Arachnophobia

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Referring to the fear of spiders, Arachnophobia features a particularly deadly species of spider that manages to make its way from the Venezuelan rain forest to a small California town, thanks to the many oversights of entomologist Julian Sands. Yuppie doctor Jeff Daniels, fed up with the dangers inherent in big-city living, has resettled in this town on the assumption that nothing untoward could ever happen here to himself and his family. Before long, however, Daniels is trying to make sense of a series of sudden deaths-and to figure out why each of the corpses has been drained of blood. The audience, of course, knows that the culprits are those pesky South American spiders, which grow larger with each kill. To make matters worse, Jeff Daniels suffers from a profound case of arachnophobia. John Goodman supports the cast as a slovenly exterminator, and Frank Marshall, longtime producer of Steven Spielberg's films, makes his directorial debut in Arachnophobia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: 5.1, PCM Stereo
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • • Widescreen edition
    • Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
    • Production featurette
    • Theatrical trailer
    • Chapter search

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Frank Marshall

• Producer:

  Robert W. Cort, Ted Field

• Screenwriter:

  Don Jakoby, Wesley Strick

• Cinematographer:

  Mikael Salomon

• Songwriter:

  Jimmy Buffett

• Composer (Music Score):

  Trevor Jones

• Featured Music:

  Johnny Mercer

• Songwriter:

  Pat Metheny, Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly

• Editor:

  Michael Kahn

• Production Designer:

  James D. Bissell

• Art Director:

  Christopher Burian-Mohr

• Co-producer:

  Don Jakoby, Kathleen Kennedy, Richard Vane

• Associate Producer:

  William S. Beasley

• Executive Producer:

  Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg

• Set Designer:

  Jackie Carr, Carl Stensel

• Costume Designer:

  Dee Campbell, Jennifer Parsons

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Ronald Judkins

• Makeup:

  James McCoy, David Quaschnick

• Special Effects:

  Matt Sweeney, Chris Walas

• Consultant/advisor:

  Chuck Kristensen, Steven Kutcher, Arnold Peterson

• Camera Operator:

  Eric Goldstein

• Stunts:

  Chuck Waters

• Supervising Sound Editor:

  Tom C. McCarthy

• Short Story Author:

  Al Williams

REVIEW:

• This giggly big-budget horror film manages to mix thrills and laughs better than most and features nifty special effects from Chris Walas and Matt Sweeney. Arachnophobia is a fun throwback to the bug films of the 1950s and 1970s, but lacks either the Cold War paranoia of the former or the ecological awareness of the latter. Thus, the film blissfully stays at the creepy-crawly level without even the rudimentary depth of the classic ecokill movies. It may not be as campily enjoyable as Kingdom of the Spiders, but it has its moments. Director Frank Marshall and the cast (especially John Goodman as a gung-ho exterminator) are obviously having fun with the material, and the photography is marvelous. This is a great movie for Halloween, and, despite some mild gore, it is fun for children as well. This is the scariest spider movie ever made, however, so if you have a weakness for furry eight-legged horrors with sharp venomous fangs, be forewarned. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi