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Hollywood, Give Us More Horror Movies About One of the Most Common Fears!

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There are surprisingly few horror movies that feature these all-too-common antagonists.

The Big Picture

  • Spiders are commonly feared creatures, but Hollywood has been reluctant to bank on the fear of spiders in horror movies.
  • When spiders are used as antagonists in films, they often fall into one of three categories: large quantity, monster-sized, or pure nightmare fuel.
  • Films like
    Arachnophobia
    and
    Infested
    stand out among spider movies because they effectively set up the spiders as the villains through careful techniques that highlight their presence and evoke fear.

Phobias, the fear of something, is a fascinating subject. Rational or irrational, it would be safe to say that there are few people who can honestly say they don’t have a fear of anything. It brings to mind a bit from Jerry Seinfeld about how the fear of public speaking is higher than the fear of death, meaning at a funeral you would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. One of the most common phobias has to do with creatures that are creepy, crawly, and almost unnatural. No, not The Addams Family. We’re talking about spiders, the fear of which is commonly referred to as arachnophobia – a phobia that consistently ranks high on the top ten lists of most common phobias. Yet you can count on two hands the number of horror films that have utilized the awful arachnids, and one if you’re talking about good films. Sharks? Tons of films. Snakes? More than there should be for yours truly. But spiders? Surprisingly little, with 2024’s dual release of Sting and Infested a rarity. Why has Hollywood been so reluctant to bank on the fear of spiders?

Infested (2024)
Infested (2024)

In a chilling exploration of survival and fear, a group of friends finds themselves trapped in an isolated cabin, where they must face a mysterious and lethal parasite that threatens their very existence. As the infection spreads, alliances are tested and secrets are revealed, turning their sanctuary into a battleground for survival.

Release Date
April 26, 2024

Director
Sébastien Vanicek

Cast
Théo Christine , Sofia Lesaffre , Jérôme Niel , Lisa Nyarko , Finnegan Oldfield , Marie-Philomene , Nga

Runtime
106 Minutes

Main Genre
Horror

The Three Types of Spider-Horror Movies Arachnophobes Should Skip

When Hollywood has used spiders as the antagonists in film, it has been effective in keeping arachnophobes awake at night, and usually fall into one of three categories. 1977’s Kingdom of the Spiders has none other than Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, taking on a host of killer tarantulas, who have turned to attacking animals and humans after the overuse of pesticides has depleted their natural food supply. The movie is a great example of a large quantity of spiders being used to instill horror. And if it’s not enough that the film has wall-to-wall tarantulas, the ending is sure to haunt arachnophobes for years. There are no humans triumphing over nature here, as survivors realize that the tarantulas have encased the entire town in spider-silk cocoons. 1955’s Tarantula is one of the earliest examples of the monster-sized spider film, a “crawling terror 100ft high,” following on the heels of 1954’s Them!, except with a giant tarantula instead of ants. Fun fact: yes, that’s Clint Eastwood himself in an uncredited role as the jet squadron leader who leads the napalm attack that incinerates the beastly crawler.

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The 27 Best Horror Movies on Shudder Right Now

Can’t decide on the right fright for your night? We’ve got you covered.

The third category is just pure nightmare fuel, films that use spiders disturbingly well. “The Red Spot” sequence in 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is one such instance, when young Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn) is bitten by a spider on the cheek, forming a red bump that grows larger and more painful until it pops open and a swarm of… perhaps it is best left unsaid, hm? And the only thing more frightening than a large spider is a large spider that can talk. Take Aragog (Julian Glover) from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, who reveals to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grint) that Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) is innocent and that he didn’t open the Chamber of Secrets. He had, in fact, saved Aragog years before, and he and his many, many children vow to protect Hagrid. Just Hagrid. Next thing you know, Harry and Ron are being pursued through the forest by Aragog’s children, resulting in a scene that is one of the franchise’s most nightmarish.

‘Arachnophobia’ and ‘Infested’ Are the Best of a Small Lot

1990’s Arachnophobia is one of the best of the spiders-on-film genre. The horror comedy film by Frank Marshall sees a member of an aggressive, newly discovered spider species make its way to a small town in the United States from Venezuela. Extremely venomous, the Venezuelan spider mates with a house spider in the barn of the town’s arachnophobic new doctor, Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), producing hundreds of spiders that share daddy’s lethal bite. As animals and people start dying, Jennings comes to realize that spiders are to blame and brings in James Etherton (Julian Sands), a renowned entomologist, Etherton’s assistant, the sheriff, and exterminator Delbert McClintock (John Goodman) to stop them. They find that the spiders are located in two nests, and after they destroy the first one they find the second in Jenning’s wine cellar. More specifically, Jennings finds it when he falls through the floor and is forced to fight his fear as he goes up against the queen and “the general” who leads the colony in order to destroy the second nest. He succeeds, ending the spider’s threat once and for all.

It wouldn’t be until 2024 that a film would crawl out of the woodwork to challenge Arachnophobia at the top of the web. And it wasn’t Hollywood but Paris that took advantage of the fear of arachnids, with the taut new horror classic Infested. The film, directed by Sébastien Vanicek, forgoes the comic elements of Arachnophobia, and throws in a dash of Quarantine, a touch of Aliens, some social commentary, and a s**tload of spiders to make a truly nightmarish experience. Infested sees Kaleb (Théo Christine), a Parisian who collects insects and reptiles in his apartment, come into possession of a spider from overseas, a critter whose venom is potent, as we learn from the screaming death of a man in the opening scene of the film. The spider manages to escape, and soon the entire apartment complex is filled with the spider’s offspring, ever-growing in number and size, forcing Kaleb, his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko), and others to try and escape the building with their lives, an effort complicated by the police who have locked the building down (full confession: yours truly was so captivated by Infested it didn’t dawn on me to even turn the subtitles on until about halfway through).

‘Arachnophobia’ Shows Why Spiders Aren’t Used More Often in Hollywood

Arachnophobia is unique among its kin, and as such, highlights the reasons why spiders are not Hollywood’s go-to for instilling fear. The film works because of the techniques that Marshall uses to set the spiders up as the antagonists. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his review of Arachnophobia, Marshall puts the spiders in the foreground, shoots them in closeup, exaggerates their shadowing, and shows the viewer exactly where the spiders are, so when the people in the film move towards that spot, it sends shivers down one’s spine. Infested follows the same formula to great effect, but not throughout the entire film, with the spiders progressively growing larger and easier to see.

Long story short, it takes work and foresight to make a tiny creature the villain. It’s far, far easier to use larger spiders like tarantulas, or giant mutated spiders because you don’t have to cut away from the look of horror on the character’s faces to show what they’re recoiling from. And regardless of whether you have arachnophobia or not, bigger spiders are unnerving. It’s much harder to instill any sense of fear when you can simply step on the problem. With sharks, you only need to see that fin turn towards the swimmer on screen from afar to know something bad is coming. With spiders, unless you zoom in to show where the spider is and then zoom out again to catch the reaction (like the Peter Parker gets bitten scene in Spider-Man), it isn’t the same — and there are only so many scenarios that you can fit a giant mutated spider into.

Infested is now available to stream on Shudder in the U.S.

WATCH ON SHUDDER



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Tiffany Haddish hits back at trolls. Mauricio moves out. Kristen Stewart doing a new vampire film .

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Tiffany Haddish hits back at trolls. Mauricio moves out. Kristen Stewart doing a new vampire film .



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You Know You Love All of Blake Lively’s Iconic Met Gala Looks

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Blake Lively is the queen of the carpet.

The Gossip Girl alum is always the It Girl of the Met Gala, donning incredible looks year after year and somehow always managing to match the carpet.

And the 36-year-old famously doesn’t use a stylist, as she loves the chance to be innovative with her red carpet looks.

“I love design and I love fashion, and it’s a way to be creative,” she told Women’s Wear Daily in 2018. “In my job I get to be creative, but it’s over a period of time and so many other people are involved, whereas this is a beginning, middle, and end, and I get to be creative and there’s an end date in the near future.”

Blake’s creativity was on full display at her first Met Gala appearance in 2008, where she looked lovely in a black, strapless Ralph Lauren gown that featured a feathered bottom and came complete with short black gloves.



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