This feature gets a very mixed reception, as reflected by the disparity between critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes: 93% vs. 54%, respectively. Regardless, I'd heard enough good things about it, mostly pertaining to the humor, to give it a whirl.
An entomologist's (Julian Sands) research party enters a highly secluded area of Venezuela. The photographer (Mark L. Taylor) gets bitten by a tarantula and dies in seconds. The spider hitches a ride in his coffin to his fictitious little hometown of Canaima, California, where it reproduces with a local. Not only are the smaller hybrids just as venomous; they are extraordinarily eusocial, effectively taking orders from their hulking progenitor. The merciful news is that the first batch of hybrids is sterile and short-lived. But that could change soon, and given how the species dominated that secluded area...
The ads I recall seeing as a kid implied that the exterminator (John Goodman) was the protagonist. He actually doesn't get a whole lot of screen time, nor does he face the final boss, if you will. He just had the most star power, at least where comedy is concerned.
The real hero is Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), who's really down on his luck. First his wife (Harley Jane Kozak) talks him into moving from San Francisco to the country, against his preference. Then he learns that the existing town doctor (Henry Jones) had second thoughts about retiring, so Ross won't get much business yet. Then he deems his one patient (Mary Carver) too healthy for any major intervention. Then she dies right after the visit, which casts public doubt on his abilities. Oh, and he has the titular condition. Besides the obvious contextual downside, it means that people aren't keen on taking his eventual theory about the spiders seriously.
Luck really does play a big factor in events herein, for more than Ross. Details of the climax are telegraphed well in advance. At several points, someone narrowly misses a spider bite without noticing. That can be relieving, especially when the would-be victim is a child or pet, but it also ups the suspense when you don't know who'll survive.
If nobody told me this was a comedy, I would not have applied the label myself. Sure, the aforementioned contrivances are more at home in a comedy, and several characters are exaggerated to amusing levels. You might even laugh at the fact that the Jennings males have always relied on the Jennings females to take care of spiders. But the scares are genuine, and I can't help caring about a lot of the potential victims.
FWIW, most of the spiders on screen are real, just not dangerous to humans. Only the biggest is fake, and its sounds help drive home the point. The filmmakers went out of their way to make sure none of the animals got hurt or killed; any dead ones were either fake or already dead of other causes. Nevertheless, some groups complained about the spider PR.
I do not have arachnophobia in the clinical sense. I've even come to appreciate spiders, thanks in part to my sister. But I had to remind myself that I was watching fiction. As I prepared for bed, I had to shake off the sense that I might not be alone in it.
It's a tough call whether I'd sooner recommend this or that other 1990 horror-comedy paying tribute to the classics, Tremors. They might be about tied for grossness. Arachnophobia is less politically incorrect at least, and I for one find it scarier.
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