Arachnophobia (1990) (Movie Review)

   Alright, I have a small confession to make ... of all the animals, of all the creatures, of all the living things that were born on God’s good earth, nothing scares me more than spiders. As a child, I had countless terrifying encounters with spiders, heard frightening stories of people who were poisoned from spider bites and after one personal incident in which I found a venomous black widow on my own bed, I’ve always had a tense fear toured arachnids. Unlike Sharks, Crocodiles, or any of nature’s most deadly predators, spiders have no problem sneaking into your house, invading the comfort of your bedroom, your showers, your cupboards, heck, maybe even your own boxed food. I think that’s what makes them so terrifying, as they can just pop up at any time, at any place, and when you see those eight legs, rows of eyes and little pinchers, it immediately makes your hair stand on end. So, what movie could possibly be more appropriate to review this October then the 1990 movie “Arachnophobia”. Steven Spielberg, famous for directing “Jaws” is the executive producer, and it’s directed by Frank Marshall, whose resume is so big it would take all day to name everything he’s been involved in, but I should mention that he’d go on direct other popular animal attack movies like “Congo” in 1995.

 

  Our creature feature begins in the Amazon Rainforest, where explorers stubble upon the nesting ground of a super spider that’s supposed to have died off thousands of years ago. When one of the explores gets attacked and killed by the little beast, the spider hitches a ride in his coffin, and makes its way to a small town in the country side of California. A doctor played by Jeff Daniels just moved in to town with his family, and wouldn’t you know, their house happens to be on top of the spiders nest. Once the super spider mates with a regular house spider, they begin breading an entirely new spices of venoms spiders that spread throughout the town. Their so poisonous, it becomes instant death when they bite someone. Once the body count starts to rise, the burden falls on the good doctor to destroy the nest and prevent the onslaught of deadly spiders from producing.   

    The Characters are all serviceable at best, none of them are terrible, but their certainly not great or that memorable either. Like I said, Jeff Daniels plays the lead hero named Doctor Ross, and he does good job. I like that his character is already an arachnophobe, that way, the audience can almost relate to him when he battles the spiders, and more importantly concurs his fears. It’s a concept that’s been done countless times, but it’s pulled off just fine in this film. John Goodman plays an exterminator and serves as the comedic relief. While I can’t say he’s laugh out loud funny, I do enjoy how restrained and laid back his performance is. The remaining characters play their parts just fine, but there’s no one else worth talking about. Besides, we’re not here for the humans, so let’s talk about the spiders.

 

    As stated above, Spiders scare me more than any other creature on planet earth ... however, I’m fully aware that spider’s are valuable resources to our ecosystem, as they keep regular insects from over populating the planet, and obviously I’m aware that spiders aren’t mindless killing machines as portrayed in movies like this. It is just a monster movie after all, and it’s supposed to be over the top in its portrayal of common everyday things. 

However, the film actually drew in protests from people that believed the film tarnished the public image of spiders. Personally, I think this movie dose a great job preying on our over exaggerated fears of spiders, and there’s several moments that succeed in making you feel uncomfortable. There’s a scene when a spider sneaks into someone’s bed, killing him in his sleep, and there’s a moment when one crawls into the helmet of football player, who gets poisoned just as he gets tackled. There’s even a moment when a spider finds a cozy spot by a toilet seat, you don’t need to do the math to know what that adds up to. My favorite scene is when a young girl gets attacked by a spider while taking a shower, because it’s the perfect blend of being both funny and spin tingling. You could say it’s almost like the spider equivalent of the shower scene from “Psycho”. Watching this thing climb all over her face and exposed skin is sure to make your skin crawl, but the after math dose lead to some well placed comedy.

           

      The spider effects are fantastic, they look like real spiders and the camera work is great as it captures that eerie feeling you get from seeing a spider dangling from its web. While this isn’t a flat out scary movie by any means, it dose succeed in making your skin crawl, and when the movie is over, you find yourself being extra observant around the house. The pacing is also very good, the film manages to hold your attention, every scene builds on the next and there’s a fine amount of exciting encounters with the nasty little pests. One of the most memorable effects is when our hero’s approach the body of a man who everyone else presumes is just sleeping, only to be very disturbed to see a spider crawl out of the man’s nose and then back in through the mouth.

  The ending is an unfortunate mixed blessing as it starts with lots of momentum, and then gradually goes downhill. At first the doctor tries to escape his house with his family, which is no easy feat considering that their home is completely over run by a swarm of spiders. It’s a thrilling little action scene, and all the visuals of spiders crawling on windows, TV sets and crawling up drain pipes definitely draws you in to the thrill of the chase. Unfortunately, things go downhill once the doctor gets separated from the rest of his family and gets trapped in his own wine cellar. He soon finds himself in a final confrontation with the chief spider, and seeing Jeff Daniels battle this spider the size of a Chihuahua isn’t just silly, it’s also where the movie turns into self parody. This spider can take a beating like Jason Voorhees as it gets thrown across the room, crushed by objects, and even burned in an inferno, yet it still keeps coming. This silly climax, combined with a rushed resolution and a really stupid epilog are the films only real short comings.

      

  On the standards of an animal attack movie, “Arachnophobia” is definitely one of the better ones, and it was a surprise critical success. Heck, on the web site Rotten Tomatoes, this movie holds a solid 91% ratting out of a possible 100%, and that’s no small accomplishment for a movie of this kind. It’s definitely a very nice looking film, the cinematography is very sharp, and Frank Marshall proves once again to be a gifted director. Don’t get the mixed impression that I’m calling “Arachnophobia” a great A+ masterpiece like “Jaws” or “The Birds”, because it’s still a cheesy and silly monster movie at best. Having said that, it’s still done very well, and is a solidly built tribute to some of Hollywood’s classic creature features. Plus, the scenes with the spiders are just eerie enough that it might make your skin crawl while watching. It certainly isn’t a deeply chilling experience, but it is effective and a fun monster movie all the same, so take it for what it’s worth.

Thanks for reading my review of the 1990 creature feature “Arachnophobia” ... and continue to enjoy whatever movies you Love!    

The Birds (1963) (Movie Review)

   Look out! ... It’s October again, and animals are un-caged and dangerous! All throughout October, I’ll be reviewing horror movies that revolve entirely around animals gone bad. That’s right, Sharks, Bats, Spiders, Gorilla’s, Snakes and other animals are all on the loose, and they’re going to be my main focus this Halloween season. As such, what better film to kick off this month then one of Hollywood’s most iconic and treasured Horror movies ... its Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic “The Birds”. While there had been several B-Grade animal attack movies in the 50’s, mostly revolving around giant insects or giant spiders, "The Birds" was the first that took audiences by total surprise, and scared the hell out of them with a concept that no one could have imagined, or ignored after they saw the film. 

   The movie begins with a set-up that really has nothing to do with the plot, as it’s just a way to introduce us to the characters. Basically, a woman named Melanie works at a local bird store, and one day a customer named Mitch gets her attention. This guys a lawyer, and decides to toy with her a little after watching her pull a prank in court. She immediately develops a crush on him, and wants to get his attention by playing another joke on the guy, this time involving a pair of caged love birds. She heads to Bodega Bay in California to leave him his surprise gift when she’s suddenly attacked buy a seagull. The incident doesn’t seem like that big a deal at first, and it gives her an excuse to spend some quality time with Mitch and his family. Slowly but effectively, several other small incidents involving birds take place, and soon they begin attacking in full force. The feathered fiends end-up running the whole town into hiding, leaving them wondering what the heck is going on, how do we fight back, and most important of all ... how do we survive this invasion.

      The brilliance of this movie is that it takes something so mundane, even beautiful, and turns it into something frightening. Fear is a natural reaction when you encounter sharks or spiders, but birds are just a wonder of nature, they fill the air with beautiful music, they come in a colorful variety, and rarely do anything aggressive. After seeing this film, no-one looked at birds the same way again, and I distinctly remember seeing this movie for the first time at a young age, and being terrified to go outside thinking that I might just get attacked by a rouge bird. 

It’s also alarming because you can’t fight against these birds the same way you can kill a single deadly shark like in “Jaws”, and that raises the stakes. Some of the effects are really cheesy looking by today’s standards, and there are some obvious blue-screen moments, but I personally found the visuals to be very impressive for the time. In fact, the movie won the Oscar for best Special Effects. They're a lot of memorable scenes and visuals that just stick in your head long after the movie ends. All those ominous shots of the birds perching themselves on objects and electrical cords, as well as scenes in which children get attacked, and some scary shots of dead bodies with their eyes pecked out. One of the best visuals is when Melanie sits on a park bench, and behind her we see one bird after another landing on various play ground equipment ... then after a long hold on Melanie’s face, she slowly turns around, and see’s the entire park covered in black crows. Whenever I think of this movie, that’s always the first image that comes to mind.

    Now obviously, this concept of killer birds is admittedly very silly, but Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t your average campy filmmaker. In fact, you can always feel his stamp of quality in anything he dose, and “The Birds” is no exception. His method of setting up shots and editing is brilliant, but the key ingredient he brings to this film is the buildup. To be honest, the most frightening scenes are all the quiet moments that slowly build-up to when the birds actually attack. His style may come off as slow and boring to some people, so you really have to be in the right mind-set to appreciate it. 

Now, I’m not going to lie, there are some really boring scenes in the first half-hour of the movie, which involves the characters in long conversations that all become irrelevant when the birds finally attack. However, there is some ominous foreshadowing of things to come, which is just enough to keep you invested, and when all hell breaks loose, it becomes an exciting rollercoaster thrill ride. The characters themselves all feel like they belong in a different kind of film, like a generic 1960’s romance, but they hold your attention fine, and you do want to see them survive till the end. The female lead Melanie is played by Tippi Hedren and she does a mostly serviceable job, looks fantastic on screen, however she does have some really hockey moments. Another great aspect of this film is all the mystery surrounding the bird attacks. Most monster movies give lots of exposition as to what’s going on and why, but things are never clear in this film, and the characters themselves are almost driven mad trying to figure out what’s causing these birds to act so aggressively. The only red hearing thrown in the equation are the two caged love-birds. The movie never tells us that their a prime reason for all the attacks, but it does leave you wondering.

       

       Of course, Hitchcock is one of Hollywood’s most famous directors, filmmakers, and one of the first to receive wide-spread attention. I myself can praise his style and direction all day long, but the man himself was admittedly kind of rough around the edges, and did some questionable things. He even had a reputation for not taking good care of his actors while on set, and nowhere was that more obvious then in “The Birds”. 

There’s an infamous controversial scene in which Tippi Hedren’s character gets trapped in a bedroom, in which she’s attacked by various birds. The scene itself is very disturbing, as she gets relentlessly picked apart by the little devils, and it almost echo’s back the famous shower scene from “Psycho”. However, something even more disturbing happened off screen. Before shooting, Hitchcock presumably told Tippi Hedren that all the birds in the scene were fake, so it was a real shock for her on the day of the shoot when real life birds started flying all around her in this tight, and claustrophobic setting. While the actress wasn’t physically endured, it drained a lot of energy from her, and she ended up spending the following week sleeping on her couch in a comatose-like state. This further proved that while Hitchcock was a master filmmaker, he was also very careless toured the safety of his cast and crew, which is really hard to glance over.

  

   So, on that cheery note, let’s talk about some of the actual bird attack scenes, which are admittedly very thrilling, and heart pounding moments. There’s the scene in which a flock of crows attack some children at their school, and another memorable moment when they crash a birthday party. The best scene of all is when the birds attack a gas station. The buildup in this scene is fantastic, as all the characters are gathered in a dinner discussing this bird situation, and a woman who claims to be an expert on the subject gives us some info on birds in general, which only builds on our anticipation. Then without warning, the birds attack the nearby gas station, causing a gas tank to tip-over, and a chain of exploding cars follow. It’s a big spectacle, with birds flying all over the place, things are catching fire, and our female lead finds herself trapped in a phone booth. It’s the most famous scene of the movie, and very effective as your stuck in this tight, claustrophobic phone booth with our star, and watching all the chaos unfolding around her. With all the mangled bodies, birds crashing into windows, and lots of destruction, this could have almost been the climax of the movie.

   The actual finale takes place in a barricaded house, with our hero’s trapped, and fighting-off various bird attacks. Both the cinematography and visuals are top notch here, and the sounds of screeching birds over head create an eerie mood. Now, I feel the need to comment on the ending, so spoiler alert if you care. After one of the characters gets endured, our survivors quietly make their way to the car ... while surrounded by several birds ... and all the while a radio announcer claims that the mysterious bird attacks are increasing, and the national guard is debating on whether they should take action. As the car drives off, we get one heck of an eerie shot as birds seem to cover the entire landscape, and just when you think you’re about to follow these characters on their adventure across the country side ... the movie abruptly ends! It’s so sudden, and it doesn’t even feel like a proper conclusion ... the movie just stops. This can easily turn some viewers off, as it seems to come out of nowhere, and it’s personally my least favorite part of the whole movie.

              

   There was a sequel that came out several years latter titled “The Birds 2: Lands End”, but it had little connection with the first, and while I personally haven’t seen the film, it doesn’t seem like it captured the same magical haunting touch of its predecessor. While several movies have tried to recreate the formula of man battling animals and nature, there haven’t been too many films focusing on birds as the villains. The only other film that comes to mind is a 2010 picture titled “Birdemic: Shock of Terror”, and its sequel “Birdemic 2: The Resurrection” ... both terrible movies that used the same premise, except with terrible acting, terrible writing, and some of the worst special effects ever seen on film.

 

    As for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic “The Birds”, it still holds-up great after all these years. It’s one of my favorite movies he ever directed, and I honestly think it’s the greatest animal attack movie of all time ... just a hair above “Jaws”. Granted, I'd rather watch "Jaws" over this movie, as it has more of a fun-factor, but I just can't dismiss Hitchcock's stamp of quality. While it still has some problems that might keep modern audiences from liking it, there’s still plenty of thrills, and excitement that come-off so much stronger in this movie then most other monster flicks. You really just need to keep a humble perspective while viewing the film. If you let the atmosphere and build up sink in, you’ll find yourself feeling like your right there in the action, wondering what our hero’s are thinking, dreading another attack, and it’s just a really fun ride. While Hitchcock did some questionable things, he was undoubtedly a talented filmmaker with vision, and this is one of his greatest accomplishments in his long legacy of quality films.

Thanks for reading my review of the 1963 Horror classic “The Birds” ... and be sure to treat yourself to one good scare this October!         

The Twilight Zone: My Top 10 Favorite episodes

      One of my favorite TV shows of all time is the 1950’s classic “The Twilight Zone”. Even though it’s years and years old, it’s still just as timeless as ever. The shows themes of Science fiction laced with horror, and deep, thought provoking concepts are still very intriguing, and in a way, I always feel a little smarter, or maybe a little wiser after watching an episode. There are hardly any other shows that can mix chills and intriguing subtext as well as this fantastic series. There’s no way I can do the show justice in a single review, because it really just needs to be experienced. However, I’ll go ahead and round up my personal top 10 favorite episodes, just to give you some small idea and maybe peak your interest. Also, I’m not going to spoil any of the twist endings.  

    

#10. Number 12 Looks Just Like You 

This episode takes place in a future where everything is way too perfect. Everyone is happy, no one learns things through books, and no one is ugly. There’s even a law that every young person must undergo a transformation that will make every man and woman look like the exact same good looking model without any flaws. However, a young woman resists having the surgery because she doesn’t want to lose her humanity. This episode reflects on how society tries too hard to perfect itself, when it forgets that it’s okay to just be OK. The lead girl in this episode is especially easy to sympathies with and it’s great to see her fight for her God given right to just be normal. While there isn’t a whole lot going on in this episode, it’s the subtext of the story that makes it one of my favorites.

#9. I Am the Night – Color me Black 

A man is to be hanged at sunrise for killing another man out of pure hatred, and now the towns people are all overjoyed to see this guy hang. But on the appointed day, the sun fails to rise and a strange darkness envelops the land. This episode has everything that makes a great “Twilight Zone” episode, there’s a mysterious phenomenon affecting a town, thought provoking themes and metaphors, plus some really tense, dramatic performances from the cast. Everything culminates into a simplistic, yet haunting metaphor regarding hatred and how it blackens the soul. It’s a chilling episode that leaves me thinking about humanity in general.  

  

#8. Living Doll 

This is one of the most classic episodes of the series, and one of the most haunting. A strict stepfather is physically threatened by his stepdaughter’s new talking doll. He’s a real jerk and causes lots of fuss with the family, but when he’s alone, that doll starts sending him some cryptic threats to clean up his act, or he’ll die. The tension in this episode is quiet effective, and the mystery surrounding the doll is ingenious. It really makes you wonder ... is the man losing his mind, is the family playing tricks on him or is Talking Tina really alive. One thing I’ll say is that despite all the Chuckey’s and Annabelle’s that have dominated the horror genera, the concept of a killer doll has never been more effective for me then in this episode. 

#7. A Passage for Trumpet 

Now here’s one of the more humble and beautiful episodes that the show has to offer. A down on his luck trumpet player has slowly lost his musical talents, has secluded himself from other people, spends most of his time drinking, and has basically become a no-body. His depression gets the best of him, and he tries to commit suicide by stepping out in front of a truck. He soon finds himself in limbo where no one can see or hear him, and thus he really discovers what it means to be a no-body. This episode is all about savoring the good things you have in life, and to make the most of what comes your way. Even when life seems to be at its worst, you can always climb out of the gutter and make something of yourself. It’s a wonderful message that’s conveyed very humbly and simplistically without ever coming off as preachy, and that’s something that this show always nailed.  

       

#6. The After Hours 

Here’s another episode with a very simple yet meaningful message. However, it’s the episodes atmosphere and style that make it a personal favorite. A woman makes a purchase on the ninth floor of a department store, but later discovers that the floor doesn’t even exist, because there are only eight levels on the building. The young lady soon finds herself locked in the store after closing hours, the phones don’t work, the doors are locked, and worse yet, she’s not alone. As she wonders through a maze of different shopping lanes, she begins to hear mysterious voices calling out to her. With a concept like this, it could have been very dull watching a single character walking around a department store, but it holds our attention very well, with some sharp editing, a foreboding mood, shadows and enough mystery elements to get you guessing what the outcome will be.

 #5. Jess-Belle 

In this special 1 hour long episode, a young woman named Jess-Belle has fallen in love with a young man who’s currently going out with another woman. Her jealousy soon leads Jess to a witch in the mountains who gives her a spell that will make the boy love her instead. However, this comes with a serious price, as every midnight Jess transforms into a killer leopard with a craving for human flesh. The premise is almost like a throwback to the 1942 horror movie “Cat People”, and it’s got all the best horror tropes that the show has to offer. The imagery is creepy, the atmosphere is heavy, and a feeling of impending dread just builds and builds to a thrilling finally. Anne Francis plays Jess-Belle and she really nails it, capturing the jealous rage, the somber regret and the fear of her unknown actions perfectly. This same actress was also the star of the previously mentioned episode “The After Hours”, and would be a big TV star for a while. Personally, I’ll always remember her best from the 1950’s Sci-Fi classic “Forbidden Planet”.  

#4. Eye of the Beholder 

Now here’s a very simple episode, it’s all about a bandaged woman in a hospital who’s going through some kind of surgery. There’s a lot of really sad moments as the lady fears she’ll be to deformed to be among normal looking people, and the setting never changes from the cold, and somber interiors of this hospital. It’s an episode full of great performances, some really crafty camera angles, and a twist ending that’s so simple, yet so profound that I dare not spoil any more. Trust me when is say that this episode represents “The Twilight Zone” at its finest. 

#3. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street 

Here’s an episode that warns viewers about the most dangerous monster of all, and that’s human kind itself. A power failure causes the residents of a suburban neighborhood to suspect one another of being monsters from outer space, or creatures planning an invasion. It may sound like a really silly concept, but it’s very truthful about how paranoia, and the unknown can suddenly turn close friends against each other. It’s also very clever for including real monsters, but they don’t actually attack the humans ... because the humans are already doing that to themselves. It’s every bit as intriguing as it is suspenseful and dark. 

#2. Walking Distance 

While waiting for repairs on his car, an ad executive under pressure from his job decides to take a little walk, and pays a visit to his old hometown in which he grew up as a child. The catch is that nothing has changed sense he left, and soon he realizes that he’s stepped back in time to witness his childhood. He embraces everything with sentimental longing but the world of the past doesn’t except him back. There’s nothing scary or tense about this episode, but it’s something I relate to on a very personal level. Everyone at some point wants to return to their past, and relive that time which was cheerful and care free, but the moral of the episode is to live your life in the present without dwelling on the days long gone. It’s just a very touching episode, with a humble message and it’s always stood out as one of the most special offerings from “The Twilight Zone”. 

 

Before I reveal my #1 favorite episode, here are my Runner Up’s: 

“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”
“Night Call”
“Stopover in a Quiet Town”
“The Odyssey of Flight 93”
“Twenty Two”
“Still Valley”
“The Hunt” 
& 
“Night of the Meek”

#1. The Jungle 

While this episode’s message isn’t nearly a thought provoking as any of my previously mentioned episodes, it was still the first episode to really captivate me, thrill me, keep me in suspense and it still stands as my personal favorite. An engineer has a curse placed on him by natives objecting to his building a dam on their land. Back in the big city, he slowly finds the concrete jungle to be more wild and spooky then he remembers. On his way back from work, the man gets himself lost, he can’t find the way back to his apartment, and he has the suspicion that he’s being hunted by a ferocious predator. It may sound extremely simple, but I personally think it’s the eeriest, and most suspenseful episode of the whole series. With very little visuals, this episode still creates an extremely haunting atmosphere, all thanks to its heavy shadows, it’s labyrinth like setting, and especially for it’s frightening sound effects. It’s actually on par with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, when Ichabod Crane was alone in the woods while stocked by a shadowy creature. Also, just like that story, “The Jungle” delivers a twist ending in which the man’s most comfortable, and safest location actually becomes the most dangerous place of them all. It’s a great episode, with a memorable payoff, and it’s always the first episode that comes to mind when I think of “The Twilight Zone”. 

  

                                                                         The End

                           Stay Tuned because my annual October Marathon is coming up next.