The Giant Spider

The acting is mediocre at best. The special effects are of varied quality. Actually, the spider scenes are for the most part handled rather well. The stock footage is horribly obvious. As for the writing and directing, well, let's just say that Chris Mihm need not worry about being nominated for any Oscar.

It's quite obvious that this is a very low budget independent movie.

But... it's all done with a great deal of love for the fifties "big bug" movies that it pays tribute to. If it was any slicker it just wouldn't be as much fun as it is.

If you like these old films, you'll probably love The Giant Spider. I know I did.

I've been following Christopher R. Mihm's film career for a couple of years now, and The Giant Spider is easily the best, most accomplished film he's made. Mihm has made a career of mounting reverent homages to 50's horror/sci-fi films, and the polish of each of his films (this is his eighth!) grows with each film. The pacing, acting, special effects, directing, and technical achievement of The Giant Spider is pretty darn impressive for an independent film-maker - some stand out elements for me: The "spider" simply puts all other film beasties to shame - compare it directly with 1955's "Tarantula" and you can see how much better this one is filmed and presented. The puppetry is AMAZING! The close-up of the spider's face is really, really first rate. And the theme song has been stuck in my head for days! Love, love, love it. A film that made me laugh out loud several times (not AT it, WITH it), and left me with a great big smile. Perfect film for fans of the genre.

The movie category for this is Incorrect, it is a 'Comedy, horror, Sci fi'--with Comedy coming first

A viewer has to get past the first 5 minutes or so, Mr. Mihm, (the guy who put this thing together along with his wife), put their son in it, and his short acting stint is pretty non believable and not funny at all, but after his character meets up with the mom, it starts to get funny, and pretty much stays that way for the rest of the movie

I got a lot of chuckles out of this. A lot of times with this kind of movie it has a lot of good looking young people, and it ends up being pretty flat.

This particular movie has adults for the most part, and U can tell they got a kick out of portraying their characters, and got into the spirit of the thing

Thoroughly enjoyable PG comedy horror movie

Spider A+, acting D-. I had high hopes for the Giant Spider, being that I love old black and white horror movies. Sadly this did not live up to those expectations.

I can see the attempt to make this a 50's style film, but it doesn't work. Now I have seen movies of the 1950's including the nature on the rampage ones. This isn't that. There are many jokes throughout poking fun at 50's life, and that joke wears thin really quickly. The movie, simply, is too self aware to be a real throwback. Maybe I'm being too critical of the film but...it's a good attempt but just doesn't work. Stop trying too hard.