Itsy Bitsy

I'm not a horror fan. If I were I'd probably give this movie a seven. Good special effects. I was especially satisfied with the acting of the children. As with many such movies there are implausibles that go against known science but are necessary for the movie to work. I won't mention what they are as to not give anything away. Not as good as "Arachnophobia" but worth a view.

"Itsy Bitsy" is a creature feature & a mother/children relationship drama all in one, and, well, there's both ups and downs in it. Now, I don't have arachnophobia, and while the movie didn't make itchy much, it sure did creep out my little sister. Controversial opinion, but it's quite a true stereotype - women and children being afraid of spiders.

I always start with the things I liked, so here goes: Practical FX! Yes, there's no cgi, you're in for a treat if you like gooey & squishy old-shcool horror effects. Performances are, in my opinon, the next best thing - besides Bruce Davison I didn't know any of the actors & had to check 'em out here on IMDb during the watch, because, honestly, they were pretty good at what they were doing. I surprised myself by concluding that my favorite parts of "Itsy Bitsy" were actually the conflicts between the mother and the son or simply the spider-less parts of the story. Not all of them, but some.

The dissapointments are as follows: It's a much less spider-oriented movie than You probably think, I'd say it's 50/50 that and a relationship drama. Secondly, I thought the intro of the story was pretty wonky & could've been anything else, really. Thirdly, the pacing can get slow at times, eventually making those 90 minutes feel pretty stretched out. Also, while the practical FX are awesome and all, it doesn't get much crazier with the passing runtime, my expectations for the climax were bigger & I suppose Yours might be too.

"Bloody Disgusting" stated that "Itsy Bitsy" keeps Arachnophobia alive and well & while it may be so, the summary of it is a pretty average horror flick that shows great effort, but comes out as equal parts awesome and whacky. My rating: 5/10.

ITSY BITSY begins with a tribal ritual, where a black, earthen jar / container is stolen by desperate men. The scene shifts to a mother (Elizabeth Roberts) and her two kids relocating to her new job in a new town. She will be providing in-home care for an elderly collector of tribal artifacts (Bruce Davison- WILLARD), who just happens to have received said container.

As more is learned about the sacred pottery, it becomes clear that something terrible is brewing. When it is broken, the horror is unleashed.

Two things can be said up front: #1- Arachnophobes will utterly hate this movie! #2- Monster / practical effects fans will absolutely love it!

The complaints about the "family drama" aspect of the movie are unfounded. Any such drama is just a necessary part of the overall story, unless we only want a pointless series of jump scares. The movie also has its own mythology, explaining the significance of the creature. A solid monster movie with some creepy moments.

Denise Crosby co-stars as Sheriff Jane Dunne...

I felt it was very drawn out, we get it the mother has a addiction, and has flashbacks - they overly repeated this and really it had nothing to do with the plot, the mother seemed to really neglect these kids, I felt the spider was the least of their worries.

anyways I was hoping there would of been a special way to defeat the spider (like get help from the tribe or the artifact), but blah it focused more on the drama and trauma rather then the spider which was well done but only a short part of the movie.

it should have been called 'just a itsy bitsy addiction

4/10

Almost decent watch, don't want to watch this again, and can only recommend for a Bad Movie Night.

They got some decent actors (even the kids), they had some acceptable production value, but I was still surprised to see this was a 2019 movie, it looks closer to 2010.

The real shame is that once it starts to horror movie, it actually does a good job. There are clearly things from Jaws and Alien, maybe even The Thing, sprinkled in this, so at least the people involved are legitimate horror people. All the establishing story, and the B-plot involving everyone outside the 2 houses is just a waste. None of it pays off.

I get that they were trying to do what Arachnophobia did, but that had a point to it.

We came here to see a spider hunt people, just give us that.