Arachnia

If I had to take a guess on where the inspiration for this film came from, I would have to say that it was from the previous years spider release, Eight Legged Freaks which was made in like two weeks apparently. This film looks like it was made in a couple of hours. Not saying it was a total suckfest, but definitely not all that good as there is so much annoying talking between the characters, lots of titillation without actually having the titillation and spiders that the makers of this movie were not sure how they come about.

The story has a group of students and their professor flying to some big dig happening in Arizona. The professor is pompous and actually brought two of the girls because he has the hots for them. Meteors are flying through the air and one crashes nearby sending powerful shock waves which cause the plan to crash. They find a broken down house to stay out before a farmer comes and wants the professor to see this spider in the barn. The professor says it's fake, but soon a bunch of them come and begin trying to kill the group out in the middle of nowhere.

The story may have worked with more gore, more likable characters and better effects. As it is, you will want Deke dead first, then the professor and then the young lady who does not scream all the time, but instead says everything sarcastically then the pilot that reminds me of that guy on Friends and then the two cute girls who scream and talk a lot. You will just want to see them all dead is what I'm saying! The effects could be forgiven if we had more gore and good characters, but since we don't, at times it looks like a Ray Harryhausen film if he didn't try at all.

So, not the best film in the world, but certainly not the worst either. Not sure what the point of the bath scene and the two girls in bed scene as nothing is shown in either scene and both seem to lead up to something bordering on sexy before nothing happens. The cave scenes look alright, but why are there worms or were they supposed to be spiders? Also, I am doubting a captain of anything can just take an entire platoon to the middle of nowhere just cause his daughter was crying on the phone. Lots of idiocy going on, but at least I had the satisfaction of watching Deke pulled apart!

Well I just finished watching the movie and I regret wasting every second...There's 80 bad minutes of my life that I'm not getting back... The flick is unbelievably "not good". The actors suck, the not-so-special effects suck - at times they are worse than the movies shot at the 50s - the dialogue is tacky...The only scene that caught my attention was Alexxus' naked scene. I just CAN'T believe somebody actually WROTE a script and the whole movie was not improvised! I also can't believe that there is a director out there who was so happy with his work that he allowed this piece of...#### to be produced..DO NOT BY ANY MEANS RENT THIS MOVIE!! IT'S BOTH A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!

Director Bret Piper's ARACHNIA opens with college professor Munkford (David Bunce) and his students crash-landing in an airplane, and winding up in an old farmhouse.

As the evening progresses, it becomes evident that: #1- Munkford is a creepy pervert! #2- Two of his students, named Trina and Kelly are beautiful, but whiney and brain-deprived! #3- Two other students, named Chandra and Sean are the only members of the group, aside from Munkford, possessing the ability to count past twelve! After the friendly farmer shows them a cow-sized arachnid carcass, humongous horror crawls forth on segmented legs!

This is where Piper's stop-motion and practical creature effects shine, far better than in some of his other films. Make no mistake, this is one big ball of cheeeze-corn from start to finish. However, it is highly entertaining nonetheless. Be sure to stick around for the VERY low-rent military response to the giant bug monsters!

Have no fear, there's nothing serious going on here!...

In a way, you have to respect Arachnia. It's clearly meant as a tribute to the big bug movies of the fifties, and while the special effects look terrible; at least the film doesn't feature CGI. However, on the other hand; you can't respect the film too much because it's a load of rubbish. The acting is terrible, the special effects (as mentioned) are impossible to take seriously, and once you've seen one giant spider being blown up; you've seen them all, so it gets boring rather quickly. The plot follows a bunch of people who are unlucky enough to be in a plane crash after a meteor shower. They go to the only house in the area; which just happens to be a house where a man has a huge spider he used to use as a circus attraction. Coincidently around the same time, the meteor shower has caused more giant spiders to rise from underground. All the characters in this film are poor caricatures; none of them have anything even resembling a third dimension and they will soon begin to thoroughly bore you. You've got to feel for director Brett Piper as he clearly didn't have much to work with for this film; but that doesn't make Arachnia worth a damn, and overall there are better giant bug films than this, and therefore Arachnia doesn't get the seal of approval from me.

Overall, not a bad horror flick. The monster scenes were sketchy, choppy and unrealistic. There was Alexxus Young starring nude in it, which is nice to watch. I didn't find is as much horror as I did comedy but thats okay. I would give it a 5/10.