Night 10 Creature Feature Night/Julian Sands Memorial Night II
“A web would indicate an arachnoid presence.”
Arachnophobia is both fun and frightening, finding just the right balance between humor and horror. The premise is B-grade material, but in the hands of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment company, with longtime Spielberg producer Frank Marshall in the director’s chair, the result is a creepy, crawly, but not too scary or too gross film about killer spiders that invade a small country town. If you indeed suffer from the titular affliction, it might be a lot to handle, as much for the close ups of spiders as for the spider facts about how many live in a house at any given time. Jeff Daniels plays a doctor who has recently moved his family from the big city to the small rural community of Canaima, an idyllic small town if there ever was one. Dr. Jennings (Daniels) made the decision to move reluctantly, he much prefers city life and has arachnophobia from an encounter with a spider when he was a toddler. His wife (Harley Jane Kozak) takes a picture of a large, impressive spider web in the old barn on their property. Of course, neither knows that living in their barn and cellar is a rare ultra deadly spider that killed a photographer on an expedition in South America and hitched a ride in the photographer’s coffin to their town. That spider crossbred with a local spider and the killer offspring are spreading throughout the town. The bodies of healthy people start piling up and Dr. Jennings’s calls for autopsies and an investigation are ignored by the lazy sheriff and established old doctor. Eventually an arachnid specialist, Professor Atherton (Julian Sands), his assistant (Brian McNamara), and a slyly goofy exterminator (John Goodman), join in the battle to save the town and stop the killer spiders from spreading. Yes, this is JAWS but with spiders. On the human side, the trio of Daniels, Sands, and Goodman are what make the film work. Daniels grounds the film as an everyman out of his element in a new town and forced to confront the thing he fears the most. Julian Sands is not in the movie a lot but his scenes leave an impression and serve an important purpose. Sands grounds the film on a scientific level, bringing spider facts and plausibility to the whole scenario. His Professor Atherton character is a take on the “mad scientist” archetype; he doesn’t go over the top or come to side with the monster like a typical mad scientist, but his obsession proves to be his undoing. Also, the scenes with Jeff Daniels and Julian Sands together have a lot of feathery blonde hair going on. John Goodman as Delbert the exterminator maybe took a note or two from Bill Murray’s groundskeeper character in Caddyshack, but Goodman of course makes the performance his own. He doesn’t ground the movie so much as provide important comic relief. The rest of the performers play everything straight, but Goodman’s character lets you know that it is okay to laugh. He also gets to be a hero in addition to being comic relief, which is very cool. I remember seeing Arachnophobia in theaters when I was 5 years old and being so scared that I was crying and hiding my face in my mom’s shoulder. Then I remember her telling me to look at the screen when Goodman showed up at the end with “private stock” of extra poisonous pesticide to kill the spiders. My 5-year-old self was very relieved. On the spider side, the movie works because director Marshall and cinematographer Mikael Salomon find a way to shoot the spiders that makes them menacing instead of puny and squishable. The close-ups of the spiders, both real and prosthetic, are creepy and gross. The shots of people narrowly avoiding the spiders as the score builds then stops abruptly are cliched but also work because, for most, the thought of coming that close to any kind of spider is enough to enhance the horror. Even the less effective shots of fake spiders dangling from strings—I mean webs—still work because of most people’s natural aversion to spiders. The practical effects of the giant “general” spider and the pulsating egg sac hold up very well. Arachnophobia is aware of the paradoxical legitimacy of a fear of spiders (because some are poisonous and potentially deadly) and its absurdity (because they are so small and we are so big) and leans into that. Characters reach into corners or are frustratingly unaware of the deadly spider in the foreground while they wander about unaware in the background. These scenes simultaneously create tension and humor and then the movie lets you know it is okay to feel both. Despite the close ups of fake and real spiders, the movie never gets gross or goes for easy schlock sensation. This is a not-so-scary movie that viewers of most ages can enjoy, but scary enough to be an effective horror. Most of all it is still entertaining after more than 30 years. 
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