Arachnophobia (1990) on Netflix
PG-1319901h 49mComedyFantasyHorror
On a Venezuelan tepui an unknown spider is found, and it travels in a photographer's coffin to Canaima, California. There Ross Jennings, a physician afraid of spiders, has just moved in.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/1081,467 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
Reports from collectors working a remote tepui in Venezuela yield two spiders that match no known species, and the pair is placed under study. One gets free and bites Jerry Manley, a photographer on the expedition. His remains go home to Canaima, California, with the spider riding along inside the casket. At Irv Kendall's mortuary it crawls out and is picked up by a crow, which dies soon after. Ross Jennings, a family physician who left San Francisco, has arrived to take on the work of Sam Metcalf, the town's elderly doctor, but Metcalf keeps putting off retirement, so few patients come Ross's way. Ross and his son both fear spiders.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Arachnophobia (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The villainous "General" spider was played by a real Goliath bird-eating tarantula, the world's largest known spider species, nicknamed "Big Bob" by the crew and made to look even bigger with a prosthetic abdomen.
- Over 300 real Avondale spiders from New Zealand were used for the "soldier" spiders, chosen because they are large, unusually social, and harmless to humans, and were guided around the set using heat and cold.
- Scientists at the University of California, Riverside named a newly discovered worm species, Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi, after Jeff Daniels' role in the film; it is one of only two known worm species that infect tarantulas.
- Sound designers created the effect of spiders being crushed by stepping on mustard packets or potato chips, and simulated spiders scurrying through heating ducts by dragging long fingernails across sheets of tin.
- Writer-director Christopher Landon left the planned remake over creative differences, revealing his script would have brought back John Goodman's character Delbert McClintock and added body-horror elements not in the original.
