Arachnophobia

A venomous spider arrives in California from Venezuela inside a coffin, breeds with a local species and takes over a small town. At the centre of the film is a doctor with a spider phobia. It is Frank Marshall's first film as director, with Steven Spielberg producing through Amblin. Most of the effects are real. More than 300 Avondale spiders were brought in from New Zealand, chosen for being large, unusually social and harmless to people. They were steered around the set with temperature differences, using warmed and cooled areas to move them where they were needed. Marketing struggled with what the film even was and settled on selling it as a thrill-omedy. Jeff Daniels plays the doctor, John Goodman the exterminator and Julian Sands the entomologist. On a 22 million dollar budget it took 53.2 million domestically and another 30 million in video rental. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent, and Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four, writing that audiences would squirm out of enjoyment rather than terror. There is also a strange later tribute: a parasitic worm species was named Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi after Daniels. Who it is for: viewers who like late-eighties Amblin films balanced between horror and comedy. Who it is not for: anyone afraid of spiders. Since the film used real ones, that is not a joke.