History Main / Arachnophobia

'''''Arachnophobia''''' may refer to:

* The 1990 film ''Film/{{Arachnophobia}}''

''Arachnophobia'' may refer to:

[[redirect:Film/{{Arachnophobia}}]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/affiche2_9566.jpg

A thriller/comedy (or "thrillomedy") film released in 1990, ''Arachnophobia'' featured Jeff Daniels and John Goodman and was produced by StevenSpielberg. This was the first film directed by Frank Marshall.

The film concerns a hybridized strain of spiders with a hive mentality and super-potent venom that kills in a matter of seconds. The spiders, accidentally transported to a sleepy California town from Venezuela in the coffin of their first victim, terrorize the town for weeks while the newly-arrived city-mouse town doctor (Daniels) struggles to make sense of the mysterious deaths. Aiding him is an eccentric exterminator played by Goodman in one of his most popular roles. The film was a financial and critical success thanks to its mix of horror and humor.

There was also an MS-DOS game released that was vaguely related to the movie, in which the player took control of a pest exterminator who was sent to eliminate the spiders.

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This movie has examples of:
* AerosolFlamethrower: Effective against deadly spiders.
* BrotherChuck: Chris disappears after trying to pull Ross out of the house near the end.
* BrickJoke: [[spoiler: "Not the Chateau!"]]
* TheCityVsTheCountry: The doctor and his family move into a small town. The townspeople immediately resent him for being from the city.
* CobwebJungle: A lot of areas become this after the spiders are released.
* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Sweden the movie is known as "''Imse vimse spindel''" translating as "Itsy Bitsy Spider".
* CorruptHick: Doctor Medcalf and Sheriff Parsons.
** Doc Metcalfe wasn't exactly corrupt, just an asshole.
* EpiphanyTherapy:"Come to the barn and look at this gigantic web taking up most of it. That'll cure your arachnophobia."
* FanService: The shower scene.
* FanDisservice: The shower scene.
* GiantSpider: Not too terribly giant, but deadly venomous.
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: It's repeatedly mentioned that the main character doesn't hear crickets, despite living in the country. That's because [[spoiler: the main web is in his barn.]]
* KillItWithFire
** InfernalRetaliation: The General proves to be a hardcore little bugger even after being set alight.
* OrificeEvacuation: For no real reason, a spider crawls out of one of the victims noses when the body is discovered.
** Oh, there was [[RuleOfScary a reason]].
* PrimalFear
* TheAmazon: The killer spiders come from and unexplored jungle in Venezuela.
* YouFailBiologyForever: The movie seems to have a hard time telling the difference between tarantulas and anything else. The killer spider species is represented by several unrelated species of spider, from wandering spiders up to tarantulas.
** Also, during a scene with a spider expert, he's seen feeding his pet tarantula by putting a cricket into a web hanging in the the tank.
*** Actually some male tarantulas spin webs, which serve a primarily reproductive process (being laced with sperm in which the female lays her eggs). So this may have been partially justified, but not entirely in that a spider expert would certainly know that sperm webs aren't used for feeding.
*** I'm pretty sure we were supposed to think the spider in the tank was a live sample of one of the super-deadly Venezuelan ones (based on the dialogue, etc), so it's not quite the [[MemeticMutation FAIL(URE)]] it initially appears to be--it just goes back to the film using many different spiders to represent the killer breed.
** "The Venezuelan spider must have mated with an American house spider to create a deadly strain!"
* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have To Be Spiders]]: Doctor Jennings is deathly afraid of spiders because of an encounter with one in his infancy.

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<<|{{Film}}|>>

* BrotherChuck: Chris disappears after trying to pull Ross out of the house near the end

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The inexplicable scene in which a doll comes to life and watches a spider land on its face. Explanation, please?

* NightmareFuel: The game over screen for the game adaptation. A picture is displayed of your character where he's basically been overrun by spiders, and has webs in his nose. It's pretty freaky as a kid.
** There are two versions of the poster for the film - one with a small spider dangling in front of a full moon, seen above, and one without the spider. The reason for the latter version is that the former ''freaked'' people out with it's subtlety. Well done!

* ParanoiaFuel: You'll probably be checking every nook in your house for spiders after watching this.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Doctor Jennings is deathly afraid of spiders because of an encounter with one in his infancy.

A thriller/comedy (or "thrillomedy") film released in 1990, ''Arachnophobia'' featured Jeff Daniels and John Goodman and was produced by StevenSpielberg. The film concerns a hybridized strain of spiders with a hive mentality and super-potent venom that kills in a matter of seconds. The spiders, accidentally transported to a sleepy California town from Venezuela in the coffin of their first victim, terrorize the town for weeks while the newly-arrived city-mouse town doctor (Daniels) struggles to make sense of the mysterious deaths. Aiding him is an eccentric exterminator played by Goodman in one of his most popular roles. The film was a financial and critical success thanks to its mix of horror and humor.

** There are two versions of the poster for the film - one with a small spider dangling in front of a full moon, seen [[http://www.impawards.com/1990/arachnophobia.html here]], and one without the spider. The reason for the latter version is that the former ''freaked'' people out with it's subtlety. Well done!

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51YV9QGYHNL__SL500_AA300__737.jpg

* ParanoiaFuel: This troper can't be the only one who occasionally checks behind the toilet or showerhead. Or for that matter, in his shoe, under a lampshade...

** This troper is the same way, and this is the only horror movie he can't make it all the way through.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Doctor Jennings is deathly afraid of spiders because of an encounter with one in his infancy.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The inexplicable scene in which a doll comes to life and watches a spider land on its face. [[ShoutOut Explain movie]], [[NostalgiaCritic explain!]]

** There are two versions of the poster for the film - one with a small spider dangling in front of a full moon, seen [[http://www.impawards.com/1990/arachnophobia.html here]], and one without the spider. The reason for the latter version is that the former ''freaked'' people out with it subtlety. Well done!

*** Actually some male tarantulae spin webs, which serve a primarily reproductive process (being laced with sperm in which the female lays her eggs). So this may have been partially justified, but not entirely in that a spider expert would certainly know that sperm webs aren't used for feeding.
*** I'm pretty sure we were supposed to think the spider in the tank was a live sample of one of the super-deadly Venezuelan ones (based on the dialogue, etc), so it's not quite the [[MemeticMutation FAIL]] it initially appears to be--it just goes back to the film using many different spiders to represent the killer breed.