In 1990, Frank Marshall, who had long produced movies for some guy named Steven Spielberg, managed that last trick quite successfully. Arachnophobia (1990), Marshall's directorial debut, is a horror picture about killer spiders that's part funny, part frightening, and wall-to-wall icky. It's so infectiously goofy, you forgive any first-timer missteps.
Arachnophobia, in case you don't know, is a psychological term meaning "an abnormal fear of spiders." But you won't think there's anything abnormal about it once Marshall starts tossing scores of creepy-crawlies at you. Prepare yourself if you're having trouble at the outset: the spiders only get more frightening as the movie progresses!
After a lengthy prologue during which an entomologist (Julian Sands) manages to accidentally transfer a dangerous type of spider (in reality a harmless, but unbelievably ferocious-looking, Delena) to the U.S. from South America, we meet Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels). Jennings is a mild-mannered physician who's taken his family out of the big city and re-settled in what he thinks is a more family-friendly environment. Soon Jennings gets entangled in a disturbing mystery when blood-drained corpses start popping up around town.
The good doctor, who - unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the audience -- suffers from acute arachnophobia, will soon discover that those menacing South American spiders are behind the deaths. And they get bigger when they kill. Even a comically gun-slinging exterminator (John Goodman) can't stop the onslaught of spider nastiness, which eventually reaches a level that's guaranteed to freak out even the sturdiest viewer.
By the time he directed Arachnophobia, Marshall had already had a hand in producing (usually with his wife and business partner, Kathleen Kennedy) such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Poltergeist (1982), Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and all the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Back to the Future sequels. He certainly could have rested on his producers' laurels, but he took the leap and became a bankable director.
Somewhat unexpectedly, given the zeal with which he pulls off a standard genre entry, Marshall's follow-up to Arachnophobia was Alive (1993), a critically lauded tale of plane-crash survival that featured disturbing scenes of do-or-die cannibalism. Marshall's sense of ambition certainly hasn't waned since then. His next project is an adventure picture set in the far reaches of Antarctica. It's unclear at this point if squeamish viewers will have anything to worry about with that one, but you never know. Someone might eat a huge spider.
Director: Frank Marshall
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy and Richard Vane
Executive Producer: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Don Jakoby, Wesley Strick (based on the story by Don Jakoby and Al Williams)
Cinematography: Mikael Salomon
Editing: Michael Kahn
Music: Trevor Jones Production Design: James Bissell
Art Design: Christopher Burian-Mohr
Special Effects: Matt Sweeney and Chris Walas
Set Design: Carl J. Stensel
Costume Design: Jennifer L. Parsons
Makeup: James L. McCoy and David Quashnick
Technical Advisers: Steven R. Kutcher, Arnold Peterson, and Chuck Christensen
Cast: Jeff Daniels (Dr. Ross Jennings), Harley Jane Kozak (Molly Jennings), John Goodman (Delbert McClintock), Julian Sands (Dr. James Atherton), Stuart Pankin (Sheriff Parsons), Brian McNamara (Chris Collins), Mark L. Taylor (Jerry Manley), Henry Jones (Dr. Sam Metcalf), Peter Jason (Henry Beechwood), James Handy (Milton Briggs).
C-103m. Letterboxed.
by Paul Tatara
