Customer Reviews

Arachnophobia - Blu-ray

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Have seen this movie many times, even when it first came out on tape. It is one of those hidden dark-comedy gems and Jeff Daniels is brilliant. Highly recommend even for those who hate spiders!

this got a 4 outta 5 stars ONLY because the dvd was an original recording and it almost comes out sort of 'pixelated' on my flatscreen, but as far as the seller goes? by all means, i highly recommend!

THIS MOVIE IS MORE OF A COMEDY THAN A HORROR. JOHN GOOODMAN IS SO FUNNY. THERE ARE SOME JUMPY MOMENTS WITH THE LITTLE KILLER SPIDERS, BUT FOR THE MOST PART, IT IS JUST A GOOD OLD COMEDY MOVIE.

Director: Frank Marshall
Cast: Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Harley Jane Kozak.
Running Time: 110 minutes.
Rated PG-13 for arachnid violence and language.

In true Spielberg-formula fashion, director Frank Marshall (who produced many of Spielberg's works during the 1980's) creates a tense, atmospheric thriller that has enough scares and laughs for two movies. A deadly South American spider is accidentally braught to a small, country town--the spider proceeds to kill of many of the inhabitants and gives birth to hundreds of venomous spawn. Small-town doctor Jeff Daniels, who happens to be horrified of the eight-legged beasts, must conjure up enough strength to save his community, and more importantly his family from the threatening bugs.

John Goodman is down-right hilarious as the Rambo-esque terminator, using a splendid script to invoke many laughs throughout the picture. Daniels is equally good as the tormented M.D., running around like a petrified girl scout at the beginning of the film, but ultimately encounters the mother-spider for the showdown of all man vs. spider showdowns. A fun, exciting scare fare that is actually viewable for most of the family due to its fairly low amounts of violence and profanity.

If ever a movie deserved the title arachnophobia, it is definitly this one. I saw this when I kid, and still have a huge fear of spiders, thanks to this movie. Although really fearful of spiders, I love this movie because it plays so beautifully into it. The last 15-30 minutes will make anyones skin crawl, and I definitly recommened this to anyone, even those with arachnophobia.

I still get the heeby jeebies when watching this movie even after so many years after first seeing it and having horrific nightmares for days afterwards even though I've grown to appreciate spiders more nowadays. The reason this movie is so able to scare is because of it's suprisingly realistic nature of dangerous spiders with extremely toxic venom being able to be transported to different countries.

In this case, a species of spider from South America hitches a ride aboard a ship and ends up breeding with the domestic house spiders in the United States and the hatchling spiders start killing residents of a small California town and time is running out to stop the spiders from spreading and breeding with more domestic house spiders and enabling this dangerous species to spread all over the United States.

This is a really terrifying and very well thought-out movie of immense proportions. It truly demonstrates why it's a very bad idea to bring 'alien' species to other lands other than their own native habitats.

Go and get this movie if you want a scary but fun ride. Arachnophobes though should steer clear. For everyone else, welcome aboard!

Out of all the movies that have been re-released out on DVD, this has to be one of the ones I'm most grateful for. It's been years since I saw this movie last, but when I saw it for sale, I could not resisit the urge to buy it. This film is fantastic. Jeff Daniels is surprisingly good, and helps to carry the movie along well. The entire cast is rather zany, and that really makes it a great movie to watch. The plot revolves around incredibly venomous spiders from Argentina who have cross-breeded with a common house spider here in America. Jeff Daniels plays a doctor who suffers from arachnophobia. Hence you can see where this is going. Daniels ineviatbly has to face his fear and the results are funny, tense, and frightening. If you are afraid of spiders, I wouldn't watch this movie, it seriously can frighten you. But, John Goodman appears as Delbert to liven things up and make the atmosphere more humerous. Topped off with a very good soundtrack, this movie is far beyond your average horror flick. Sit back and enjoy this one, it's excellent.

Out of all the movies that have been re-released out on DVD, this has to be one of the ones I'm most grateful for. It's been years since I saw this movie last, but when I saw it for sale, I could not resisit the urge to buy it. This film is fantastic. Jeff Daniels is surprisingly good, and helps to carry the movie along well. The entire cast is rather zany, and that really makes it a great movie to watch. The plot revolves around incredibly venomous spiders from Argentina who have cross-breeded with a common house spider here in America. Jeff Daniels plays a doctor who suffers from arachnophobia. Hence you can see where this is going. Daniels ineviatbly has to face his fear and the results are funny, tense, and frightening. If you are afraid of spiders, I wouldn't watch this movie, it seriously can frighten you. But, John Goodman appears as Delbert to liven things up and make the atmosphere more humerous. Topped off with a very good soundtrack, this movie is far beyond your average horror flick. Sit back and enjoy this one, it's excellent.

Bad News: this kind of movie isn't typically very good. If you like semi horror/suspense movies, it's great. Just be aware that it's that kind of movie.

"Arachnophobia" is a suspense movie with all the elements of a classic horror movie: a small town, a Bad Thing happening, a local hero (Jeff Daniels) that nobody wants to believe, a wise professor to help him out, a jolly fellow for plucky comic relief, and a man vs. beast showdown at the end. But instead of trying to scare you with an extremely scary monster or super-human psychopath, this movie uses more tactfull suspense (and a more realistic enemy--there are some pretty nasty real spiders out there). Everyone shakes in their boots waiting for the venomous spider to bite the old guy's toe, because they just KNOW it's going to happen.

If you only buy movies that are really good and plan to watch 100 times, just rent this one. If you are even the slightest sort of movie buff and have ever bought a movie to fill a "gap" in the collection, Arachnaphobia is a fun, ocasionally funny, and creepy movie that uses classic elements with style.

This is a solid piece of quality filmaking and i believe it presses all the right buttons, if not being exactly spectacular.
The plot: an expedition team to the deepest jungles of South America discover what they believe to be a new species of spider. On the way back to camp, a gargantuan tarantula hitches a ride on the team's equipment housing, and promptly bites a member of the crew, killing him on the spot with it's deadly poison. Unknown to the team, the same spider stows away in the man's coffin. The exact same coffin is shipped back to a small sleepy little wilderness town, where by coincidence an arachnophobic doctor played by Jeff Daniels has just moved in. The large spider escapes from the coffin and mates with a local spider, creating hundreds of deadly-poisonous baby spiders and mayhem ensues all over the town.
Contrary to the image this all may conjure up, this is actually a well constructed and clever little fim, which instead of the recently avaliable on video and DVD 'Eight-Legged Freaks', uses suspense instead of action as it's main weapon. And it uses it well. Obviously, comparisions between arachnophobia and ELF will be, of course, made, and if i had to make one i would say this is the marginally better film. It is not a spectacular film, and contains little big set-pices or FX, but is heavy on dialogue, suspense and does produce shocks a-plenty. The spiders in question are not huge as in ELF, but tiny and deadly poisonous. There are only a handful of deaths in the film, which may seem low, but a suspenseful film like this does not need gore or action to be scary. As in most horror-type films, it's what you can't see that is the most scary, rather than what you can. This is a film that will have you checking all your dark corners of the house with a long broom handle to make sure they are free of spiders totally, and frightened me when i first saw it, being a sort of low-case arachnophobe myself.
This film is actually hugely different to most of it's competitors in the genre, not FX laden or gore-splattered, but finely set up and crafted. Although it is somewhat wasted on DVD, due to the type of film it is, it is a great addition to any collection and i would highly recommend this to most people, particularly horror buffs or people who, indeed, like this sort of thing. I think arachnophobia is one of the best horror-comedies ever made, being as it is, a scary yet tongue-in-cheek film. Arachnphobia is definately a fine film, and is not too scary to be a family film either, making it a versatile piece of cinema. A word of warning though: do NOT show this to any pople who are very highly arachnphobic, as the end sequence will have them sleepless nights for a long time afterwards.