Tarantula
I’m a bit arachnophobic, so spider-based horror movies have
a greater effect on me than they might on the average movie-goer. I saw Arachnophobia in the theater with my
friend Chris and he laughed the entire time because I’d slide down in my seat,
realize that spiders would be on the floor if they were in the theater and then
jump up onto the seat. Rinse. Repeat. I don’t HATE spiders – in fact I’m kinda
fascinated by them – but holy crap do they creep me out.
I don’t like being irrationally afraid of anything, so I’ve
worked hard to desensitize myself to spiders. I do my best not to kill them and
I’ve gotten to the point where I can actually pick up small spiders to take
them outside (bigger ones get carried out on something long – like a yardstick
or a broom). However, I’ll still freak out if I get surprised by one or stumble
through a web. If you ever see me staggering along, waving my arms madly in the
air as if fighting off invisible birds, well, you’ll know I’ve walked through a
web.
I trace my fear of spiders back to a childhood event that is
almost certainly a dream, but that I simply assumed was a memory for the
longest time. I would have been four or five (I hadn’t yet gone to school). My
brother Scott, sister Jen and I were rambling about my grandfather’s camp on Cedar
Lake in northern Maine. Out in front of the camp was a short, rocky path down
to the water and at the base of the path was a large rock that had a scoop
taken out of it, forming a shallow basin. As we came ‘round the edge of the
path and caught site of that rock we saw a spider FILLING THE BASIN. In my
mind’s eye the basin is roughly 3 feet across, but I was 5 and terrified and
since then I’ve looked and it’s roughly 8-10 inches across.
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| Maybe not QUITE this big. Maybe. |
To my mind, this doesn’t make things much better.
My siblings and I ran screaming, but of course the spider
was gone by the time adults showed up. I started swimming off of the dock from
that point on. I figure if it WAS real and not a dream I probably saw an
oversize fishing spider (which we used to call wood spiders). I’ve seen them
get as large as 3 inches or more and maybe this was just a particularly large
specimen that didn’t really fill the basin, but appeared to through the filter
of abject horror.
You can imagine what effect Tarantula had on me as a kid.
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| Hi Bob! See you in your nightmares! |
The thing is, for the longest time I didn't even know what
movie it was that had scared the crap out of me, because I only caught the last
20 minutes or so. I saw it at my grandmother's on a Saturday afternoon, which
is where and when I saw a lot of 1950's sci-fi pics - like Day of the Triffids. I'd been playing outside when it began to
rain, so I came in, plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV only to see
this freakish, monster-looking guy in pajamas and a spider as big as a damn
house! BIGGER! Then some cops tried to stop it and got eaten. Then they
tried to blow it up with dynamite and didn't even scratch it! Then it was
heading towards a town and HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THE SIZE OF IT!!! By the time the
jets finally came in with the napalm and blew it up I was so worked up I could
barely sit still.
It was several years before I got a chance to see the whole
film in all its black and white glory, and by then it had become some epic
creepshow in my mind. The reality wasn't quite so scary - but of course by then
I'd seen a lot worse. It was still a ton of fun, though, and it's one of my
favorite 50's monster/sci-fi movies even now (right behind THEM! and The Incredible Shrinking
Man).
The Medium
I really wish some of the classic 1950's films like THEM! and Tarantula were available on Blu-ray in the US, but they're not, at
least not yet. The version I watched for this review was part of the Classic
Sci-fi Ultimate Collection, and was fairly sharp and clear for an older DVD
release. (This set is very much worth tracking down, if you're a fan of 1950's
sci-fi films.)
The Movie
Tarantula was written
and directed by Jack Arnold, who made some of my favorite sci-fi films: It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the
Black Lagoon and The Incredible
Shrinking Man. He also wrote The
Monolith Monsters, which is an interesting little film if you get a chance
to see it.
The titular monster is the result of experiments by a
scientist named Deemer. He’s invented a nutrient formula that he hopes will be able to
sustain the human race in the face of food shortages that he expects to be
caused by overpopulation (one of his dire pronouncements is that the world
population will reach three billion, six hundred fifty million by the year 2000
– it was closer to six billion!). In animals, the side-effect is enormous
growth. In humans it’s accelerated acromegaly (which we know because his
colleague and assistant both experiment on themselves – I assume in the hope
that they had discovered Viagra several decades early).
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| "Let's see, giant rabbit, giant hamster, giant... very funny guys, are you high again?" |
Deemer’s assistant goes mad, attacking him and causing
several of the animals to escape. Now they’ve used some standard lab animals –
including monkeys, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs. Unfortunately, they’ve also
used a tarantula for some reason. These are people who injected themselves with
a radioactive, experimental nutrient remember, so I guess we should just count
ourselves lucky it wasn’t an alligator or a tigon.
Anyway, in the chaos, the tarantula – already the size of a
large dog – escapes and Deemer is injected with the nutrient as well, giving
him 4 days before he’s overcome.
The hero is a local doctor, who is immediately suspicious
when the sheriff finds the body of Deemer’s colleague in the desert. He’s never
seen a case of ‘acromegalia’ happen in 4 days before and takes every
opportunity to go out to Deemer’s lab and ask him questions. He befriends
Deemer’s new assistant, a lovely woman named Steve and is generally hanging
around all the time, rather than seeing patients. (To be fair, the script
mentions this as well.)
Meanwhile, the tarantula is growing. It’s feeding on cattle
in the high country and leaving skeletons and big pools of venom around (I
burst out laughing when the Doc actually tastes
the damn stuff). It was big enough for nightmares before, but now it’s close to
30 feet high and probably 80 feet across.
The special effects are pretty darn good for the time. The
use of an actual tarantula for most of the matte shots makes it more effective
than the ants in THEM! (though I
think THEM! Is actually a better
movie). There are problematic bits, of course (in one scene the spider moves
beyond the matte frame, causing its legs to suddenly disappear into thin air),
but in general the effects are as good as it gets for 1950’s giant monster
movies. You won’t see ‘Tonka’ written on the bottom of any overturned buses,
anyway.
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| What? Is there something on my face? |
The scene in which the spider attacks the two story house
where Deemer (by now overwhelmed by acromegaly) has his lab is the one I
remember the most from a kid. The model they used for the closeups of the
spider is still pretty gruesome and the matte shots and model work are great.
It’s a pretty tense sequence and well edited.
The final scenes where the air force is called in to deal
with the skyscraper sized spider, making its way inevitably towards town, are
tense and exciting as well. It’s a fairly well known bit of movie trivia that
Clint Eastwood makes his first film appearance as one of the fighter pilots.
The credit sequence with the corpse of the spider burning in the background,
looming over the town, reminds me of the end of Independence Day with the
crashed spaceship.
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| Paging Mr. Eastwood, Mr. Eastwood to the enormous spider, please. |
The Bottom Line
Tarantula is a fun, ‘50s monster film - better than most, with decent
acting, writing, good special effects and lovely desert scenery. Maybe not one
to check out if you're arachnophobic, but still a decent chiller after nearly
60 years
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