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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 5247
Released: June 15, 1999 |
| Our Price: $8.05 |
| Used Price: $5.50 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment deliver the year's most electrifying big-screen roller coaster ride of a movie! Everyone is afraid of something ... for Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), his phobia is downright embarrassing. But when he moves his family to a small town, the one thing that bugs him most is now harming the townspeople at an alarming rate. For this unlikely hero, overcoming a childhood fear of spiders might just save the community, but it may already be too late! Directed by Frank Marshall (Executive Producer, BACK TO THE FUTURE, Producer, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) and also starring John Goodman, this critically acclaimed breathtaking hit entertains with its terrific mix of thrills, chills, and laughter!
Description of Arachnophobia:
Most horror movies depend on giant monsters; Arachnophobia gets just as many thrills out of creatures only a few inches long. A scientist (Julian Sands, Warlock, A Room with a View) who's hunting a vicious new species of spider in Venezuela unknowingly ships one back to the U.S. It ends up in a small town where a new doctor (Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Something Wild) is trying to establish a practice. When his patients start suddenly dying, Daniels suspects spiders--but no one takes him seriously because he's had a phobia about spiders since childhood. Arachnophobia builds a slow but relentless sense of menace and creepiness, mixed with a sneaky satire of small town life. If you're squeamish about spiders, this will get under your skin. Also featuring the ever-dependable John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink) as a comically zealous exterminator. --Bret Fetzer
Arachnophobia Reviews:
Just barely within the tolerance level for real arachnophobics 
2008-07-28 - Arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias, and one of the
strongest among those subject to it. I tend to be one of those and so
have never much enjoyed horror films featuring giant or menacing
spiders. Although I was uncomfortable during "Arachnophobia", it was
tolerable. This and "Eight Legged Freaks" are my two favorite spider
films.
"Arachnophobia" benefits from an excellent script, great casting,
uniformly good performances, and the injection of enough comic relief
to calm anyone from getting too uncomfortable. Jeff Daniels is as
reliable as ever, but it's John Goodman's gung-ho exterminator
character that balances what would otherwise be a really uncomfortable
movie. This isn't to say that it's light entertainment, as was "Eight
Legged Freaks". It's not, it's a real horror film. But it will only
make you squirm, not run for the theater exit.
Great spider horror film! 
2008-06-20 - A new kind of spider is accidently taken back to a small town where it mates with a normal house spider. You can already tell what's gonna happen. People dying. These aren't any ordinary spiders. These are spiders that if they bite you-you're dead within 10 seconds. It's that scary!!!
I don't really have arachnophobia. But after watching this movie, I think I did for a while! This movie is just full of creepiness. After watching it I think we all feel a little different about spiders! If you love spiders and enjoy watching them crawl on you-this is the perfect movie for you. For any of you out there who have arachnophobia-I'd stay clear of this movie if I were you!
Arachnophobia
2007-12-20 - Arachnophobia is the only movie that I have ever screamed at the top of my lungs at and that has made me hide under a blanket. I'm not even really afraid of spiders! It also has the perfect amount of comic relief. I've never giggled at a movie I thought was so scarey.
Funny Horror?
2007-10-18 - Reminded me of how much fun Horror movies used to be when I was a kid. My daughter reminded of one of my favorite lines in the movie. A bug lands on the photographer's leg. He asks "Does it bite?" The professor's reply, "They kill Mr. Manley in sufficient numbers". Maybe it was the actor Sands' delivery and the British accent that appealed to me. Perhaps this was a subtle hint of what was to come. Another funny tidbit is the scene where the Rainforest spider is transported by an unfortunate crow hoping to make it a meal; oops not quite as the Crow drops to the ground landing the spider directly on our movie's hero's property. I like the morbid humor mixed with down home folksiness of the mortician and his wife as they attempt to shut off the world and curl up with popcorn and enjoy their favorite tv show, Wheel of Fortune. Only to become victims of the intrusive hitchhiking rainforest spider's brood. The filmmaker kept the movie not too scary and not too funny. Whatever his "just right" formula is, makes this one of my favorite movies. Pure entertainment.
Watch it with the lights on!
2007-09-11 - My first exposure to this film was overhearing a bunch of my fellow students at UCO describing going 'fishing' with a plastic tarantula at a local theatre's showing of "Arachnophobia." Yes, the unlucky theatre-goers caught by the bait had the predictable reaction.
Notwithstanding their illicit activities, my classmates said the film was one of the funniest they'd ever seen.
I was dubious, but based on their recommendation, I went to see "Arachnophobia" one weekday afternoon at the same theatre where they'd pulled their prank.
First off, I have never been to a show where the threatre staff is standing at the door watching for suspicious bundles. Anything long that could house a fishing pole or whatnot had to be checked.
Then, when the previews were over, the houselights never went down. One of my fellow audience members went to ask why and the theatre management announced that due to some mischief they were keeping the lights up.
Plus--we had an usher in attendance throughout the whole show.
Yep, my classmates were right. I did laugh my head off. "Arachnophobia" pokes fun at every killer spider movie as well as our own fear of spiders. I went back to see the film again and still laughed.
"Snakes on a Plane" caused me to revisit some of my favorite parody films. Started out on a rainy day with the lights off. My Siamese cat jumped up behind me and I screamed like a highschool girl.
Yep--I put all the lights on in the room and I was back to laughing again. After all these years, "Arachnophobia" is still a lot of fun and one of the best parodies I have ever seen. The cat even liked it--he had a great time trying to catch the spiders on the screen.
Uhhhh---just keep the lights on and lock your cat out!
