User reviews

Expedition to a remote island find themselves stranded after a plane crash, and at the mercy of an army of voracious, giant spiders. Pilot (Alex Reid) has taken the job to search for her missing brother, whose naval jet was last reported in the vicinity of the island, while mercenary (Chris Potter) and his crew (Bear and Lightfoot) tries to remain professional in spite of the chaos.

Quirky spider specialist (Isyanov) causes endless grief, as he disappears at every given opportunity, searching for specimens with which to experiment; his final experiment finds him cocooned in a tightly woven spider-web. Thereafter the film is a roller-coaster, and it's mostly downhill, very quickly. Survivors take refuge in a dilapidated WWII shelter while the giant spiders terrorise them like demons on stilts, something akin to "War of the Worlds". Naturally, Reid discovers the fate of her naval pilot brother, and while the couple reunite with the indestructible Bear (Allen), their survival remains tenuous.

Horrid special effects and tense action sequences provides the glue that binds this formula picture together. Some light wit and a relaxed performance by Potter offer glimmers of hope, and the film is nothing if at least watchable, although the awkward English translation (most of the characters are obviously of Latin origin, so why pretend to be North Americans?) and absence of any 'name' actors (Potter is by no means a household name) might distance the average viewer.

I'm a fan of the 50s big monster movies like THEM! and their more-recent counterparts, films like ANACONDA and (especially) the TREMORS series. So when I saw a sneak preview of ARACHNID at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention a year ago (and being that I'm also someone who likes to give a lot of low-budget direct-to-video movies a chance), I knew I'd have to check it out.

The setup is simple enough in the best 50s monster movie tradition: a team of scientists and ex-military types travel to a remote island to find the source of a mysterious new virus, and in the process come face to face with a giant web-spinning terror. The trailer suggested a Godzilla-sized spider. Instead, it's about eight feet tall and maybe ten feet long. Due to the thick accents of some of the foreign characters (several co-stars are from Spain, where some of the movie was shot), the dialogue is at times rather difficult to understand. There's the usual conflicts between characters, the character with a hidden agenda for tagging along, etc. If you're familiar with the old monster movies, you'll probably recognize these standards. The film takes its sweet time getting going, and the spider (after a brief half-obscured appearance near the beginning) doesn't fully appear until nearly an hour-and-five-minutes into the film. When you have a movie in which the star is the big title monster, that monster had better show up before the thirty/forty-minute mark. Otherwise, interest begins to wander, as it did with me. But I hung there, despite the boring moments in which characters walk off in the middle of the night after they've seen what happens to people who do the same, characters argue, characters complain, and the main military guy and pilot slowly bond. Once the spider is finally revealed to the characters' amazement and horror, the suspense is upped a little bit, leading to a frenzy climax in which the pilot and two more men you thought for sure had died (having gone off to establish communication to call for help) show up to fight back. And of course, there's the final shot that screams, "Sequel!"

Chris Potter (from TV's KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES) makes an appealing hero, even if he's not given much to do other than stand around, shout orders, and fire an M16. Alex Reid, who plays the pilot, isn't particularly convincing as a tough girl (perhaps it was the director's fault), but at least she looks nice and, like Potter, does what she can with the material. I think she would have made a much better Lara Croft than Angelina Jolie. Reid literally looked like Croft in several scenes. The rest are unknowns in stock cardboard roles: the likeable, slightly-goofy spider expert, the scientist, his assistant, Potter's partners, and a handful of native helpers who all are there to serve one purpose: spider food. Surprisingly, the mechanical effects of the spider are pretty well done for such a film, though a few moments of CGI near the climax (and at the start of the film) are a little on the cheapo side. With a few more understandable actors, a quicker pace, and some tighter direction, ARACHNID might have been at least a mildly-enjoyable time waster perfect for a dull Saturday night. I admit that I have seen worse movies, but as it is, seeing it once was enough for me.

This movie features bad special effects in some areas, and pretty good ones in others. The idea had a lot more potential than the script delivered. Not an edge of your seat movie, and several things did not hold together; don't waste your money. On the other hand, if it comes on the late show or you have a free movie rental coupon, it's worth a look.

Terrible movie. From the Director who made "The Hidden" (a classic), I expected a lot better.

It was funny to see the boom microphone at the top of the frame in more than one shot. The special effects were not very special. Pathetic in fact.

I can't think of anything good to say about this movie.

It is unbelievable to see some reviewers here have actually praised this movie. They must be the crew, trying to get people to rent it out.

Usually, good directors filming the horror or semi-horror/sci-fi films choose a phobia from wide range of existing phobias and play on it...

That works greatly on the people who actually have such phobia or are close to it, and it also works good for people who don't have, but get to understand after film, why other people have such phobia...

Situation is completely different with Arachnid!

If you take this movie and make someone who struggles from arachnophobia to watch it couple of times, I am sure he will be cured.

Giant spider monster is so dumb, so funny, so stupidly made... that everyone will understand for good, that there's nothing we can afraid of, even if spiders will really become that big.

Recommended for psychologists, use the film, cure the people!

Arachnid (2001) 4 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 2:20 min

BASIC PLOT: A pilot, some scientists, a few natives, and some mercenaries, go into the jungle... They all go for different reasons, but they all find the same thing. It's death, and it's form is arachnid!

WHAT WORKS: *SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE AWESOME! For a low budget monster movie, I was impressed by the sophistication of the special effects. They are good enough to be believed, and there's not too much CGI, and what there is really works. It's definitely a throwback to old school monster movies, and that's a good thing!

*DR LEON'S VOICE IS AWESOME! José Sancho has the most beautiful voice, it's like cotton candy to my ears. I could listen to him talk for hours, he should do books on tape.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *LOREN MERCER IS A B*TCH Mercer's (Alex Reid) insipid whining makes her the most unlikable character, but we're supposed to believe Valentine (Chris Potter) is attracted to her? Why? There's no reason why he would be, so a lot of the movie doesn't make sense.

*DR. LEON'S CONSTANT SQUABBLING WITH MERCER HAS NO POINT It also doesn't make sense. Yeah, she's a b*tch, but there's never a real reason given as to why they are always fighting.

*THE SOUND IS TERRIBLE especially in the opening scenes. I don't know if this was just on the platform I was using (Tubi), or if it's that way on the DVD too, parts were almost unwatchable.

*IT FEELS LIKE THE NATIVES ARE JUST HERE TO GET ATE and that's not cool.

*WHY DOES SUSANA SUDDENLY FREAK OUT, when she's been chill as a cucumber for the entire movie? It's stupid! Susana (Neus Asensi) has been the voice of reason, putting Mercer in her place, and remaining calm when no one else does, throughout the entire movie. Why then, would she suddenly freak out, and run screaming into danger?

*HENRY CAPRI - ARACHNOLOGIST, SHOULD HAVE MADE IT Henry Capri (Ravil Isyanov), the quirky spider guy, who looks like Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley (1976), should have made it. It seems like throughout the movie, the people you want to make it, don't, and the people who irritate you, do.

*THEY KILL THE MAMA SPIDER, but leave the eggs, soon to hatch into babies? Capri says if only one gets loose, it could destroy the human race, but they go off and leave 100's of eggs, when they could just as easily set them on fire. WTH?

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *This is a remake of the 1957 Lon Chaney Jr. Classic, The Cyclops (1957), (available on Tubi). If you like monster movies, I'd recommend watching both, so you can compare. They both are very low budget, but that's part of the fun. The special effects in Arachnid (2001) are much better than they should be, elevating it out of obscurity. It's a fun way to turn your brain off, but only watch and rate if you enjoy silly, low budget, monster fun. If not, go listen to NPR, or something.

CLOSING NOTES: *THIS IS A LOW BUDGET MONSTER MOVIE, please keep that in mind before you watch/rate it. These types of movies have a much lower budgets, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE FILM, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.

A plane driven by a pilot(Alex Reid) and transporting ex-marines(Chris Potter, Luis Lorenzo), a scientist(Ravil Isyanov) and doctors(Jose Sancho, Neus Asensi) crashes on a tropical island that contains a lethal carnivorous alien spider. The mission of the medics to find a formula to heal ills and the pilot to look for her brother disappeared when his jet was downed. They're accidentally lost and the eight-legged spider causes wreak havoc terrorizing and destroying the crew . Lethal alien spider meets up local natives and crew and spontaneously catch them and begins to consume people. The spider rapidly multiplies and the protagonists confronting with it .

This chiller with middling budget packs thrills, chills, some good action and few funny moments. It's a hybrid of monster movies from the 50s such as 'Tarantula' and modern American production such as 'Depredator'. The thrilling screenplay is a bit yawn-inspiring but nifty special effects will keep you from dozing off, its author is Steve Johnson, he's a nice creature effects designer, a perfect craftsman who made effects in 'Spiderman II' , 'Species II' , ' Blade II' , and ' War of worlds ' , among others. On the whole this is a suspenseful and tense thriller especially at the amazing ending tableau when Chris Potter and Alex Reid have to tackle the gigantic spider at the lair in the final. The tale is well produced by Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernandez, owners of Fantastic Factory productions, a successful terror movies company. The motion picture is professionally directed by Jack Sholder with rather too much camera movement and there are also lots of low-angle shots of people hanging around waiting to get bitten by the carnivorous spider. Although nothing which haven't been seen before, this is not the picture to watch if you are scared of spiders , however the movie is quite entertaining. Utterly arachnophobia people must flee this film.

Other movies about those bugs are the following : ¨Tarantula(1955)¨ by Jack Arnold with John Agar; ¨Tarantula: the deadly cargo(1977)¨ with Claude Akins; ¨Kingdom of spiders(77)¨ by John Budd Cardos with William Shatner and ¨Arachnophobia(1990)¨ by Frank Marshall with John Goodman.

I liked this movie. I am really into all sci-fi, especially things involving spiders. I recommended it to a couple friends, and they watched it. I watched it with them, so now I've seen it 7 times. Ravil Issyanov is really cool. He played Ghazzi Murad in The Jackal. The first 10 minutes of that movie were the best part. Any way, Arachnid was neat. I don't particularly care if anyone emails me telling me that it sucked, because i know their wrong. :)

Arachnid: 7 of 10: Maybe it's the puppets that I liked. It's nice to see a movie made in the 21st century that doesn't use horrible shiny CGI for its creatures. (It does use horrible shiny CGI for it's alien spaceships.) Arachnid is all the better for it's retro monster.

This is a true six-pack toke 'm if you got them B movie. A European production with decent location shooting, an international cast (half horrible and unintelligibly dubbed), and a real B movie budget unlike those $10 Z movie digital camcorder pretenders.

It's all off course a bit predictable. (If you can't figure out two of the survivors at the end turn in your monster movie-watching card now.) And despite a lot of fodder (always a good sign) to many deaths seem off screen or at least over a little quickly. The movie also could have used some gratuitous nudity (If young thing Alex Reid wasn't willing at least allow Spanish star Neus Asensi to release those puppies like she has done in the past.)

Those quibbles aside I couldn't help but cheer when the puppeteers took the Volkswagen sized spider out for the spin in the second half of the movie. Of course you enjoyment may depend on what you consumed during the first half.

Predictable. The plucky heroine; the strapping hero; the cast of characters. Not only do you know who's going to be eaten, you practically know the order it will happen. But it was only *bad.* If it had been *super-bad* it might have been fun, in a MST3K fashion. Nice gross-looking spider, though.

Arachnid is a pretty good movie which follows the similar sci-fi mutated monster style of film in the tradition of Critters, Anaconda, etc. We have a group of humans who are trying to survive against a species of alien spider, which is done up by better than average special effects. The group of humans are interesting, consisting of a female pilot, a spider researcher, two medical people, some soldiers, and some island natives. It's like Survivor with spiders! Much of the film consists of build up, with a bit of gore dropped in every so often. Unless you are terrified of spiders, this film won't scare you at all.

I can't say enough of things about Alex Reid, who plays Mercer, the lead female heroine. She is incredibly attractive and sexy. Most of the film she is dressed a la Tomb Raider style, if not less. I believe this is the only film she has done so far but hopefully, we can see more in the future. Forget the spiders, watch the film for her!

I recommend this film not only for Alex Reid but because the special effects are decent, and it always fun to see who will survive against the monster.

A very simple rule in cinema still works: Bad script, Bad movie. The Arachnid´ script is awful, even stupid in certain moments. Neither actors or director couldn´t avoid the disaster with this very bad story. The writer must work in another job... any job far away from writing, please...

I enjoyed DNA (1997) a lot more than this!

Let's face it: we have Eight legged freaks, Arachnophobia and even Ice Spiders, so we've seen good fun, good movies and cheesy fun also, but this one is beyond bad and terrible. Sorry to say, I did expect to enjoy it yet I couldn't wait for it to end.

Arachnid is one bad executed movie, with some OK actors, good settings, bad dialogue and horrible effects. The spider from IT looked better than what I've seen here. Not recommended to anyone, not even monsters fan!

Cheers!

Inexistent sound, inconsistent plot, no ending, no dialogue, horrible acting, this "thing" looks like it has been made by some students wanting to make a bad joke to their movie director teacher and like they worked hard on fixing it.

When you see a microphone going from above an actor to above another one, to start with, you know it is going to be a dreadful movie. You can see the white light screens above the actors in the jungle. The pilot goes into the jungle instead of fixing the crashed plane. It is even awful when they dream! They tried to copy Alien with the bug scene, The Prisoner in the chase scene, and the NOTHING in the entire movie. Not one scary second, a big laugh on myself for having renting it. Get out of there!!

Cheesy horror with some graphic mutant tick and spider attacks. Marooned scientists on a tropical island discovers a weird substance secreted by mutant spiders. Script is laking. Special effects are really pretty good. And Ms. Alex Reid stripping down to her bra is a natural high light. Very predictable, but you stick around waiting for the gory stuff. Also in the cast are: Chris Potter, Neus Aseni and Rocqueford Allen. Intense spider attacks.

I don't mind admitting that spiders freak me out and the idea of flesh burrowing parasites....well, they make my skin crawl. So it's not surprising that big bug creature features are amongst my favourite horror movies; they can unsettle me without even trying.

Arachnid, produced by Brian Yuzna and directed by Jack Sholder (who helmed the fun flick The Hidden and the abysmal Nightmare on Elm Street 2) is a 'by-the-numbers' effort which, despite being extremely predictable, entertains with its impressive (and often yucky) effects by Steve Johnson.

When a UFO explodes over some South Pacific islands, a deadly creature is let loose which causes havoc amongst the natives. A team of scientists are sent to investigate and are soon fighting for their lives against a mutant monster that is part alien and part spider.

Chock full of clichés, Sholder's low budget bug-fest isn't going to win any awards for originality and doesn't make a lot of sense, but with its attractive spunky heroine Mercer (Alex Reid), busty doctor (Neus Asensi) and its (sometimes, quite literally) eye-popping gore, I found it to be a reasonably entertaining monster movie.

The cover had me fooled. I saw in the library and I though, this would be a good movie but instead, it was a horrible movie that deals, yet again, about genetically enhanced giant spiders. A formula that has been overused so many times it gets sickening. The beginning was a sight to see; it was intriguing and a good cliffhanger but the rest was horrible after that. Rather than being a horror it was an action-adventure dressed up as a horror.

The acting was so-so and still up for debate but overall it was pretty poor. For some reason they way they voiced the dialogue and the way they acted made it seem like they were actually reading from a script rather than trying to act like it was natural dialogue.

This movie had some scares, some, and at times I jumped but the way the shots were developed and the way the previous shot was framed, it kind of foreshadowed the whole jump-out-scare thing. The special effects were effective, which is the only thing good about this movie.

Overall, If you want a unoriginal formulaic plot, giant spiders and good effects, this movie if for you.

Arachnid opens with a cheesy alien ship crash in the middle of the jungle. (This thankfully is the only part in the movie to use CGI). Then alien spiders that must have been on the ship run off into the jungle after killing their alien pilot. Even though this beginning may make the movie look like another CGI horror movie, don't be fooled, all of the mutated/alien/ spiders are made from props and animatronics. And not only are they not CGI, but they look excellent too. This is what makes this movie so enjoyable. Through out the movie our heros explore the jungle while trying not to become monster munchies. Most of the acting is OK for a movie of this type. Not nearly as bad as some of the other movies made by Fantastic Factory. Overall I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of creature features, as well as gore hounds, (there are many good uses of gore in this film).

"Arachnid" may not be a great film and in fact it starts off pretty rocky but it gets better as it progresses and what it does right makes it worth a viewing. The story follows a rescue group traveling to a remote island where the inhabitants have been dying mysteriously. Once on the island, the crew discover that it is populated by strange creatures which appear to be hybrids between spiders and other native forms of life. The creatures are not spiders at all though, the whole incident has been caused by an alien ship crashing onto the island. The accident has released a rapidly evolving strain of spider-like aliens and they are quickly picking off the human population. Before they know it, this rescue mission has become a fight for survival.

When I say the movie starts off rough, I mean really rough. Most of the effects used to create the creatures are practical, which is a very good thing but at the beginning, we see the alien ship and it is created used some computer effects that are not good at all. It's unfortunate because not only does the scene where the ship crashes look amateurish but it doesn't add anything to the story. There's no real mystery about what is happening on the island, you know right from the beginning that it's alien spiders. There's a minor sub plot where the crew's pilot Mercer (Alex Reid) is looking for her brother, which we know is the pilot that first encounters the arachnid creatures but it's more of a tossup between "is he dead or mutated into a horrible spider monster" than anything. Either way you know she's not going to see her brother again. The beginning of the movie is also plagued with terrible dialog and some wooden acting. Once again, if you get past the first 30 minutes or so, it mostly goes away. Maybe I just got used to it, but either way I didn't notice it so much and the movie does get significantly better over time.

The biggest strength of the movie is the variety of creatures and the special effects. Because the arachnid alien creature is trying to adapt to the environment, it's got a variety of spawns that are pretty cool to see. There are some oversized spiders, some snake-spider hybrids, creepy tick-like creatures that burrow under your skin and let's not forget the boss monster itself. These creatures are all created using stop motion, elaborate puppets or cleverly shot miniatures and they're all pretty impressive and very cool to see. You'll likely be disappointed that there isn't a sequel where we get to see additional creatures actually. That's not to say that the special effects are perfect. The budget does show, particularly during the beginning and during scenes where we can see the main arachnid alien crawling around on walls and such. It looks just fine but the speed at which its limbs move isn't quite right. If you ever look at insects move, they have a really unsettling jittery way of moving their limbs. It almost looks like your eye is too slow to capture the movements and all you see are random snippets (kind of like watching people move to a strobe light) and the movements of the main spider just doesn't look as good as it would have if these movements had been done using modern special effects.

Another positive are the characters in the movie. Well, I should say select characters. Several members of the crew sent on the island consist of natives that don't speak English and are basically given no dialog or characterization whatsoever. You can bet these guys are just spider food. The main characters though, they're competent when it comes to the situations they're stuck in and interesting enough that you do want to see them make it out alive. It makes a big difference in the scary moments.

I also want to discuss one bit in the movie that was really clever. So you know how in every horror movie, the group has to split up so they can cover more ground/get eaten when they become isolated? Well this movie does that but instead of the second group just getting killed off, they actually re-join the survivors of the spider attacks towards the end of the film. That means you get that tension of the group getting smaller and smaller as the bodies pile up, only to get a boost of potential victims towards the end. If you are an aspiring film-maker I strongly recommend you check this movie out to see the little touches it did well.

For all the praise I'm giving the movie, I have to admit it really isn't that great overall. It feels like the film needed to go through one more proof read to tighten up some of the loose ends and move this from a "better than expected" movie to a "hidden gem". It isn't great but if you see this one at the video store for a dollar or you spot an ol' VHS copy at a garage sale, it's worth a look. Just forgive that terrible intro and you're in for some fun. (Theatrical version on DVD, October 25, 2013)

Essentially, many people, consisting of several redshirts and five characters who actually matter, onboard an aircraft that could comfortably hold the five main characters and thus seems very cramped, manage to crash on an island while searching for a new spider species from which they intend to produce antivenom.

And given the redshirts' presence, its certainly not surprising once group members start being killed. Actually after the first victim is attacked and "sick", the other characters repeatedly get distracted so perhaps they knew that character was a redshirt and didn't care about his fate.

Actually with most characters being redshirts the characters aren't very interesting although there are a few different spider critters.

The movie keeps itself fresh, just about enough to be watchable, but it still isn't something I'd recommend