Arachnid

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.

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.

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.

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.

In my mind, the words "Giant spider" = "Bad movie" But Arachnid actually proved me wrong. Oh, it was by no means good...but it was a fun movie to watch anyways.

Alex Reid was really the only good point as far as acting goes. Everybody else in the movie was just kinda...there. Luckily though, nobody was horribly bad or annoying.

The spider and centipedes (I'm still wondering why there were giant centipedes in this movie...) looked pretty decent. Well, decent since I assume this movie had a fairly low budget. Except at the end, when the spider starts running really fast along the walls of a cave. That just looked horrible.

Im not gonna lie and tell you about the storyline. To be honest, I wasnt exactly paying attention that much. It appears that an alien spaceship crashes on a small island and it was carrying a giant spider...or maybe it mutated a spider and made it giant. Then a team goes on an expedition into the jungles to find it. Thats all I got.

An enjoyable film, but I wouldnt suggest buying it. In fact, renting it is kind of going overboard. Maybe wait for it on TV sometime. Thats what I did, and I was satisfied.