Arachnophobia is one of those movies that I would watch over and over again as a kid. One of the stores where I would rent movies from as a kid had screens all over the place and I remember seeing the promo for Arachnophobia and I was desperate to rent it. Well, one weekend we did and it was one of those movies that the whole family had a great time with, even now I think that this is a very fun movie that is great for a family movie night.
How to Download Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia was released on July 18, 1990. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
The Perfect Blend of Comedy and Horror
A huge part of the fun of Arachnophobia is the tone that the movie has. I would say that something like Lake Placid is the best comparison for what we have here and with how much I love Lake Placid, that is one hell of a compliment. This is a mixture of comedy and some light horror, I think kids aged around 8 and up probably would be ok watching this, well unless they are terrified of spiders of course.
The Deadly Spider Invasion
The movie starts in Venezuela where an explorer finds a new species of spider that they think is from the prehistoric era! This is no normal spider, this new species actually lives in a group where they work as a unit, kind of like ants. The spiders that they find are seen as solider spiders as they have no sex organs. Turns out that these spiders are very deadly and one bite kills one of the team and the spider stows away in the coffin, which takes him to California.
Meet the Hero: Ross vs. The Spiders
In California, we meet our main character, Ross, played by Jeff Daniels (101 Dalmatians, Dumb and Dumber To, The Martian, The Divergent Series: Allegiant) who is a doctor and who has just moved to this new town. Ross has a bad fear of spiders so he truly could not have moved to this place at a worse time as this border hopping prehistoric spider has found its way into Ross’s barn. After having some afternoon delight with a regular spider, a crap ton of these new deadly spiders are born and they start causing chaos over the town.
Fighting Back Against the Infestation
Thankfully, Ross is not a moron and he soon realizes that people are dying as a result of these spider bites and he makes a call and all is revealed about this new species of spider. Ross and a team, including John Goodman’s exterminator, Delbert team up to try and find the nests so that they can kill the king and queen spiders and put a stop to this infestation before this species can do even more damage, but on a much larger scale.
A Creepy-Crawly Classic
I would not say that I am scared of spiders, but I find them creepy as hell and I sure as hell brush one away if it is near or on me. However, after watching Arachnophobia, it really does make you a little more, let’s just say anxious if you see a spider soon after. The movie has some great laughs and a few really fun jump scares too. In all, Arachnophobia is just a super fun time and I am very pleased with the Blu-Ray I picked up which is a nice upgrade from the very old DVD that I had. There is talk of a remake coming and I am very interested to see what they do with it.
