Arachnophobia (PG-13, 1990)

On a scientific expedition in the jungles of Venezuela, a luckless young photographer is fatally bitten by a nasty, fist-sized spider, unknown to modern science, dwelling in the rainforest canopy. When the dead man's body is shipped back to his small Californian hometown, the spider goes with it, mates with a common North American spider, and ends up siring a whole colony of killer arachnids, centered in the barn of a newly arrived family in town headed by young Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels). Soon townsfolk around Dr. Jennings start mysteriously dropping dead -- felled by the venom of the growing army of spiders. As Dr. Jennings searches frantically for a cause, a major complication is that he happens to have longstanding arachnophobia, a crippling fear of spiders.

Hailing from Steven Spielberg's production company, with a touch of the Gremlins vibe of little monsters doing big damage, ARACHNOPHOBIA is an undeniably fun ride. It actually plays on a number of fears, spiders being only the most obvious and marketable to the thrill-hungry audience. For grownups there's the additional angst of the phobic hero (a very nice everyman role for Jeff Daniels), a transplant from the big city who finds his new job opportunity evaporating, his new house purchase a wreck, and his new neighbors turning against him. That's a very Hitchcockian touch, and a lot of critics did compare Arachnophobia to The Birds, though this movie is much more comical in its characterizations and mayhem.

Studio: Hollywood Pictures
Director: Frank Marshall
Cast: Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Julian Sands
Genre: Action/Adventure
Run time: 103 minutes
Theatrical release: July 18, 1990
DVD release: June 15, 1999
MPAA Rating: PG-13