One of my favorite movies of all time is Arachnophobia, the movie for those of us who love and hate big spiders. The movie is great because of the way it skillfully weaves together comedy, terror, and great drama. Just when you are relieved that everything will be o.k., a mass of venomous spiders comes to prove you wrong.
The comedy is provided by none other than John Candy. In this movie, Candy is the hero, a cigar chomping exterminator who feels that beating the evil South American spitting spiders will be his greatest challenge. Rather than shirking away from the fight, he comes at the spiders with a double barrel of special formula spidercide that he made just for the occasion.
Yet don't get too carried away with Candy's comedy. John Cusak delivers an Oscar caliber performance as the local town doctor whose house becomes the incubator for the spiders. You feel that you are right there with him as he battles to save his family from the clutches of the terrifying spiders. His screams echo in our hearts as he ends up face to face with the giant spider mother.
The setting of the film is in rural Iowa, although some scenes were filmed on location in the rainforests of Brazil. I also would like to note the animal trainers who controlled the 2,000 real spiders used in the movie. They really know their business. Personally, I would be very hesitant to work with so many little, evil bugs. But these guys were able to pull off one of the best and most underrated feature films of all time.
You can probably get it at a video store of find it online. Watch it today, but take my advice, keep the lights on!
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