“Give them pleasure,” said the great Alfred Hitchcock. “The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”
Dissecting and debating the cultural norms and traditions surrounding the horror film is a great way to spend a Friday night, in my opinion, but another is to watch a film that captures the essence of what Hitchcock is saying here. I think one of the most interesting things about the horror-comedy subgenre is the way that it manifests this notion in an even more palpable way, providing the tensions of scares and the great relief of laughter in the same series of moments. ‘Arachnophobia’ is a B-movie through and through, but it’s also undoubtedly tapping into some larger truth about what we want out of our entertainment, and about the nature of that pleasure that Hitchcock described so adeptly.
I bring up Hitchcock in part because first-time director Frank Marshall said back in 1990 that he was going for something along the lines of ‘The Birds,’ a seminal entry particularly in the bestial horror genre back in 1963. Marshall compared the feeling of scared laughter to being on a roller coaster, which of course also provides an apt structural metaphor for horror filmmaking and storytelling in general. ‘Arachnophobia’ is one of those films that you can love watching over and over, because while it might be on the more predictable end of the scale, it provides just the right amount of thrills to keep you thoroughly engaged.
Jeff Daniels stars as Dr. Ross Jennings, family man and urban-transplant, and the titular arachnophobe. He and his family move to a small town called Canaima where Dr. Jennings is in line to supplant the town physician Dr. Sam Metcalf (Henry Jones), who has said he will be retiring and passing along his patients. However, as is only fitting, Ross Jennings’ practice immediately hits two rather large snags — Sam Metcalf refuses to retire, after all, and his one and only patient, Margaret Hollins, dies suddenly and mysteriously. Though Jennings wants desperately to examine the body and perform an autopsy to determine the causes, Dr. Metcalf, as presiding town physician, strikes him down, in a great little piece of small-town politics that the film does so well.
Little does Jennings know that he’s stumbled onto something altogether more sinister, as a deadly species of spider has managed to make its way from the jungles of Venezuela to Canaima in the coffin of photographer Jerry Manley (Mark L. Taylor). And as it turns out, that spider has managed to breed with a female to create a brood of killer spiders, who begin killing off townspeople left and right. This middle of the portion of the film is probably the most entertaining, as Marshall expertly constructs each spider-fanged death for maximum enjoyment with a deft combination of chills and laughs. As spiders begin picking off their prey, Jennings is following close behind in his investigation, eventually with the help of Professor James Atherton (Julian Sands), whose expedition deep into the Venezuelan jungles is responsible for springing this deadly predator on the civilized world. They are accompanied by Atherton’s assistant, Chris Collins, played by Brian McNamara, and ridiculously-inept exterminator Delbert McClintock, cast so perfectly as the overconfident and bold John Goodman.
The movie certainly isn’t terrifying, but if, like me, you’re not a fan of large, fanged insects/arachnids, it will certainly make you jump every once in a while. It never strays into over-seriousness and even the happy ending maintains something of its dark comedic bent. Marshall had worked previously as a longtime producer for Steven Spielberg, and you can tell that the first-time director learned well from one of Hollywood’s all-time greats. (Together with his wife Kathleen Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg were the founders of Amblin Entertainment back in 1981, a hugely successful production shingle which has acquired a multitude of Oscar nominations over the years.) Like some of Spielberg’s best films (‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ for example), Marshall’s ‘Arachnophobia’ has that expert pacing and balance between thrills and some more heartfelt character-driven moments, though Marshall ratchets up the comedy in his debut, which works perfectly well for us. The prolific producer hasn’t been quite as busy in the directing chair as of late, but we’d love to see him get back in the game and embrace the B-movie once again.
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