DVDizzy Forum

I've just come into contact with some really worthless people at this message board who are trying to tell me Arachnophobia was lame. This is like FINGERS ON A CHALKBOARD right in my ears - so wrong. Now, you're all (who've seen it) going to have to be really big about this and admit truthfully now, you were scared by it - right? You know you jumped. You were creeped out. The hairs on the back of your neck stood up!!! And most of all, the movie is not lame. Is it?

I guess it all depends - do spiders bother you? If they do, you'll definitely find Arachnophobia scary enough. If spiders don't really bother you, Arachnophobia is just okay. Might be worth a rental, that's all.

BTW - Spiders don't really bother me much, but when I saw this in theaters back in 1990, it was fun watching the audience jump and scream during the movie.

I did not think the movie was very scary

It was a good thriller, I never thought of it to be scary. It was more or less funny with the exterminator trying to spray that little spider with poison and it wouldn't die. So he just stepped on it... priceless.

It is a boring movie for me, maybe it`s just that I`m used now to the new horror movies... just like the original Exorcist...the only scary part there was when the phone rings and I awaked

Arachnophobia wasn't a scary movie and I saw it when it came out in 1990 at that time.

It is more of a comedy-thriller than a horror film. If you are creeped out by spiders then it might make you cringe in spots. For me, and I own this film, I find it to be entertaining as a comedy, not as a horror film.

Well... at least everyone's being honest.

Sorry, but I have to agree and say that I also found this film to be be a bit lame, everyone seems to hype it as a terrifying thriller, but I find it almost slapstick at points.

Well, it depends on what you class as "Scary". Personally I don't class "jump" moments as scary. Any film can have a "jump" moment - even a slapstick comedy. You just need to get the music and timing right.

I class movies with disturbing roots at their story as "scary". Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has no "jump" moments, but I find it deeply disturbing and scary for example. The whole film is just nightmareish.

As for Arachnophobia, I did find it scary at the time, because the central basis for the storyline is - if not probable - possible. And if it did happen in an area near you, it would be scary as hell.

That said, I probably wouldn't find it so scary if I saw it today, as I've become more cynical about such unlikely things.

Well I'll admit the basic storyline includes scientific facts that are either incorrect or impossible. But that's part of where the fear comes from.

It's sort of based on the abnormal everyday experience. I mean, this movie just went all-out to put these spiders everywhere. Like cockroaches, the idea was that they infest an area and you don't know it, but they are all around. Then, the film puts those killer spiders any old place and these spiders have the instinct to kill basically anyone. They are caught between a crossbreed of spider where one breed roams and is docile, and the other breed that is both predatorial and territorial. So these spiders roam and claim any area that they are in, their territory, so they will strike both to protect themselves, and for the hunt, basically.

The rest is movie magic. Because it's very psychological. Knowing spiders can be anywhere, the movie choses specific places where because they know they can get away with it. It builds up the Jeff Daniels character with an intense subconscious fear of spiders as dominant over him, sets up the fear of children in danger in several scenes, and just mounts and mounts and mounts with suspense like a pressure cooker before exploding, or being released. And this film really is a rollercoaster. The music is both jolting when the spiders are moving about onscreen, and angelic when they are just waiting. And that shift from one fast cue to a slow cue and back again (or vice verse), is both menacing, and unsettling. Which is why perhaps the experience of watching it is a little unnerving. Which is why I think most people say it's lame. But at one point or another during the course of the movie, they thought it was effective.

Yes the movie was a little slapstick and humorous, but that's all the more in the horror tradition. The horror tradition is usually to have comic relief to try and change the tone of the audience's experiences - it's gets them right where they're best suited to be shocked or gotten by that next scare. And it was done well, because John Goodman is funny.

This movie is the one that makes your skin crawl. lol I hate spiders but I like this movie.

I saw this movie when I was younger, and it really freaked me out, I've never been a spider fan so I found this movie to be really horrible.

I've no plans to watch it in the near future lol.

i saw it a few days ago i think it was on amc or was it usa anyway i think its more funny then scary

I saw this movie once. That was enough. I'm extremely scared of spiders. Instead of killing them I'm the type that will run from them. I just don't like them at all. I didn't really find the movie scary. I'm not sure what I would call it. The spiders looked too real for me...not the big one but all of the little ones that infested the houses. Yuck...it just makes my skin crawl.

I haven't seen this one in a long time, but I remember it being funny. I saw it in the theater and people were screaming at the smallest little spider. It was hillarious!

Laz wrote:John Goodman is funny.

Of course, that's why he played an exterminator in the movie. I can't think of anyone who would of been better playing that part than him.

I forgot who the main character was... I'll figure it out.

Zoltack wrote:

Laz wrote:John Goodman is funny.

Of course, that's why he played an exterminator in the movie. I can't think of anyone who would of been better playing that part than him.

I forgot who the main character was... I'll figure it out.

I can Rosanne would have been better, wait that is a different thread.

I totally couldnt sit through this movie. Spiders give me the heeby-jeebies!

I knew there was a reason why this movie was successful. The reason why I had to ask is because for some reason this movie wasn't on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments or even the U.K. Scariest Moments in Film (Channel 4, on their website too). And that's just plain ridiculous, the movie is TERRIFYING.