant Magazine wrote that "Arachnophobia isn’t great filmmaking, appearing to be kept in check by vaguely resembling Spielbergian entertainment without rising to its altitudes. But it’s a pleasant, acutely nostalgic elicitation of the VHS era and the woozy, preadolescent excitement of awaiting the next cranked-out Spielberg Xerox picture." Janet Maslin of The New York Times found that "Arachnophobia falters only when it becomes too broad, as in a dopey nod to Psycho that captures none of Hitchcock's formal elegance, and in various minor characters who serve as comic grotesques." The film also has similarities with the 1977 film Kingdom of the Spiders. Producer Igo Kantor hinted in an interview with Fangoria magazine that Arachnophobia, which Spielberg produced, bears several similarities to Kingdom of the Spiders. "I thought it was a copy," Kantor stated, "but you don't go and sue Spielberg!" The film drew protests from some people interested in spiders, as they believed the film tarnished the public image of spiders. Kozak recalled reading headlines of moviegoers having fainting episodes during viewing. Marshall and Kennedy recalled watching studio executives and audiences equally gasping at the movie, which signaled their success in the horror elements.
Home media
went on to experience success in the home video market. The film was first released on VHS on March 6, 1991 by Touchstone Home Video, which also released the film on Laserdisc format in 1991. The film was then released as a bare-bones DVD on June 15, 1999, and on Blu-ray on September 25, 2012. VHS and DVD releases by Hollywood/Buena Vista Home Video curiously omit the original poster art's spider from their cover design; however, the Blu-ray now reinstates it.
Other media
, Arachnophobia novel, and Arachnophobia video game Remco, an American toy company, produced a limited line of figurines of Big Bob, the Goliath Bird Eater tarantula which portrayed the arachnid antagonist of the film. A tie-in graphic novel, Arachnophobia: Official Movie Adaptation, was released with the movie. Notably, the characters in the comic book bear little resemblance to the actors who portray them in the film. A novelization of Arachnophobia was released on August 1, 1990, written by author Nicholas Edwards. A video game version of Arachnophobia was released in 1991, for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and DOS. The video game is only loosely based on the film and continues its story in a tongue-in-cheek manner. In it, the player controls Delbert McClintock as he clears spider infestations in further towns beyond Canaima, using such tools as his spray gun, "Bug Bombs," Aerosol Flamethrowers, and a "Bugometer." If the player completes these levels, the United Nations assigns him to exterminate the remaining spiders in South America. The game received lukewarm reception.
Thematically, Arachnophobia is about facing one's fears, but it particularly exploits the psychological aspects of fear and comedy. According to psychologist Neil Malamuth of UCLA, "the nature of suspense films is that it really involves your physiological, emotional reactions. In this case, we're talking about a particular fear of spiders, one of ...
Jul 18, 1990 · The movie begins in the mysterious rain forests of South America, where a new species of spider is discovered. It’s a formidable beast, about the size of a baseball mitt, and it has a deadly bite. It kills one of the expedition members and then hitches a ride back to California inside his coffin.
A new species of South American killer spider hitches a lift to a California town in a coffin and starts to breed, leaving a trail of deaths that puzzle and terrify young Dr. Ross Jennings, who is newly arrived in town with his family. In the jungle of the Venezuelan Amazonas, the specialist in spiders, Doctor James Atherton, is researching an ...
Jul 18, 1990 · When a giant Venezuelan spider discovered by entomologist Dr. James Atherton (Julian Sands) finds its way to a rural California town, it draws the residents into a web of hair-raising horror.
After a nature photographer (Mark L. Taylor) dies on assignment in Venezuela, a poisonous spider hitches a ride in his coffin to his hometown in rural California, where arachnophobe Dr. Ross...
- (45)
- Mystery & Thriller, Comedy
- PG-13
