Edwin Arnaudin
I couldn’t wait to see Arachnophobia in theaters.
Never mind that I was six years old (almost six and a half!) and, as my parents reminded me, would almost certainly experience my worst nightmares yet as a direct result. There was something about the film’s relentless ad campaign in the summer of 1990, particularly the TV spots’ playful, Gremlins-like score and the sight of John Goodman as a goofy exterminator that had my full attention. Sadly, being reliant on Mom and/or Dad for transportation to the local multiplex, that dream went unfulfilled.
Flash forward 35 years — Frank Marshall’s feature directorial debut celebrates that milestone on July 18 — and multiple viewings later, and I can safely say that my youthful enthusiasm was warranted. Had I been brave enough back then to make it to the end credits, I likely would have appreciated the film’s spider-centric ick and cartoonish small-town characters. And as it turns out, those qualities remain Arachnophobia’s central appeals, though there’s a little more going on than basic B-movie fun.
Released three years prior to Jurassic Park, the film initially plays like a testing ground for executive producer Steven Spielberg’s dino-thriller interests. Employing a combination of boat and helicopter to reach the gorgeous, deep jungles of Venezuela, Marshall crafts a clear predecessor to the epic initial journey into Isla Nublar that serves as a worthy Amblin Entertainment bridge between the first three Indiana Jones movies and Jurassic Park. He even has his own scientist (Julian Sands’ Dr. Atherton) who, to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, is so tragically preoccupied with whether or not he could discover a new species of spider that he doesn’t stop to think if he should.
However, Marshall soon reveals that his interests align more closely with Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, 1950s creature features, and Cold War era invasion movies. Working from a solid script by Don Jakoby (John Carpenter’s Vampires) and Wesley Strick (Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear), the director intelligently establishes the mystery of the South American spiders through their giant webs, then showcases their threat potential via their intelligence, aggressive behavior, and immunity to poison. The gruesomeness of the soldier-esque “General” spider’s bite and venom quickly follow, preceded by eerie glimpses of its approach and terrifying POV shots as it nears its human prey. And the crew’s excellent body horror makeup effects accentuate the danger these creatures pose.
The eight-legged suspense is extraordinarily well handled, but wouldn’t be half as fun without Arachnophobia’s shift from Venezuelan scientific exploration to small-town shenanigans. In a scene of comically bad luck, new town doctor Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), his wife Molly (Harley Jane Kozak), and their two children arrive at their new home in rural Canaima, California, the instant after the stowaway General spider lands in their woods. Naturally, Ross suffers from the titular fear, setting up an entertaining full-length arc of him facing it via extreme immersion therapy.
In one of the most successful genre fusions, Ross and Molly “bless” their new home by having (offscreen) sex, during which Marshall cuts to the property’s barn where the house spider Molly rescued that afternoon and the General engage in some furry-legged foreplay. (Did Joe Dante ghost direct this scene?) As the spiders’ venomous offspring begin lowering Canaima’s human population, comparable humor awaits as Ross discovers that his Yale education and big city background make him as much of an outsider threat to his new neighbors as the spiders.
Similar to the arrival of Tippi Hedren’s Melanie Daniels coinciding with the local ornithological community going nuts in The Birds, this fellow San Franciscan has the poor timing of starting his practice while the spiders wreak havoc. And though there’s a perfectly logical scientific explanation for the arachnids’ behavior, it can’t stop the power of small-town gossip from labeling him “Dr. Death.”
Doling out this ignorance is a classic collection of Podunk characters, including Canaima’s fuddy-duddy, shit-talking doctor (Henry Jones), dimwitted sheriff (Stuart Pankin), blockhead high school football coach (Peter Jason), and mortician (Roy Brocksmith), who snacks more frequently than Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11. Operating on his own wavelength, Goodman’s Delbert McClintock hilariously treats everyone with contempt and downplays the arachnids’ threat until the evidence is too overwhelming to ignore. The epitome of a rural eccentric, this motormouthed know-it-all is even accompanied in his first two scenes by a saxophone-heavy, smooth jazz theme, as if viewers have stumbled upon the latest episode of an NBC sitcom.
It’s this Andy Griffith Show quirkiness that grounds the movie and transforms its simple humans vs. monsters conflict into a battle between yokels and outsiders — one in which alleged harbinger of doom Ross has to take a stand and prove he belongs. In the process, the film lives up to its creepy potential and complements its charming, Capra-esque conflict with plenty of gross-out terror that leaves a lasting mark.
In the vein of Jaws making one question being in the ocean, Psycho turning one’s next shower into a paranoia session, and Halloween convincing you that the shadow in the yard is indeed someone who’s going to kill you, Arachnophobia induces a state of heightened sensitivity, complete with phantom alerts that a spider is most definitely crawling on your skin.
If only more movies could make us feel that miserable.
“Arachnophobia” is available for digital rental or purchase.
