Glucedee
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Matylda Swan
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
theashtonfive
Arachnophobia deserves a much higher rating and a lot more attention and fame than it got. Jeff Daniels is fantastic in it and John Goodman steals the show as an exterminator who is in way over his head. Julian Sands is also great.It's about super deadly killer spiders who kill a researcher in South America then hitch a ride in his casket back to the United States where they begin a killing spree.This movie is very funny and also has a lot of great scares in it. If spiders make you feel icky and or shiver then this is the movie for you. The use of real non-CGI spiders and good practical effects make the spiders much more menacing.
gridoon2018
105 minutes may be too many for a movie about killer spiders, but other than that, this is an entertaining, well-done horror comedy, in the "animals/serpents/bugs/birds/etc. attack" sub-genre. The director, Frank Marshall, and the screenwriters, Wesley Strick and Don Jakoby, think of every possible and impossible place to put their spiders, which are a near flawless mix of the real thing and animatronic models (thankfully, this movie was made before the days of CGI - notice how fake the same creatures look in later horror movies). Both the sudden shocks and the close calls are expertly timed by Marshall, and because there are no real "villains" among the humans you don't know who is going to get it - obviously the Spielbergian family is safe, but everyone else is fair game. I do, however, have some reservations about John Goodman's bug-exterminator character: he seems to have stepped in from another movie - "Ghostbusters"! **1/2 out of 4.
Hitchcoc
There seemed to be an interest in infectious diseases and dangerous insects at this time in the movies. I think there was a killer bee scare at the time. Anyway, some people in Venezuela are killed by a spider which then hitchhiker with the body returning to California. People start to die and Jeff Daniels has the job of figuring things out. When he realizes it's spiders, he is terrified, being an arachnophobe. Of course, there is no shortage of stupid people who get themselves killed because they think it's something else. An elderly doctor tries to get autopsies done on the bodies but there is resistance---until he, himself, is killed. The spiders have the ability, through breeding with other arachnids, to set off a plague. It's a pretty good story. Better than most. Jeff Daniels is good as the suffering investigator.
TheBlueHairedLawyer
Arachnophobia is okay, but typical. A rare species of spider ends up traveling to the United States in a coffin, and wreaks havoc on a boring family, including the dad, who is terrified of spiders.The entire time I was watching this, I couldn't get the image of the picture-perfect families from Poltergeist, Edward Scissorhands, etc. out of my head. The countryside homes reminded me of the town from Beetlejuice, as did many of the actors. The soundtrack was very Addams Family-like. From the early eighties to early nineties, the era had several films each with similar characters. It was hard to view this film as original. Not only were the spider web effects incredibly fake-looking, but the film stretched on and became incredibly boring. The acting was okay but not very good and the soundtrack was typical.There's no real side to this movie, I can't call it good or bad. Just typical.