A severely deformed man is found dead in the Arizona desert. Dr. Matt Hastings, a doctor from the nearby town of Desert Rock, Arizona, is called in by the sheriff to examine the body. It appears to be that of biological research scientist Eric Jacobs, an acquaintance of Hastings'. Jacobs' colleague, Dr. Gerald Deemer, says Jacobs died of acromegaly, but Hastings is unconvinced, since acromegaly takes years to reach the level Jacobs was at. Deemer acknowledges that Jacobs's development of acromegaly was rapid, over just four days, but insists that such anomalies are to be expected on occasion.
In his home and research laboratory in an isolated desert mansion, Deemer keeps rabbits, white rats, hamsters, and a tarantula, all of enormous size, some as large as Golden Retrievers. Deemer's assistant, doctoral student Paul Lund, is now deformed like Jacobs, and attacks Deemer, smashing the glass covering a tarantula's cage and setting the lab aflame in his rampage. Lund grabs the hypodermic needle that Deemer was using on the lab specimens and injects him with the contents. As flames engulf the lab, the tarantula leaves and Lund collapses and dies. Deemer regains consciousness, grabs a fire extinguisher, and puts out the fire. That night, Deemer buries Lund in the desert.
A newcomer to town, Stephanie Clayton, nicknamed "Steve", has signed on to assist in Deemer's lab. Told by the hotel clerk that she will have to wait until the only taxi returns, she accepts a ride from Hastings, who is also going to Deemer's lab. At the mansion, they encounter local journalist Joe Burch, who is asking questions about Jacobs's death, but getting the runaround from Deemer. Deemer tells Hastings and Clayton that the fire was caused by an equipment malfunction, all the test animals were killed, and Lund has left his employment. Deemer explains his work - the use of a radioactive element to produce an artificial super-nutrient, which once perfected, could provide an unlimited food supply for humanity.
Days later, the sheriff asks Hastings to accompany him to Andy Anderson's ranch as he investigates picked-clean cattle skeletons and large pools of a thick, white liquid. The tarantula, now grown to the size of a tank, is the cause. That night, Anderson and two men inside a pickup truck are killed by the tarantula.
The next day, at the scene of the wrecked truck, Hastings looks around at the request of the sheriff, and once again finds pools of the white liquid, of which he takes samples. He calls Deemer to ask him to analyze the liquid, and Clayton answers. Deemer ambushes her, and the phone call is cut. Hastings drives back to the mansion, where he finds Deemer near death, suffering from severe acromegalic deformities. Deemer divulges all that he knows about the nutrient and says that Lund and Jacobs tested it on themselves against his advice. Hastings flies the samples of white liquid to the Arizona Agricultural Institute in Phoenix. The substance is determined to be tarantula venom.
Hastings flies back to Desert Rock. As night falls, the tarantula, now larger than a house, attacks the mansion. Deemer is killed, but Clayton escapes. Hastings returns for her in his car. The tarantula pursues them down the highway toward the town. The sheriff's men intercept, but their guns have no effect. Dynamite is gathered from town, but a blast large enough to blow up the highway does not faze the tarantula. As they evacuate the town, an Air Force fighter jet squadron, summoned by the sheriff, launches a napalm attack, incinerating the tarantula at the town's edge.
Tarantula takes place in the fictional town of Desert Rock, Arizona.[5]
The film's special effects, which depict giant animals and insects, were advanced for the mid-1950s. Real animals, including a rabbit and a guinea pig in Professor Deemer's lab, were used to represent their giant on-screen counterparts. A live tarantula was used whenever the gigantic spider is seen moving. Shooting of miniatures was reserved for close-ups of its face and fangs and for the final scenes of the giant spider being set ablaze by the jet squadron's napalm attack. The resulting scenes proved more convincing in some ways, than the giant prop ants used in the earlier Warner Bros. film Them! (1954).[6] Of this and the entire film, Jack Arnold said about Tarantula: "We decided to do this film because, generally, people are very afraid of spiders".
Although set in Arizona, Tarantula was filmed entirely in California, with the desert scenes being shot in Apple Valley.[7] Additional footage was shot in and around the rock formations of Dead Man's Point in Lucerne Valley, California, a frequently used location for many early Western films.[citation needed]
Like Them!, Tarantula makes atmospheric use of its desert locations. While a radioactive isotope does make an appearance, it differs from most other 1950s big-bug features in having the mutation caused by the peaceful research of a well-intentioned scientist, rather than by nuclear weapons and/or a mad genius. Director Jack Arnold used matte effects once again two years later to show miniaturization, rather than gigantism, in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), which also featured an encounter with a spider.
The film's theatrical release poster, featuring a spider with two eyes instead of the normal eight, and carrying a woman in its fangs, does not represent any scene in the final film.
Reception
The film was often paired with Running Wild as part of a double feature.[8] It was the fourth-biggest film at the U.S. box office in December 1955[8] and earned rentals of $1.1 million.[3]
Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising the film's fast pacing, special effects, and intriguing subplot. He called it, "One of the best giant-insect films".[9] The contemporary review in Variety indicated "A tarantula as big as a barn puts the horror into this well-made program science-fictioner, and it is quite credibly staged and played, bringing off the far-fetched premise with a maximum of believability".[10] In Video Movie Guide 2002, authors Mick Martin and Marsh Potter characterized Tarantula as "(a) pretty good entry in the giant bug subgenre of 1950s horror and science fiction movies".[4] On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with an average score of 6.3/10.[11]
Home media
The film was first released on DVD by Universal Studios on April 3, 2006. Universal later re-released the film as a part of its boxed set The Classic Sci-Fi Collection, which features four other classics: (The Incredible Shrinking Man, Monster on the Campus, The Monolith Monsters, and The Mole People). It was last released on September 27, 2013.[12] The German region B Blu-ray from Koch Media features both a 1.33:1 (Academy ratio) and a 1.78:1 widescreen version of the film. Shout! Factory released a region A Blu-ray April 30, 2019. It features audio commentary by Tom Weaver, Dr. Robert J. Kiss, and David Schecter.
The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 American science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel, The Shrinking Man. The film stars Grant Williams as Scott and Randy Stuart as Scott's wife, Louise. While relaxing on a boat, Scott is enveloped by a strange fog. Months later, he discovers that he appears to be shrinking. By the time Scott has reached the height of a small boy, his condition becomes known to the public. When he learns there is no cure for his condition, he lashes out at his wife. As Scott shrinks to the point where he can fit into a dollhouse, he has a battle with his family cat, leaving him lost and alone in his basement, where he is now smaller than the average insect.
Eight Legged Freaks is a 2002 monster comedy horror film directed by Ellory Elkayem and starring David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Doug E. Doug, and Scarlett Johansson. The plot follows spiders that are exposed to mutagenic toxic waste, causing them to grow to colossal sizes and attack a small American mining town.
Jack Arnold was an American actor and film and television director, best known as one of the leading filmmakers of 1950s science fiction films. His most notable films are It Came from Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Tarantula (1955), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).
Attack of the Giant Leeches is an independently made, 1959 black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced by Gene Corman and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. It stars Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Bruno VeSota and Jan Shepard. The screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film was released by American International Pictures on a double bill with A Bucket of Blood. Later, in some areas in 1960, Leeches played on a double bill with the Roger Corman film House of Usher.
The Brain That Wouldn't Die is a 1962 American science fiction horror film directed by Joseph Green and written by Green and Rex Carlton. The film was completed in 1959 under the working title The Black Door but was not theatrically released until May 3, 1962, under its new title as a double feature with Invasion of the Star Creatures.
Mesa of Lost Women is a 1953 American low-budget black-and-white science fiction film directed by Herbert Tevos and Ron Ormond from a screenplay by Tevos and Orville H. Hampton, who is given on-screen credit only for dialogue supervision.
It Came from Outer Space is a 1953 American science fiction horror film, the first in the 3D process from Universal-International. It was produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. The film stars Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush, and features Charles Drake, Joe Sawyer, and Russell Johnson. The script is based on Ray Bradbury's original film treatment "The Meteor" and not, as sometimes claimed, a published short story.
The Neanderthal Man is a 78-minute, 1953 American black-and-white science fiction film produced independently by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen, as Global Productions Inc., from their own original screenplay.
The Giant Spider Invasion is a 1975 science fiction action horror film produced, composed and directed by Bill Rebane, and follows giant spiders that terrorize the town of Merrill, Wisconsin and its surrounding area. The film was theatrically released in 1975 by Group 1 Films and enjoyed a considerable run to become one of the 50 top-grossing films of that year.
The Flesh Eaters is a 1964 American horror/science fiction thriller, directed on a low budget by Jack Curtis and edited by future filmmaker Radley Metzger. The film contains moments of violence much more graphic and extreme than many other movies of its time, making it one of the first ever gore films.
Return of the Fly is a 1959 American horror science-fiction film and sequel to The Fly (1958). It is the second installment in The Fly film series. It was released in 1959 as a double feature with The Alligator People. It was directed by Edward Bernds. Unlike the previous film, Return of the Fly was shot in black and white.
Tarantulas are a group of hairy and often very large spiders belonging to the family Theraphosidae.
Mara Corday is an American showgirl, model, actress, Playboy Playmate, and 1950s cult figure.
Kingdom of the Spiders is a 1977 American science fiction horror film directed by John "Bud" Cardos and produced by Igo Kantor and Jeffrey M. Sneller. The screenplay is credited to Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou, from an original story by Sneller and Stephen Lodge. Part of the eco-horror subgenre, Kingdom of the Spiders centers on a rural town in Camp Verde, Arizona which lies in the migration path of a horde of tarantulas turned aggressive due to pesticides having depleted their normal food sources. The film was released by Dimension Pictures. It stars William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler, and Altovise Davis.
Sssssss is a 1973 American horror film starring Strother Martin, Dirk Benedict and Heather Menzies. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski and written by Hal Dresner and Daniel C. Striepeke, the latter of whom also produced the film. The make-up effects were created by John Chambers and Nick Marcellino. It received a nomination for the Best Science Fiction Film award of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1975.
The Monster Maker is a 1944 science-fiction horror film starring J. Carrol Naish and Ralph Morgan. Albert Glasser supplied the film score, his first, an assignment for which he was paid US$250.
Horrors of Spider Island is a 1960 West German horror film written and directed by Fritz Böttger, and produced by Gaston Hakim and Wolf C. Hartwig for Rapid-Film/Intercontinental Filmgesellschaft. The film stars Alexander D'Arcy as Gary Webster, a talent agent who invites several women to a club in Singapore. Their plane ride ends abruptly when they crash-land into the ocean. Webster and the women make their way to an island where they find a large spider web. A giant spider sinks its teeth into Webster which turns him into a mutant.
Earth vs. the Spider is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction horror film produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, who also provided the plot upon which the screenplay by George Worthing Yates and Laszlo Gorog was based. Though the title suggests a global crisis, the film focuses entirely on a small town being terrorized by a giant spider whose origin is never explained. The film stars Ed Kemmer, June Kenney and Eugene Persson. The special effects were by Bert I. Gordon and Paul Blaisdell. Earth vs. the Spider was released by American International Pictures as a double feature in different film markets with either The Brain Eaters or The Screaming Skull.
Ice Spiders is a 2007 science fiction horror film which premiered on June 9, 2007 on the Syfy Channel. A team of young Winter Olympic hopefuls must slalom to safety when a hoard of giant mutated spiders spin their way out of a top secret laboratory. Ice Spiders stars Patrick Muldoon, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Noah Bastian, K. Danor Gerald and Matt Whittaker and was released on DVD in 2007.
Murder by Phone is a 1982 science fiction slasher film directed by Michael Anderson. Its plot follows a series of murders committed by a disgruntled phone company employee who designs a device that kills victims when they answer their telephones.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
