I think I am going to start a new segment of VeggieMacabre tonight. This is an idea taken straight from the wonderful and funny horror blog, Final Girl. The new segment is a real-time movie watching review that I will be doing from the comforts of my couch. It will be kind of like we are watching it together only I will be the only one spewing my opinions. Seems fair to me!
So let’s get the party started! Tonight’s film is the 1990 classic, Arachnophobia and I have never seen it before. Partly because I hate spiders. Actually, that’s the entire reason. Let’s put it in!
- Jeff Daniels is in this? Did I know this before? Amazing!
- How am I not surprised that this begins in South America?
- Hey! The helicopter pilot was the bad guy in Crocodile 2. Kind of wish I didn’t admit to knowing that.
- You just know there is going to be some of the “help” on this S. American expedition that might not make it home. I feel an Indiana Jones type death any minute.
- God I hate spiders. This might not bode well for me.
- I don’t get people who study insects and spiders. I am grateful they do but I don’t think we have much in common.
- So the spider comes to the US via coffin, Of course! And it’s the same town as Stephen King’s Needful Things.
- Enter Jeff Daniels! With token wife, Harley Jane Kozak. Isn’t she in just about every Lifetime and Oxygen movie?
- It’s odd to see the country setting with a random palm tree.
- Well, I am never going in a barn again!
- Ah, so there is a back story. Jeff Daniels is an arachnophobia. The plot is coming together.
- *just ate a Habanero. The little orange ones. So stupid.*
- Ah, the second victim. Poor Margret. Let me add ‘turning off the light’ to my list of fears.
- Enter John Goodman. This guy can steal any scene. Remember how I was asking how anyone can study insects? Same applies to those who are exterminators.
- Now I am afraid of bleachers and football helmets. And empty shoes.
- Now I am freaking out watching my cat paw at something in the corner.
- I am feeling this Dr. Jennings/Sheriff Brody comparison happening.
- Brian McNamara is in this? Holy Hell! I love that guy. In a plutonic way, of course.
- I am getting the same feeling with this movie that I got with Jaws. Nervous anxioty.
- Shit! Showers and toilets too.
- Jeff Daniels in his younger days seemed very McGyver like.
- I didn’t realize how much John Goodman’s character is like Bill Murray’s in Caddy Shack.
- Hey! Family Ties in on TV! Oh shit, RUN!
- Yeah, I hate this movie. But hate in a good way.
- So, I thought there was a bigger spider in this movie?
Well, it’s over. Really? What’s up with the abrupt ending? I feel the character development left something to be desired. And while the cast ensemble was great, they just kind of left you guessing how everything works out in the end.
With that said, the movie did it’s job. I got ready for bed and found a piece of lint from an alpaca blanket on my shoulder and had an “episode” in the bathroom. I think I am going to train my cat to attack spiders now.
Casserole of Disaster 
When this movie came out, I went with a friend and her mom to a drive in double feature. We saw Problem Child and then this. Except I was so terrified I plugged my ears and watched My Blue Heaven playing on another screen. I’m still not sure I’ve seen it all the way through b/c it freaks me out every time. And I had a hard time eating cereal after someone (a cop?) found a dead one in the box. *shudder*
Watched this movie at a slumber party in Jr High, I think. Of course all us girls were screaming like…little girls. And of course, it increased me hate for spiders. Right now I have black widows EVERYWHERE around my house. I want to light them on fire like in the movie…
I could have made that exact commentary. Since I have intense arachnophobia myself, I (understandably, I think) hate that movie with a passion. Yet, somehow I find myself drawn to it whenever it comes on TV, unable to turn away or change the channel. I agree with you, though – the movie would be pretty much unwatchable if not for John Goodman.
This is one of those films I think I saw on TV at some point, but now that it is making the blog rounds, I think I’ll have to track down a copy somewhere. Is it even out on DVD? I know that John Goodman was supposed to be kickass in an exterminator costume, but that is about all I remember from the film.
Debating whether it is worth a rewatch or not?