L'Araignée Vampire

Crossing Marvel's Spiderman with David Cronenberg's The Fly, Earth vs. The Spider sees meek comic book fan Quentin Kemmer (Devon Gummersall) injecting himself with a top secret serum developed from spiders, hoping to become a superhero. Imbued with super strength and the ability to shoot webs from his abdomen, he tackles murderers and thugs, but things go awry for Quentin when the spider's genes begin to take over, his body mutating and his hunger driving him to kill.

What starts off as web-slinging comic-book fun gradually develops into a tragic horror, as Quentin's transformation into a bug-eyed freak ultimately leads him to attack the apple of his eye, girl next door Stephanie (Amelia Heinle). Detective Inspector Jack Grillo (Dan Aykroyd) is hot on his trail, but will he be able to stop the Kemmerspider before it drains Stephanie of her bodily fluids? Made for TV, the film lacks the overall quality of a big screen flick, but solid performances, nuanced direction that achieves a pulp magazine atmosphere, and effective use of music make this more than passable fare for the duration. It's definitely worth hanging in there for the moment when Quentin goes full arachnid, with impressive FX by the always reliable Stan Winston Studio.

Quentin Kemmer (Devon Gummersall) is a shy and coward security guard and a passionate collector of comic books, who lives in a junkie building and has a crush on his next-door neighbor, the nurse student Stephanie Lewis (Amelia Heinle). However, he is too shy to declare his love for or invite her for a date. He works in a laboratory, which is studying and trying to develop a secret genetic weapon using the power and skills of the spiders. When the laboratory is robbed and his partner and great friend is killed with other persons by the criminals, Quentin feels under pressure with the situation and decides to inject himself the experimental vaccine. In the beginning, his strength and abilities increase and he feels like an arachnid superhero from his magazines. However, a couple of days later, he begins to transform himself into a giant spider-man hybrid, capable of throwing webs through his abdomen, developing claws in his mouth and prevailing the instincts and a non-stop hunger of the spiders over his will. Meanwhile, Quentin eliminates many persons, and Detective Jack Grillo (Dan Aykroyd) investigates the series of mysterious deaths in the neighborhood.

"Spider Vs. Earth" is a surprisingly good B-movie that recalls the horror and sci-fi stories of the 50's, inclusive with a noirish environment. The plot is good, with the exception of the unnecessary participation of Theresa Russell, in the role of an adultery and drunken wife. The slow transformation of Quentin into a spider slightly recalls the dramatic situation of "The Fly". My true and honest opinion is that the IMDb User Rating is totally unfair with this film. I bought the VHS and I do not regret. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição da Aranha" ("The Curse of the Spider")

Note: On 09 May 2023, I saw this film again.

A geek gets bitten by a modified spider and develops superhuman powers . Hey wasn`t there a recent blockbuster based on the same premise ? Yes there was and you can`t help thinking that the producers of EARTH VS THE SPIDER are going out of their way to deconstruct everything flawed about Peter Parker . " People like nice guys " says Stephanie the hot chick neighbour of anti -hero Quentin , no they don`t Stephanie and being a nurse you should know this better than anyone . People - Especially hot chick nurses - like anti-heroes , they like people who clean up the streets of sex offenders and other slime , I mean crime is at an all time high and what`s Peter Parker doing about it ? He`s chasing after a man in a green costume ! He`s far to concerned about his cholesterol levels and newspaper deadlines to care about Joe Public

As you can guess EARTH VS THE SPIDER owes more to Stan Lee than it does to the B movie that shares its name . Of course it has none of the massive budget of the recent Sam Raimi blockbuster , in fact the production values of this film are rather weak with cobwebs that look like used chewing gum and mixed standards of make up , but for entertainment value I probably enjoyed this more than the not too dissimilar THE FLY

I didn`t like THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED , but I liked EARTH VS THE SPIDER and I loved SHE CREATURE and I hope someone makes a few more " Creature Features "

Keeping in mind that this is not a 20 million special effects block- buster but rather a TV movie, or to be precise, a straight to Showtime movie, I would like to say that this movie is not bad at all. A young security guard, obsessed with comic books and super heroes and the like, secretly injects himself with a top secret (and highly unstable) new drug, hoping that it will give him the incredible powers of a spider and thus make him into a loved superhero. Well he does garner the powers he craves, super strength and super agility, but at a ghastly price. He develops grotesque deformities, kinda like Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly" (1986), and also a terrible hunger that can only be sated by a particular dish, one that struggles. This movie, like earlier stated compares easily to "The Fly", the tragic young man loses his love due to becoming a monster, and he also was a lonely, mousy kinda guy, like Jeff Goldblum was. But, unlike "The Fly", this movie was not shown in theatres nationwide, nor did it have a booming budget. You can tell, however, than Dan Ackroyd is having a blast hamming it up as a nervous cop in a bad marriage, who hunts the monster as it kills and kills. Let's be honest, folks, Ackroyd doesn't need the money. This movie has a 50's camp feel to it and as a matter of fact, it's a remake of a 50's movie by the same name. So hey, if you are lucky enough to have Showtime on your cable, check this flick out. Final judgement....it's a remake of a 50's camp classic, modernized with gory special effects. You'll love it. You have my word.

It took four writers to come up with the story, which turns out to be a cheap, stupid ripoff of "Spiderman" and "The Fly." Nothing much in the plot is interesting or makes much sense. The special effects are pretty cheesy (maybe deliberately so), and there's little in the way of quality acting...Dan Ackroyd and Teresa Russell are wasted in such shallowly written roles. Watch David Cronenberg's "The Fly" or wait until the new Sam Raimi-directed "Spiderman" movie hits theatres to see how this material should REALLY be handled! My rating * 1/2 stars.