This is my 4949th Review
Original Rating prediction – 7/10
“[after stepping on a spider, a dog barks in the background] Yeah, that’s right… I’m bad!” – Delbert
Number of Times Seen – 1 (6 Feb 2019)
Brief Synopsis – After moving to small town, a doctor and his family must deal with an outbreak of deadly spiders that have been accidentally imported from South America and are starting to kill the population.
My Take on it – As someone who has never been a fan of horror films, I tend to also try and avoid the ones that seem to fit into the comedy horror genre.
This film was high on my list of films to avoid for nearly 3 decades since it came out for that very reason.
Since I have started to try and go a it out of my movie watching comfort zone, I decided that this was the perfect time to try and see if this film has anything to offer to help keep things enjoyable for the viewer.
Overall, this is a film with an extremely silly plot that mostly borders on the absurd.
This movie does have its moments, but they are definitely very few and far between.
Jeff Daniels has always been an actor that I enjoy watching, but he is only adequate as the lea here and I think that has to do with the fact that he doesn’t seem to have been given enough to do over the course of this film.
John Goodman is the best casting decision in this film and he steals every scene he appears in (not enough, mind you) as an exterminator trying to help stop this spider infestation.
There are way too many plot holes in this film and that also hurts things because the story doesn’t stay interesting enough and is instead quite repetitive.
Unfortunately, as a comedy-horror film, this movie lacks enough of both funny and/or scary scenes which is quite disappointing.
Bottom Line – Really silly film that has it moments but overall is just too much. Daniels is fine in the lead, but it feels as if he doesn’t really have enough to do. Goodman steals every scene he is in as an exterminator trying to help stop the infestation. This film’s plot has lots and lots of holes in it and that also takes away so much from enjoying this comedy horror film that is unfortunately not very funny or scary.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The first film released under Disney’s Hollywood Pictures label, which was also created so the studio could release more adult-oriented fare. (From IMDB)
Rating – Razzie Worthy (4/10)
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Disagree with you big time on this one Rob. I’m not a fan of spiders – but also not particularly scared of them. But this breed was frightening and relentless. The whole small town setting filled with “characters” (in the best sense) had a Spielberg/Poltergeist sort of feel to it. I liked Daniels very much in the role as the town doctor and I agree with Goodman “stealing” his scenes – but he is also – for the most part – a scenery chewing over the top cartoon of a character as the exterminator. When the spiders overrun the house at the end and Daniels is trapped in the basement – ad-libbing weapons to hold them at bay – I thought it was scary as hell. I also saw it on a big movie screen in the dark. All these films you catch up on – watching on your TV or a laptop? – will lose a great deal of impact because of that IMO.
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Agreed. But watching these films on the big screen is not really an option
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And I knew that as i was typing it – but thought the point should be made, relative to your reaction to a movie made 19 years ago that you clearly were not able to see on a movie screen.
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I do my best 😉
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