Hello and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast.
We're your hosts, Matt Levine and Vincent Hannum.
And we are talking about all of our favorite monster movies, The Good, The Bad, and The
Downright Campy, and asking if they stand the test of time.
Traditional Kaiju, creature features, space invaders, the supernatural, and everything
in between.
All strange beasts are welcome here.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker
Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients,
and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.
Link in the bio.
The Jennings family has just moved to the small town of Canaima.
Oh, Ross, smell that air.
In search of a simpler life.
Want to blow up a bull fry?
Okay.
The Zach Pack is the perfect place.
Goodbye crime, goodbye grime.
Except for one pesty little problem.
Come with me and look at the web.
The web?
I have a terrible fear of spiders.
Come on, we live in a country now.
It's time to work through this irrational paralyzing error.
It's not irrational.
Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment present Jeff Daniels.
Honey, we're in the living room.
We need you to kill a spider.
And John Goodman.
I'm over at Fintock Infestation Management.
My god, it's just a spider.
Would anybody object if I tore this floor up?
I would.
False alarm, then leave on.
There's no spider here.
Every so often in a little town somewhere, there is a hell scour.
There's a rumor going around that some kind of spider might have killed Sam Metcalf.
Tower phone.
Spiders make convenient culprits.
There's no spider here.
I think one of your Venezuelan spiders hitched a ride here.
There may be some spiders around here that are very dangerous.
Dad, chill out.
Just run.
They spread out from a central nest in a web-like pattern and dominate the entire area.
When that happens, this town is dead.
Better encircle my private stock.
Rock and roll!
Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment present
Arachnophobia, eight legs, two fangs, and an attitude.
Hurt God, Floyd.
If we find the spider that did this, you can arrest him.
Arachnophobia, a thrillomedy.
Now that Chi July is over, we are in the midst of August, we're going to be talking about
a really fun movie, Arachnophobia, from 1990.
This is kind of an update of older creature features.
There were some that were about spiders from back in the day, like Tarantula from 1955.
You got Kingdom of the Spiders from 1977 starring William Shatner, I believe.
So cool.
I didn't realize he was in that.
I mean, I still have to see that movie, Kingdom of the Spiders.
It's fun.
It's a little gross.
And they definitely do kill a lot of spiders.
And something I'll be talking about here in a little bit is that I'm no huge fan of
spiders.
They actually do scare the hell out of me.
But I also don't think you should just kill a bunch of them in order to make a movie.
So that's an unfortunate thing about Kingdom of the Spiders.
That is not the case with Arachnophobia, where animal safety was one of their foremost concerns.
But we'll get into that a little bit more later.
Vincent, I'm curious what your history is with the movie Arachnophobia.
Oh, oh, okay.
My history with the movie is this is one of those films that I have distinct memories
of when I was a kid.
Like certain images seared into my psyche.
But I had not seen it since I was a kid.
So we're probably talking 20 plus years at this point since I had seen it.
And that's always fun because I always wonder if what I remember is actually a scene from
the movie or if like, you know, over the decades, my brain has conflated things.
But no, there were I always remember the spider under the toilet bowl.
Yeah, I was like, oh, there it is.
There it is.
Yeah, for sure.
It's the same with me.
I watched this back in middle school, I think, which was I'm not even going to say how long
ago it was a long time ago.
And yeah, for me, it's the image of like the spider in the popcorn bowl and like the person
like digging their hand in the popcorn bowl.
And and then of course, the scene cuts right away.
That shot has stuck with me for several decades now.
Yeah.
And I think this movie is like if, you know, film is a visual medium and you just I would
think you as a filmmaker, you want to create images that last.
That is the format you're working with.
And arachnophobia is just, I think, one memorable scene after another.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, it's very fast paced, very entertaining.
But we'll get more into that.
We're kind of getting ahead of ourselves a little bit.
So thank you again for hanging out, friends.
Please rate and review wherever you listen to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast.
You can send us listener comments at campkaiju.gmail.com, our Facebook page or our Instagram page.
That is camp underscore Kaiju.
If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, you can also leave a voicemail.
This is a fun new thing that we have going on this season.
So give us a call at 612-470-2612.
Tell us about your favorite monster movies, your favorite memories with monster movies,
anything you want to talk about with the podcast.
Please just let us know.
Give us a call and your voice might be featured on the show.
Last but not least, please do check out our website, campkaijupodcast.com for more reviews
and special content.
An unknown species of horror is born.
An unknown species of horror is born as science fiction becomes science fact.
If you find any problems out there at Colby's place, just keep it to yourself.
He's over at Colby's.
He's found another 20 or 30 hills just like the one we burned.
I mean, this right here is scientific phenomenon.
As you know, all species of megalomorphs are cannibalistic.
If you put them together, they'll kill each other off.
They just don't colonize like ants or bees do.
An army of deadly predators searching, destroying anything in their path.
Why did they come?
What do they want?
In the tradition of the great science fiction thrillers, Dimension Pictures presents Kingdom
of the Spiders starring William Shatner, Tiffany Bowling, Woody Strode, and introducing Alta
Bees Davis.
The spiders in this area have organized themselves into an aggressive army.
Your nightmares will never be the same.
Kingdom of the Spiders.
The next victim could be you.
But what if circumstances magnified one of them size and strength?
Took it out of its primitive world and turned it loose in hours.
Then expect something that's fiercer, more cruel and deadly than anything that ever walked
the earth.
Even science will stunned.
The new atomic miracle should have been mankind's greatest boon.
Instead, when such power to cause phenomenal growth proved dangerously unstable, man was
confronted with his most shocking blunder.
The isotope triggered our nutrient into a nightmare.
A blunder that transformed a tiny insect into the hundred foot spider that was now ravaging
the panic stricken countryside.
What kind of merchandise do we have these days, Vincent?
Well speaking of tarantula, there is on Camp Kaiju, no, sorry, yep, campkaiju.threadless.com.
You can find a line of t-shirts that I designed.
I think they're worth checking out that feature the filmographies of various monster movie
directors.
So for example, Jack Arnold directed tarantula.
You can get a t-shirt with Jack Arnold's sort of essential filmography on the back of the
tee.
Steven Spielberg, Ashiro Honda, I'll take requests.
Matt, who's your favorite director in the field?
Oh, in the monster movie field?
That's a good question.
Well, I mean, I love James Whale mostly for like the original Frankenstein movies.
Bride of Frankenstein is probably my favorite monster movie of all time.
Great.
I'll order you up a James Whale t-shirt on the back.
Frankenstein, Bride, Invisible Man, Old Dark House.
I know, yeah, there's some other ones too.
What else did he direct?
Well, we'll find out when you design the t-shirt.
I can't wait to see it.
I mean like Ridley Scott because of Alien, but he doesn't have a ton of monster movies.
He got David Cronenberg in The Fly.
Cronenberg is a good one.
Well, I can't wait to get my hands on one of those shirts.
That sounds awesome.
Let's see, what else do we have going on?
You can become a patron of Camp Kaiju at patreon.com slash Camp Kaiju for discounts, priority
comments and access to any live events.
Lots of fun bonuses and add ons there.
Thank you to our current patrons.
We have Jason, Chris, Sean, Peggy and our anonymous patron.
Thank you so much.
And since last time on Camp Kaiju, that was our Godzilla versus Megalon episode, surprise
episode.
Max was here pinch hitting for you, Matt.
So thanks to Max for doing that and he will return for our next episode following Arachnophobia
when me, Matt Levine and Naomi Osborne back with her trivia will talk about 1999's The
Mummy starring Brendan Fraser.
I can't wait.
That's another one that was, you know, kind of a formative thing for me when I was a kid
and haven't seen in a long time.
So it'll be good to revisit that.
Yeah, yeah, same.
So just real quick before we get back to Arachnophobia, we can take a little trip back in time for
this general week or at least this month in monster movie history.
Matt, I want to say I love some of these movies that you have picked here.
It's fun to go back in time and kind of just think about or like remember what came out
like 10 or 20 or 30 years ago because there was this movie that came out in August 2014.
So about 10 years ago, as above, so below, which got pretty bad reviews.
But I think it's good.
I think it's really underrated.
It's like very claustrophobic.
They're like subterranean monsters.
Highly recommended.
OK.
Well, one I want to shout out here is Chud, which was released in August 1984.
So happy 40th to Chud.
Matt, do you know what Chud stands for?
Chud.
Oh, man.
Something humanoid urban dwellers.
Something humanoid underground dwellers, I think.
Cannibal humanoid underground dwellers.
Awesome.
Listeners, fact check us on that.
It's a fun movie.
I've never seen it.
I've like always known the title.
I remember like the cover of the video back in the day when I went to Blockbuster after
school, you know.
So, yeah, I've always wanted to see it, but I never have.
Low budget, schlocky, but fun.
And actually, John Goodman has a very early role in that movie.
Oh, nice.
A little preview of coming attractions since he will be featured on tonight's episode as
well.
Yeah.
Well, that's a good reminder, I got to see Chud sometime soon for sure.
Yeah.
I did also want to shout out The Gorgon from August of 1964.
So six years ago at this point, it's maybe my favorite Hammer horror movie.
So good British, super colorful, very campy horror movie.
I recommend that one as well.
Nice.
In terms of stuff that's coming out soon in theaters, I, for one, am very excited about
the new Alien movie, Alien Romulus.
I know we keep talking about it and it's like the new.
Do you watch the trailers for that?
Yeah.
It looks intense.
Yeah.
Pretty good trailers, I would say.
I mean, I love the Alien series.
There are not too many of those movies that I dislike.
Right.
Same.
Yeah.
So I'm really excited.
Yeah.
So like you mentioned, Vincent, we have The Mummy on our next episode of Camp Kaiju.
Can't wait to talk about that.
But then after that, Planet of the Apes by Tim Burton from 2001, another one that I haven't
seen in a long time.
Beneath the city of New York are living catacombs, an endless maze of subterranean tunnels, unfit
for anything human, unauthorized for anything experimental, and unlikely to bring anyone
down there.
So they're coming up.
Chud, cannibalistic, humanoid, underground dwellers.
Chud, they're not staying down there anymore.
It has been said that every legend and myth known to mankind is not entirely without some
truth.
It was here, under a full moon, in the little village of Vandorf, that an ancient legend
suddenly terrifyingly came to life.
Doctor, you'll perform an autopsy.
On a body that's turned to stone?
Have you ever heard of Magera?
Magera?
It's said that when mortals looked upon her face, they were turned to stone.
Leave Vandorf before it's too late.
What is it you're afraid of?
I'm afraid for you.
Or of what I may discover, if I remain.
We want you out of this house, mister.
Now.
For 2,000 years, Magera the Gorgon had kept her evil peace.
But now, this strange, unearthly creature returns to petrify every human being who crosses
her path.
King Peter Cushing is the doctor.
Did his strange talents direct him to medicine or murder?
Christopher Lee is the professor, confronted by a conspiracy of silence that paralyzed
the village with terror.
Magera died 2,000 years ago.
It's her spirit we're concerned with today.
It's found a resting place in somebody.
Also starring Richard Pasco, Barbara Shelley, Michael Goodliff.
The terrifying realism of the Gorgon.
She comes to life and brings death to all those who look upon her face.
So we talked about our histories with arachnophobia a little bit, the movie, but we haven't really
talked about our histories with arachnophobia, the actual phobia.
So do you have any good or terrifying spider stories?
I do.
Do you have any?
Yeah, I have two that come to mind right away.
Okay.
Yeah, I'd love to share this kind of stuff because I think that's what's so fun about
this movie.
And we have some listener comments from Enya's mailbox later on from Sean, actually, our
patron, relating a story, a quite terrifying story about a spider.
So I can't wait.
So when I was a kid, my dad, he's a bit older.
He just celebrated his 80th birthday, actually.
He's from London.
And when he was a Cockney Londoners, very working class, his father and his grandfather,
they all sold groceries in the market.
They were green grocers, custom mongers.
And my dad always told me and my brother's story growing up, which I know is like so
embellished.
But the story, as I believed it as a kid, was that there was a man working in the market
and he was opening a box of like bananas, fruit from the tropics.
And out came a giant spider, bit the man on the arm.
So what did the man do?
He was a 1930s, 40s British man.
He took a machete and chopped his arm off to stop the venom from getting into his body.
Do you think the basics of that story are true?
Or do you think it's just become a tall tale over the years?
I have to assume it's a tall tale.
But at the same time, I don't know.
Think about nearly 100 years ago, you're just a man selling groceries, a giant spider, something
you've probably never even seen before, bites you, probably hurts like hell.
He probably freaked out.
I mean, actually, now that I'm explaining it, it probably did happen that way.
Yeah, it's not too far fetched.
I can see that.
I feel, you know, it depends on the size of the spider, but I'd probably do the same thing
nowadays.
Like I wouldn't go to the hospital.
I'd just chop it off, whatever it is.
So I can't blame him.
I can't judge him.
I would do the same.
What's your story?
Yeah, so I have two stories.
You know, I think I have arachnophobia because of these two stories, which both happened
to me when I was very young.
So in the first one, I was probably like five years old, I want to say.
And I was like sitting in the front yard.
My mom was doing some like gardening and stuff and like some yard work.
And I was sitting there just like playing.
I don't really remember exactly what.
But then like I felt something on the inside of my shirt.
And I like looked down underneath my shirt and there was like a spider that was like
crawling up my chest really fast in my face, which was scary enough.
But then like, you know, I started like jumping up and down and screaming and doing like the
get this off me sort of dance or whatever.
And my mom just laughed at me.
Like you know, because I'm sure it looked ridiculous.
So that was sort of a traumatic experience.
That was the first one.
And then I remember a couple of years later, I was maybe around 10, I would say.
We were at a store, like just a department store, and I was in the men's room.
My mom was like waiting for me outside of the bathroom.
And you know, I whatever, use the urinal.
And there was a different urinal there that said, you know, do not flush.
Like this, like this urinal is out of order or whatever.
I can't remember exactly what it said.
And of course, I was a 10 year old kid.
So what did I do?
I flushed it.
Like I was like, oh, I'm going to flush this and see what happens.
And a bunch of spiders like crawled out from like the bottom of the urinal, like a very
small spiders.
And they just kind of like swarmed the bathroom a little bit.
And not a little bit like, like really, it was a lot of spiders.
So of course, I like screamed and ran out of the bathroom.
And again, my mom laughed at me.
Although I'm sure it again looked ridiculous.
So I can't blame her for that either.
But those two formative spider stories are probably why I still am scared of spiders
to this day.
Matt, those stories could have been out of this movie.
Those are horrifying.
Yeah.
I mean, they probably weren't actually huge spiders.
Like the one in my shirt was just like a daddy long legs or whatever.
But you know, which is not technically a spider, I know.
But you know, when you're a kid, it's like the scariest thing ever.
Yeah, I grew up in Florida.
And down there in the subtropical climate, you get a lot of spiders, get a lot of big
spiders.
They're called banana spiders.
These things are the size of your palm.
They are brightly colored.
It looks like they have like a skull pattern on their back.
Really, really like out of Starship Troopers almost type of bugs.
And they weave these giant webs.
Oh my God, I've been hiking in Florida and stopped short of walking straight into one
of these webs and the spider right in the middle of it.
We had a giant house spiders growing up that actually resembled the little spiders in arachnophobia.
These things were fast.
They would shoot across our living room floor.
And we were all like trying to kill it, like throwing things at it.
Man, terrifying.
I mean, I'm probably going to have nightmares tonight just talking about this stuff, which
is not a bad thing.
I mean, it's fun to be scared, you know, as we've talked about on the podcast before,
to a certain extent it is if it's like, you know, as long as it's not like debilitating
fear or whatever, if it's kind of just like a little chill on the spine, then it's kind
of fun.
Yeah.
Well, this is a good movie for scaring people if you are afraid of spiders.
And if you're not, I think it's just like gross.
It just like hits a primal place in our our lizard brains where we're just like, oh no,
no, no, no, no, that's that's danger.
That's a red flag.
Right.
So you're just going to have to get out before you put your feet in them.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Creepy crawlies.
And it's just kind of like not knowing what's lurking in like the dark corners of your basement
or whatever, you know, like, yeah, it's a scary thought.
Okay.
We'll tell more stories with Menia's mailbox.
But yeah, I'm excited to dig into this film in the meantime.
Yeah, for sure.
On that note, maybe we'll talk about some of the cast and crew of the film Arachnophobia.
So it was the directorial debut of Frank Marshall.
He's a very well known producer who co-founded Amblin Entertainment with his wife Kathleen
Kennedy and Steven Spielberg in 1980.
So Marshall produced or co-produced such Spielberg films as Raiders of the Lost Ark
and Empire of the Sun.
He also co-produced Poltergeist alongside Steven Spielberg.
After Arachnophobia, Frank Marshall would go on to direct a few other movies such as
Alive from 1993 and Congo from 1995, which is awesome.
I love the movie Congo.
It's so ridiculous.
And he's also produced a lot of other movies since then as well.
So maybe most well known as a producer, but a director as well.
Yeah, with chops too.
I mean, I think Arachnophobia is competently, if not inspired in some points, it is at least
a competently filmed thriller.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, as a director, I don't know if you could say that Frank Marshall is like much
more than like a craftsman, like a professional, you know, but that's not necessarily a bad
thing, especially if you're making popcorn entertainment.
Like, he does a really good job at it.
The film was written by Don Jacoby and Wesley Strick.
Wesley Strick is kind of familiar to us because he wrote the movie Wolf starring Jack Nicholson,
which we've talked about in the podcast.
I can't believe how often Wolf comes up in this podcast.
Yeah, I know.
Me too.
I feel like if I remember right, that was one that I recommended.
And it was mostly because like, I was like, oh, yeah, this movie, I feel like nobody remembers
this anymore, even though, you know, Jack Nicholson, Mike Nichols, Michelle Pfeiffer,
like early 90s, you would think it would be more well known.
But it seemed kind of obscure to me.
So I was like, oh, yeah, let's bring Wolf to the podcast.
And you're totally right, ever since then, like, seemingly almost every episode, we talk
about that movie at some point.
It's making a comeback.
You know, the six degrees of Wolf, the game that we'll play from now on.
Wesley Strick also wrote the remake of Cape Fear that Martin Scorsese directed.
I just wanted to mention that because I rewatched that movie recently.
And that's another great one.
Really, really fun.
I think special mention should be made of the animal crew in arachnophobia.
We'll talk more about that later.
But the animal trainer is Mark Harden.
The spider spotter is Jurgen Hyman.
I don't even really want to know exactly what that job does.
A spider spotter, but it's in the credits.
So there you go.
There's a spider consultant, Arnold Peterson, as well as a spider wrangler, Steven Kutcher.
The animal work in this movie is really incredible.
One of my favorite parts about the movie.
So I wanted to give them a shout out for sure.
Oh, absolutely.
Like they without their success, this movie would not work.
Yeah.
And we'll get into some of the specifics of like how exactly they made that happen a little
bit later.
You have cinematography by Mikhail Solomon.
He also shot The Abyss, Always, Backdraft and Far and Away.
So he was certainly a very accomplished cinematographer in the late 80s slash early 90s.
Then you have music by Trevor Jones, who scored also some very famous movies of the 80s and
90s.
The Dark Crystal, Time Bandits, Labyrinth, The Last of the Mohicans, all pretty well
known scores.
So, you know, some some pretty good talent behind the camera here.
Some talent in front of the camera as well.
Jeff Daniels leads this cast.
He plays Dr. Ross Jennings, the titular arachnophobe.
He moves this small California town with his family.
He's got his degree from Yale.
He's ready to set up shop as the town doctor.
As we'll talk about, events do not work out that way.
And he ends up kind of just, well, fighting for his life from an army of spiders.
Things go sideways real quick for Jeff Daniels in this movie.
Yeah, the moment you hear that he is an arachnophobe, it's like, oh, man, it's not going to go well
for you.
You're in the worst possible spot right now.
Playing his wife is Harley Jane Kozak as Molly Jennings.
Another main actor is Julian Sands.
He plays the spider expert.
You got to have one in a creature feature like this.
Dr. James Atherton.
And then really well known and a supporting role in this movie is John Goodman as the
exterminator Delbert McClintock.
Yeah, you know, a lot of this movie is a comedy, but John Goodman definitely is the overt comic
relief.
He's a very cartoonish, ridiculous character.
He's a lot of fun.
Yeah, yeah.
But this time he was pretty big, I think, with the Roseanne show.
Yeah, and I think he was in always the Steven Spielberg movie from 87, I think it is.
And Spielberg wanted him in this movie.
So if Spielberg is on your side, that's a good connection to have.
Spielberg has to be arguably the most powerful man in Hollywood, right?
Yeah, I mean, certainly at this time, I think you can make that argument in 1990.
Yeah, like he's still up there for sure.
I don't know if you can say he's the most powerful man in Hollywood right now.
But yeah, I mean, like one of the last studio greats for sure.
Yeah, a connector of the generations, someone who started in that waning days of the studio
system and still making movies now.
Yeah, it was really good movies.
I mean, West Side Story, like the fabled men's a lot, even if it's kind of corny at times.
You know, I've had an up and down relationship with Spielberg over the years, but how can
you not love him?
He's he's a great visual storyteller.
Yeah.
Not totally relevant to this movie because he did not direct it, but still he's he's
a producer on it.
So, you know, it's got that touch, though.
And that's the Frank Marshall connection.
Like if I didn't know who Frank Marshall was, I might think.
Is this a Spielberg movie?
It's just kind of got that like Back to the Future is kind of the same way, even though
it's a Mechis directed film.
There's just there's like an aesthetic that's very Spielbergian.
Yeah, for sure.
Like Small Town Innocence and then something kind of spooky or gross like intrudes on that,
you know.
Yeah.
Ultra Guice is kind of similar, like directed by Toby Hooper, even though there's like some
rumors about like how much directing Spielberg actually did on that movie.
So I don't want to suggest that like this is a similar case because I think this was
fully directed by Frank Marshall.
But yeah, there's like definitely that Spielberg touch to it for sure.
So that's a good segue to talk about the production of the movie a little bit.
It was the first release from Hollywood Pictures, which is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios
that was created to release more adult fare.
I think if Disney had released this movie, there would have been a lot of angry parents
out there.
So it makes sense.
Kind of this was the first one for Hollywood Pictures.
The original script was kind of just more of a horror movie, like by the numbers, you
know, sort of like Jeff Daniels actually had a line in an interview where he was like,
it felt like the original screenplay was like written by a computer, which is kind of crazy
to say in 1990.
Like, you know, now that actually is a legitimate concern.
Back then, I don't think that really happened all that much.
But yeah, no, like the original script was definitely kind of just a stereotypical horror
movie.
When Jeff Daniels came on board, he and Frank Marshall discussed adding comedy to the movie,
kind of lightening the tone a little bit.
They made the Dr. Ross Jennings character an arachnophobe, which he was not in the original
screenplay.
And there were some other rewrites as well.
Frank Marshall said that Hitchcock Films and maybe not surprisingly Jaws, of course, by
Spielberg were kind of influences throughout the rewrite process.
I can see that.
And actually, I thought before I knew any of Marshall's references to Hitchcock, it
didn't take long into me watching Arachnophobia where I went, this reminds me of the birds.
It's like that California small town.
And so no surprise that was an explicit reference.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
It's interesting because I, you know, this, like I said, is a comedy and the birds, I
just find like I love the birds a lot, but I feel like that's actually a pretty like
bleak and depressing movie.
You know, there's a lot of like twisted psychological stuff going on.
So Arachnophobia, way more of a comedy than the birds.
But you're definitely right that there is a lot of like overlap there in other ways.
Yeah, yeah.
So the opening scenes of Arachnophobia were actually shot in Venezuela.
It was which is where the opening scenes are set as well.
It was a difficult location that required the use of five different helicopters to access.
And they didn't really have that much like the weather was very unpredictable.
So they might have been able to only shoot maybe like 20 minutes a day.
So you know, it kind of seems like they made it as difficult as possible.
But it is a great, great setting for the for the opening scenes for sure.
Incredible opening.
I'll get more to that later on.
I saw I was just looking ahead at your notes and seems like we got a lot about the spiders
themselves.
So you ready to face your fears and talk about these bad boys?
Man, I'm just going to think happy thoughts as we talk about this so I don't get too freaked
out.
But I'm ready.
Yeah.
So we had a number of live spiders, but we'll start with the fake spider.
So there were some animatronic puppet creatures used in the film and they are denoted by a
couple of names.
So you have what's known as the general.
And that is Matt, correct me if I'm wrong, the general spider big tarantula looking thing.
That's the one that came back from Venezuela back to California.
Yeah.
Yep.
Like the supervillain of the movie, basically.
OK, great.
And this is a good time brief synopsis because there's not much to this film.
There's a spider research team in Venezuela.
They have discovered an ancient species of spider, which of course makes them super venomous
and immune to our anti-venoms and stuff.
But one of those scientists, he's a photographer with the crew, but he gets killed by one of
these spiders and then unbeknownst to the team, that spider, the general, stows away
in the coffin of the dead man who is from this California town.
So fate brings the general to the same town that Jeff Daniels is moving to.
The general gets out, of course, and then meets with a local spider, thus spawning essentially
an army of like mutated, genetically altered, super venomous spiders.
And that's it.
That's the story, really.
And that's all you need.
That's all you need to know.
There are a lot of grisly deaths.
They finally figure out what's going on and they try to hunt down the general and destroy
the nest.
Right.
As gross as it sounds.
So the general was an animatronic for some shots.
It was played, quote unquote, by a bird eating tarantula that measures one foot across for
long shots that showed any real live spider.
To make the general even scarier, the crew painted purple stripes on its back and added
a prosthetic abdomen.
Yeah.
So, yeah, kind of staying on the animatronic spiders a little bit, although the general
is partly played by a real life life spider as well.
But the biggest animatronic spider in arachnophobia was developed by Jamie Heineman, who is in
the show Mythbusters.
I've never seen that show.
I'm not too excited about that.
But I like it from what I read online.
Like, it's kind of a big deal, I guess.
So it's a cool little factoid.
Yeah, for sure.
And like this one, I think was like one of his first movies that he did special effects
work on.
So, yeah, big, big movie for him, for sure.
He created the 15 inch diameter animatronic spider that the crew nicknamed Big Bob.
Sort of a fun connection.
Big Bob was named after Robert Zemeckis, who you just mentioned.
All right.
Friends with Spielberg and Frank Marshall.
Yeah.
These guys, they're just thick as thieves.
You know, they're just they're just they're just like all these kids just playing in the
same sandbox.
Right.
Yeah.
No, like they're you know, they're boys who like love getting grossed out by stuff.
They just love like scary, scary stuff, which is cool.
I mean, I find that pretty charming, you know.
Yeah.
Their work has influenced a generation of filmmakers, including you and I.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
You know, eventually, hopefully you also are like, oh, I bet there are other good movies
out there, too, like beyond the, you know, the Spielberg, George Lucas, like this kind
of group of friends or whatever.
But that's not to like slight what these guys are doing.
So many good, fun movies that they made for sure.
So, yeah, we talked about the animatronics.
But like I mentioned before, I think the best thing about this movie is the I don't want
to say training because you can't really train spiders, but just like the manipulation of
the real life spiders in this movie.
So I'd love to spend a little time on that if that's OK.
Yeah, I think that's the like I said, I think that's the meat of this movie.
Yeah.
So the smaller spiders that are seen throughout arachnophobia, which are maybe like three
inches in diameter, that'd be my guess for like most of the smaller ones, they were cast
through a rigorous process that the crew called the Spider Olympics.
They assessed a lot of different species of spiders for fearsome appearance, lack of danger
to humans, just in case they did bite actors or like any of the crew members or anything
like that speed, because the faster they are, the scarier they are.
Like you said, Vincent, for those in Florida, climbing ability and some other criteria as
well.
So the winning species that was eventually cast in the film was the Delena spider from
Australia, which is harmless to humans, but very sinister looking.
I see in my notes that they do measure about three inches across.
So my guess was pretty accurate.
Yeah.
Three hundred of those spiders were shipped to the US for production only to start off
with and more spiders were shipped to the shoot throughout the months long filming process.
So I do not want to think about 300 spiders being like packed in the crate and like shipped
to the United States, but but that's what they did.
And these spiders were not harmed.
Actually, they were treated like any other animal.
They were protected on set.
This is a crazy interesting fact about the movie.
So there's the pretty well known shot where John Goodman is the exterminator.
He this is a testament to the sound design of this movie, too.
He crunches a spider under his boot and he lifts the boot and there's a lot of like guts
and stuff.
That spider was safe the entire time.
There was a cutout underneath or in the soul of John Goodman's boot.
So the spider would be safe.
And then when John Goodman would lift his foot, they would take the spider out and make
sure it was OK and then take this take the shot again if they needed to.
I love that story.
Yeah.
There's a lot of moments, too, where characters like drop a book on a spider and like even
then there's like a little foam cutout on the bottom of the book.
So the spiders weren't harmed in that case either.
Yeah, which is very, very cool.
I mean, they went to a lot of care to make sure the spiders were not harmed.
Like even in that last scene where Jeff Daniels.
Well, I don't want to give away any spoilers.
It must have been really not fun for Jeff Daniels to shoot the last scene of this movie
where like he's in an uncomfortable position and he has to like throw things at a huge
spider like close enough to like make it seem like he's hitting it, but not close enough
to actually hurt it.
The filming of that last scene of the movie took like two weeks and Jeff Daniels is like
pinned under this furniture the entire time.
So kudos to Jeff Daniels.
That must have been kind of unpleasant.
But yeah, there were a lot of pretty ingenious ways that the crew developed to kind of manipulate
the spiders to kind of get them where they needed the spiders to go in a certain shot.
Some of those, you know, special effects were pretty simple, actually, just kind of using
magnets and blow dryers to move the spiders around.
They even kind of would spray like lemon pledge on furniture because the spiders didn't like
walking in that.
So they would like create a little walkway for them to like kind of hit their marks or
whatever.
So some really clever ways to kind of manipulate the spiders in that way.
Yeah, it's incredible.
Really.
Did you just mention sorry if you did vibrating wires?
No, but that's fascinating, too.
Yeah, they strung wires again to make to like, corral the spiders to go where they want it
because the spiders wouldn't step over the the wires once they were vibrating.
Yeah, yeah, like totally.
That's really ingenious.
They even sometimes like put the spiders to sleep with carbon dioxide.
And then yeah, I know.
And then like they put tiny leashes on them like they're called mono filament leashes
that were attached by wax to the spiders' abdomens.
Yeah, we're like really complex, very effective ways to move the spiders around for sure.
Yeah, there's just no other movie like this.
Like other spider movies are not they don't use real spiders.
They use optical illusions to make the spider look bigger.
Or later with like eight legged freaks, they're all CG animated models.
But arachnophobia really is the only thing of its kind that I know of.
Yeah, it's the only one that I can think of, too.
I mean, like older spider movies, you might have real live spiders, but they're you know,
I feel like they just kind of like let them go and like point the camera at them.
It's not like they're really doing anything special or whatever, you know.
But in this one, they absolutely are.
Yeah.
Wow.
Very impressive.
This movie was a commercial success.
It opened at number three at the box office behind Ghost and Die Hard 2.
So you know, a good summer at the movies in 1990.
It was marketed as a thrillomedy, a thriller with a sense of humor, which is a pretty dumb
term in my opinion.
But you know, those marketers, they come up with with clever stuff.
Well, they had trouble with this movie because and it was I think Marshall made it may have
come up with that term thrillomedy because and I do want to talk about this later in
my breakdown.
The tone of this movie between a horror thriller and a comedy.
Spoiler alert, I don't think it always works.
And clearly the mark, I think the marketer marketing department also didn't know how
to sell this movie.
I mean, it worked, obviously.
But yeah, thrillomedy.
So maybe the only movie to use that term.
Yeah.
Which, yeah, probably is a good thing.
I'm glad that term did not survive much longer.
But it seems weird to me because there had been horror comedies before, you know, like
Ghostbusters came out in 1984.
So I don't know why they were so uncomfortable with that blend.
But yeah, they certainly were.
You're right about that.
I do want to mention there was a video game for arachnophobia that came out when after
the movie was released, which I really want to play.
Like I don't know what you're doing.
Are you just like tracking down spiders the whole time?
I think it must have been for like second Genesis or something like a long time ago,
obviously.
But I want to find out.
It sounds cool.
And then I just wanted to mention that in 2018, a nematode deadly to tarantulas was
discovered and it was named after Jeff Daniels because of this movie.
I can try to pronounce the Latin name.
Tarantabool.
You know, this is harder than pronouncing some of the Japanese names on our Godzilla
episodes.
Anyways, it's pretty cool.
It's Jeff Daniels namesake, which is neat.
Which also reminds me, like he said that he did not mind working with the littler spiders
in this movie, but like the big breeding tarantulas that measures like a foot across, you know,
Jeff Daniels very logically and reasonably, it was like anybody would be scared to death
of that thing if you were like a couple feet away from it.
So yeah, I would feel the same Jeff Daniels and I would be very scared of the smaller
spiders too.
But and I just want to say I actually love spiders like as a species on this planet,
like I'm fascinated by them.
Anytime I go into a museum like a zoo, a natural history museum, I'm drawn to the spiders and
what they can do.
But dear God, don't let one touch me.
That's all I'm asking.
That's just the difference.
That's the dividing line.
Yeah, that's my thought.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, spiders do such amazing, helpful things for the planet.
They're like, you know, they kind of keep ecosystems in balance.
They eat a lot of other insects.
So they're, you know, a wonderful species that I don't ever want to deal with personally.
I'm with you on that.
Exactly.
Sort of like sharks and jaws, right?
Like sharks, amazing creatures that are just like so fascinating.
And yet, like, are they kind of like, awaken our deepest fears of like ancient monsters
and stuff like that?
Yeah, absolutely.
How about this remake that is it going to happen?
I think so.
The producer is James Wan, I'm pretty sure of saw fame.
And yes, but he was just the producer.
This was announced.
The remake was announced in 2022.
But I don't think there have been any development since then.
So I kind of doubt it's ever going to happen.
You know that?
Well, let me ask you, you know, if they make if they remake arachnophobia, are they using
real spiders?
I think it would be CGI.
I mean, 100%.
I hope they don't.
I mean, the arachnophobia, it's, you know, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
Like, if you're not going to use real life spiders, you're probably not going to improve
on the original.
So just let it be.
Because I think what makes this movie so frightening is you're looking at real spiders.
Yeah.
If you if you make them CG, your brain intuitively knows that that's not real.
So you can check out a little bit.
Yeah, exactly.
I feel that way about a lot of CGI.
Like, you know, there's like some of it looks great, of course, and it can be really exciting.
But like most of the time, it's like, I, you know, I know somebody worked on this and like
a computer lab for for many, many hours.
That's not to slight computer like, you know, people who do CGI work invest a lot of time
and energy and creativity.
So that's not to slight them at all.
But but yeah, there's a lack of like, tactility and a lack of, you know, just physical presence
that just kind of like limits the power level.
Which in a movie like this, I think is necessary to have.
Yeah.
So I hope they never make that remake.
Now is probably a good time for our sponsor break.
So Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker
Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients
and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.
Link is in the bio.
Do we have any communications in Menia's mailbox?
We do.
So on Instagram, I put out a call on our stories.
I asked for some histories with this movie or spiders in general.
And we got a couple of letters to open.
I don't know.
But this is Sean, our wonderful patron.
And Sean says, So I was playing games late at night in my first solo apartment and was
about to get to bed when I noticed something change in the lighting.
Mind you, my apartment had no installed lights, so I was using a dim lamp light.
I turn around and look up and I see a giant spider on the ceiling.
It was massive, legit the size of a hardcover book.
So naturally I go and find a book that I know can get rid of it as I would never have read
it again.
Our high school copy of the Iliad.
So when I came back to the room, the damn thing moved from the ceiling to the highest
part of the wall above my bed.
As I walked in, it watched my every move.
I walk left and it turned left.
I walked to the right and it turned to the right.
I then got as close as possible and slammed the book against it.
And right when I did, it actually leaped at me with great speed.
I was faster and the book was bigger.
That is a first of all, well written story there, Sean.
But wow.
I would have pooped my pants.
Yeah, I probably would have just left the apartment and never come back.
Break my lease, you know?
Like keep the security deposit.
I'm just going to move somewhere else.
Man, that sounds horrible.
We all know that feeling.
Do you, Matt?
You're laying in your bed at night, lights are out and you look at your ceiling and you
see a dot on your ceiling and it starts to move.
But maybe it's not moving.
Maybe it's just your eyes playing tricks on you.
But you're like, no, I have to check.
So I turn on the lights and yeah, like for me, it happened the other week.
It was one of those house centipedes, which also scare the crap out of me.
Yeah, disgusting.
Yeah.
Ugh.
Well, there's a fun scene in Arachnophobia that kind of pays tribute to that where like
he thinks he sees a huge spider on the wall in the distance and I won't give away what
happens, but it's a very suspenseful moment.
That's about that exact same thing.
It's a great moment.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I also, I don't think I hate is, you know, you do see like a spider, like a centipede
or whatever it is and you like, like in your bedroom, for example, and then you rush out
to like get a book or like something to smash it with.
And then you go back in and it's gone.
You're like, you know, is it in the bed?
Is it like underneath the bed?
Like where the hell did it go?
It's such a horrible feeling.
You just might as well not sleep at all, you know, like, oh my God, quick, quick detour.
I stayed in a really shoddy motel, roadside motel once on a road trip.
I didn't sleep a wink that night because the whole room was, was crawling with earwigs.
God, that's so gross.
Man, how did like, but you stayed there all night.
Yeah, I mean, you do what you do when you're, you know, you're in college and just driving
in an old beater.
But yeah, I slept, I laid down on the covers.
I wouldn't dare get in the covers.
I kept the lights on.
I just, I didn't sleep.
Yeah, that is horrible, man.
I mean, you might as well just sleep in your car in that case.
That's a good point.
Different kind of terror, perhaps though.
Oh God.
Yeah.
Even, yeah, like just hearing these stories, like makes my skin crawl a little bit, which
is, you know, it's fun and really gross at the same time.
Yeah.
Cool.
Well, if you have, if anybody has any other spider stories that they want to share, feel
free to reach out to us and the methods that I said earlier, we'll, we'll repeat those
later on the show.
So yeah, we'll, we'll read listener stories all season long.
I don't care.
Like that's great.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Your scariest spider story.
Let us know.
Yeah.
So Naomi, who does the trivia for us here on Camp Kaiju, she says of arachnophobia, I
love it.
Watch it as a kid when I only knew Jeff Daniels from Dumb and Dumber, which yeah, I mean,
totally.
Those are like the two most famous Jeff Daniels roles probably.
Speed, of course, is a great one as well.
But yeah, that's, that's good to hear.
Like Jeff Daniels is great in this movie.
He has like a very laid back charm and yeah, I'm happy to hear that Naomi likes it.
Yeah, I agree.
I concur.
Yeah.
All right.
So speaking of Naomi and trivia, if you all out there want to play, are your next chance
to do so is with our mummy episode.
So tune into that one, be released in two weeks.
Naomi will have a trivia question about the movie, about the mummy.
And then after that, you will have a one week to submit your answers.
You can post the answer on social media, comment on your, you know, wherever you're listening
to the podcast, you can email us again.
Everything you heard at the top of the show, call in.
If you call in to the Kaiju hotline, you'll be entered into the drawing twice.
So that's a pretty huge advantage.
Do it, have fun with it.
And yeah, we'll, we'll pick up trivia again next time.
Maybe you'll receive one of those Jack Arnold of filmography t-shirts.
Maybe the sky's limit.
We're still playing around with this.
So yeah, get some sweet merch, check it out at our threadless store and enter, enter to
win just playing some trivia.
Sounds sounds fun.
Yeah.
They don't like pets.
They don't like people.
And they don't like you.
From the producers of Independence Day and Godzilla.
What exactly is that?
Spider man.
Eight legged freaks.
May the PG-13 starts Friday, July 19th.
Okay, Matt, this is the first time we've done this with you here, but Peter Laurie is, you
know, he's in the wings.
He's going to come on.
He's going to do his silent, but deadly segment.
I thought it actually was Peter Laurie though, like the ghost of Peter Laurie, but that's
the next best thing though, for sure.
Hey, whoa, whoa.
Don't, don't reveal our tricks of the trade here.
Yeah.
I say goodbye.
This is Peter Laurie.
We're very excited to have him on the show.
He's having a blast doing it despite what he, what he may tell you this week, he is talking
about the 1924 movie, He Who Gets Slapped, starring Lon Chaney and directed by Victor
Seastrom.
Matt, does that name ring a bell?
Yeah.
He directed the Phantom Carriage.
Yeah.
And some other Swedish silent movies as well.
And Matt, you turned me onto the Phantom Carriage.
Love that movie.
Yeah.
He Who Gets Slapped is also pretty good.
I agree.
I like that one a lot too.
Yeah.
There's a really great scene with lions at the end of the movie.
I won't give any more away though.
A horrifying scene that Mr. Laurie will tell us more about.
So we'll, we'll give him the mic here.
Can't wait to hear from Peter.
Before Karloff and Lugosi stalked the screens, the movies were no less monstrous.
These frightful figures lurked in the expressionistic shadows and, and, and danced in the macabre
moonlight.
Oh, they laughed.
They cried.
They fooled the sensibilities of honest, decent folk.
In the age of silent pictures, these gruesome ghouls nonetheless cried out with a savage
humanity that took the breath from all who witnessed their devilish delights.
Or in the silence, no one can hear you scream.
But I, Peter Laurie, will be heard.
Welcome to Silent But Deadly, where I am forced to review silent monster movies in exchange
for my soul's eternal rest.
You may know me from such radio dramas as Suspense and Mystery in the Air.
This week we discuss the 1924 movie, He Who Gets Slapped, starring Lon Chaney.
Oh, enough with the scripted pleasantries, ladies and gentlemen.
Tonight, with the help of Pierre, the little mouse who keeps me company, I will send a
note to the authorities, alerting them to my entrapment.
Pierre!
Hurry, take this note.
Take it to the police.
Yes, that's it.
Good, good, Pierre.
Now run, run, my little vermin savior.
Run like the wind!
I am feeling good about this.
And while I wait, allow me to review one last movie.
He Who Gets Slapped tells the story of a doctor whose scientific thesis has been stolen along
with his wife by his benefactor.
Strangely, the doc finds solace in the circus as a clown alter ego named He.
Over time, He becomes famous for his signature act in which other clowns slap him for saying
absurd things.
Life goes on for He until his old benefactor turns up yet again to steal away the girl
with whom he is now in love with.
In revenge, He lays a trap for the benefactor in which a caged lion is released into his
room mauling the man to death.
He himself is mortally wounded in the event.
Now the film is directed by Swedish director Victor Seistrom who imbues the film with a
dreamy off-kilter atmosphere.
This permeates the picture with a subtle unease that never subsides.
As for Chaney, his sad clown would become the standard for such characters.
Altogether the film is essential viewing for fans of Lon Chaney.
Cinephiles will also be interested in knowing that He Who Gets Slapped was the first picture
for Metro-Goldwyn-Mare to feature their famous lion logo.
Last time on Silent but Deadly I was supposed to discuss The Man Who Laughs starring Conrad
Veidt, but that was before fortune favored my weary soul.
For soon I will welcome the police, led by Mighty Pierre, and will soon escape this confounded
podcast.
In the race for the world's most advanced communications technology, a shocking discovery
has been made.
And the more they discover, the greater the danger.
By the author of Jurassic Park, Congo, where you are the endangered species.
Yeah, so the themes in this movie, you know, I would say my main criticism of arachnophobia
is that there's not really that much thematic substance here.
Like it's a pretty thin movie, it's supposed to be entertainment, so there aren't really
too many themes to speak of.
That said, I will say what I think is maybe the biggest theme in the movie, if that's
all right, which is the kind of like city versus country dynamic.
And you kind of get that in a lot of different Hollywood movies throughout the years, kind
of dating all the way back to like the silent era in movies like Sunrise, for example, like
there's a strong city versus country theme in that movie too.
So in arachnophobia, you know, the Jennings family wants to escape the noise and like
the crime and the fast pace of the city.
And they get this beautiful house way out in the rural countryside.
And they think that they found this kind of perfect bucolic existence.
And then of course, these terrifying spiders ruin everything for them.
I don't want to, you know, give any big spoilers, but like by the end of the movie, they kind
of realized that they were happier in the big city where they really belong.
So, you know, I mean, I don't know how much depth that theme really has, but it's there
in arachnophobia.
But that's the thing.
I think that, yes, there are themes to this movie, but I don't think they're very deep
themes.
I think it's all pretty surface level, which is fine.
I mean, the movie knows what it is.
It's not a think piece of a film.
Yep.
The theme that I latched onto was this old doctor character who's supposed to retire
and hand over his practice to Jeff Daniels.
In the end, the old doctor does not retire.
He changes his mind, thus leaving Jeff Daniels really up a creek because he doesn't have
a job all of a sudden.
And they just moved all the way to this small town.
And the theme of this old character being stuck in his ways, no, we do it this way because
Jeff Daniels wants to perform autopsies because he has a hunch that people are dying from
spider bites.
And the doctor and the sheriff, they're like, we don't have spiders.
Spiders don't kill people in this town.
What do you mean you want to perform an autopsy?
Don't you dare violate the poor woman's body by doing that.
Jeff Daniels is like, no, it's literally science.
We need to figure out what's killing people.
So that being stuck in your old ways jumped out at me.
Yeah, for sure.
And I think that is kind of connected to the city versus country theme too.
Where a big hot shot doctor from the city is trying to be forward thinking and progressive.
He's just trying to follow science like any doctor should.
But then you have this kind of some of the community in this small town who are, yeah,
like you said, they're maybe a little bit too stuck in their ways, a little scared of
change, not ready to get with the times.
So yeah, like those themes definitely go together a lot for sure.
What's your note about Frank Marshall's quote about this movie?
Well, yeah, well, you know, so Frank Marshall, he was talking about like the blend of horror
and comedy in this movie.
And he said, people like to be scared but laughing like a roller coaster.
No one wants to be terrified.
And we kind of alluded to this before, I guess, like, it depends on like what the movie is
trying to do and like what the audience wants.
Like, I don't know, sometimes I love being terrified.
Like some of the truly scariest horror movies I've ever seen that like give me nightmares
for days afterwards.
It's a really cathartic experience.
So I just don't know if I totally agree with what Frank Marshall says there.
But I do think it applies to arachnophobia.
Hey, you know, it is a thrillomedy and you know how good those are.
A barrel of laughs and thrills as they say.
I hope the marketing team came up with that slogan as well.
That's the monkeys in a barrel horror film.
That actually would be terrifying.
I don't know if I want to watch that.
Some kids find a barrel that's like washed up on a beach and they open it and out jumps
a hundred monkeys and murders them.
OK, I would.
I would watch that for sure.
That sounds great.
That could be your next play for the like the horror festival in the Twin Cities.
Maybe.
Yeah, I would love that.
That's the barrel of monkeys that washed ashore.
Yeah, exactly.
There's got to be a term for like phobia of monkeys.
I don't know what it is, but I'm going to look into that.
I'll let you know.
Please do.
Yeah.
I think it's about time for our breakdowns.
What do you think, Vincent?
Let's do it.
All right.
The good, the bad and the campy.
Do you want to start off with the good stuff?
Yeah.
So I really like the direction of this film in terms of it gives a grand sense of like
classic Hollywood visuals like the opening shots in Venezuela.
We have helicopter tracking shots and it's just so like classic Hollywood movie stuff
and Frank Marshall uses a lot of cranes, crane shots.
There's a lot of overhead swooping cranes that like, you know, will swoop in for a close
up or something.
And I'm like, I don't feel like the camera moves like that in today's movies.
But again, that's a very Spielbergian thing.
I think it's a very maybe whimsical classic feel, which was cool.
Yeah, totally agree.
Yeah.
There's, I think just in some movies from this time, more so than now, I just think
there's like an attention to visual detail.
You know, they like storyboard the shots.
They like, you know, they think very carefully about how they're going to introduce scenes
and like cut to the next scene and stuff like that.
And I totally agree with you.
I just think that doesn't happen often enough anymore where it's kind of just maybe a little
rushed, maybe a little too simplistic.
But yeah, but arachnophobia, even like a relatively kind of straightforward piece of entertainment
is really carefully made and pretty visually impressive.
Oh, in the in the very beginning, again, when they're in Venezuela, there's a reference
to the lost world.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's movie about or novel about prehistoric animals living in a remote
jungle that are suddenly brought into the modern world.
So I was just like, as a movie nerd, as a monster movie nerd, I was a cat.
I see you.
I see you screenwriters.
I know what you're doing.
Yeah, totally.
And I think that opening scene in general just kind of like really sets the stage in
a very powerful way, very suspenseful way.
You know, you even have that shot of like the silhouette of the spider kind of like
on the other side of the tent.
Yeah.
Such a classic image from like, you know, the horror movies of the olden days or whatever.
So there are a lot of cool homages like that in arachnophobia.
Yeah.
How about you?
I agree with all that.
Absolutely.
It's such a fast paced movie.
It's extremely entertaining.
You know, I guess my favorite thing about this movie, I briefly mentioned it before,
but it's the performances of the spiders, like just the animal work in this movie and
all the care that went into that, the kind of ingenious special effects by the spider
wranglers.
Yeah, really makes this movie.
It's so impressive.
In terms of bad stuff, I honestly don't really have a lot.
I do kind of want to repeat that there just like is not a lot of thematic substance in
this movie.
And my favorite, you know, pieces of entertainment, I feel like there is like some semblance of
a theme and like the best ones, like even Jurassic Park, like is such an entertaining
movie, but I think there's also these themes of like parenthood and like life finding a
way against all odds.
And like there's something beneath the surface there.
In arachnophobia, I don't know if there's really anything beneath the surface, but that
can be okay sometimes.
That didn't bother me so much.
Again, I feel like this movie knows what it is in terms of like we're not going to comment
on deep issues here, but I don't think the movie truly knows that it's not a comedy.
Like I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't laugh at the movie.
The way it's marketed, even like on the DVD cover, it's like laugh out loud, funny.
It's a hoot.
I'm like, this is not a comedy.
Like Ghostbusters is a comedy, right?
Arachnophobia has camp.
They're like silly moments.
John Goodman's obviously funny, but the balance of tone didn't always work for me.
For example, the football player gets killed when he puts his helmet on because a spider
had crawled in it.
That's a really sad scene because he's a teenager.
This movie kills a kid.
Yeah, that doesn't happen in a comedy.
Yeah, it's a good point.
Yeah, and some of the other deaths too.
You're right that that scene is kind of like the most disturbing in the movie, but some
of the other deaths are really disgusting and very violent, really morbid and gruesome.
It is kind of fun, and yet at the same time, even while you're having a good time, you're
like, man, these people just got killed in the most brutal way.
Right.
In that, I feel like if I may, Frank Marshall, just direct this as a straight thriller.
I think that's the business side of Hollywood.
You're going to get more butts in seats if it's a comedy, but I don't think he actually
made a comedy, and it's forced sometimes.
I just think it's campy.
It's a fun movie.
It's not a funny movie.
Ah, there you go.
Does that make sense?
Absolutely.
You're totally right about that, yeah, and totally agree that it doesn't always handle
its tones very well.
It could do a better job of that, for sure.
Yeah.
All right.
Yeah, but you're right that it is campy.
There's some campy stuff in here.
There are a lot of stock characters, like the British spider expert, the old doctor
who said in his ways.
Those kind of campy stereotypes can be pretty fun in this movie, for sure.
Yeah, right.
Agreed.
Was there any other specific campy stuff that you wanted to mention?
Tarantula sex, spider sex.
That's very silly when they get in on mirroring Jeff Daniels and his wife.
They lie down in bed, and then it's intercut with the spiders laying down in bed, quote
unquote.
That's campy.
That's silly.
For sure.
To be honest, I kind of forgot about that moment, but yeah, you're right.
That's pretty clever, yeah.
But there's not a lot of other overtly campy stuff that comes to mind, but there is sort
of like a silly tone throughout most of the movie, like we were just talking about.
The spider POV shots in the beginning, I found really fun.
Yeah, I like the POV shots a lot, and there are some later in the movie, too.
It's just an element of visual imagination.
The musical score is pretty bombastic in those scenes, too, so very entertaining at moments
like that, for sure.
Well, I think it's time to give Arachnophobia our rating here on Camp Kaiju.
As always, we have four different ratings here.
Our top ranking is, it is a timeless classic and definitely stands the test of time.
Our second rating is, there may be some antiquated moments, but overall it's great and stands
the test of time.
Number three, it may be historically significant or just fun, but it does not stand the test
of time.
And finally, it is not worth revisiting and definitely does not stand the test of time.
For me, you know, there are, I don't know if I would say antiquated moments, but there
are some things that don't work out all that well in this movie.
Like we mentioned the kind of inconsistent tone.
I could use a little bit more substance, but for me overall, it is great.
Arachnophobia stands the test of time.
I loved it and I was really scared by it when I was a kid, and I had kind of the same experience
this time around.
So it stands the test of time, for sure.
Couldn't agree more.
I think in some ways it is dated, but in other ways this movie is still fresh as can be.
So yeah, I think antiquated moments, but it does stand the test of time.
You could watch this today with anybody, somebody who's never seen it and they would have a
good time.
I think it's got thrills and chills.
And comedy as well.
It has some comedy.
Yeah.
Or at least it thinks it does.
Yeah.
To your point.
It's a comedy, but I had fun watching it.
Yeah.
It's a fun movie, for sure.
And again, if you're an arachnophobe like me and Jeff Daniel's character, then it probably
will freak you out and you probably are going to cover your eyes at some point.
So be forewarned.
Honestly, this should be one of the most horrifying movies ever made because if you are deathly
afraid of spiders, don't watch this movie.
Don't torture yourself.
Right.
Yeah.
If you watch it, you'll probably be closing your eyes for half of it anyway.
So you know, which is great.
That's the sign of an effective suspense movie.
So good job, Frank Marshall.
All right.
So next time, like we talked about on Camp Kaiju, we'll be talking about The Mummy from
1999.
Naomi and Max will be joining us, right?
Yep.
Awesome.
Yeah.
So we'll see you next time on Camp Kaiju.
Thank you again for hanging out, friends.
Please rate and review wherever you listen.
You can also share this podcast with a friend.
Send us listener comments at campkaiju.gmail.com or on our Facebook page or on Instagram.
Again, that is at camp underscore kaiju.
Those links are also in the bio.
If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, please leave a voicemail at 612-470-2612
telling us about your favorite monster movies and memories.
Finally, please check out our website, campkaijupodcast.com for more information.
Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul with Mignot's mailbox music by Ben Cook
Phelps.
Thank you again, friends.
And until next time, stay campy.
In the 60s, it was the birds.
In the 70s, jaws.
In the 80s, alien.
Now for the 90s, arachnophobia.
Hollywood pictures and ambient entertainment present Arachnophobia.
The last word in suspense.
I didn't find a thing.
Go figure.
Well, then why is all the wood rotting?
I'll tell you why.
Bad wood.
Oh, so what do we do?
Tear out bad wood.
Put in good wood.
My husband thought this would make a good wine cellar.
Oh, yeah?
I collect beer cans myself.
I got a rare 74 milliliter light with a misprint on the label.
Only 100 or so cans in circulation.
The husband just might want to take a gander.
Death.
Eternal punishment.
For anyone who opens this casket.
The mummy.
Is it dead or alive?
Human or inhuman?
You'll know.
You'll see.
You'll feel the awful, creeping, crawling terror that stands your hair on end and brings
a scream to your lips.
There's nothing on earth like the mummy.
You will not remember what I show you now.
And yet I shall awaken memories of love and crime and death.
Now I know his horrible plan.
He's going to kill her and make her a living mummy like himself.
Revenge of the Mummy.
No, the Mummy Returns.
What?
That's the sequel, right?
It's Mummy 2.
It's not called the Mummy 2.
It's called Return of the Mummy.
No, it's called the Mummy Returns.
Yeah.
And then it's the Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Which I haven't seen.
I have seen it.
It's not good.
I think they...
Yeah, I think...
What's your name?
Eve?
Yeah.
She's recast.
Oh, no.
Which doesn't help.
And I think I'd rather watch the Scorpion King movie.
That I also have not seen.
I think I've seen parts of it.
And then there were subsequent sequels in the Scorpion King franchise.
Oh, it's a whole...
It's a whole to go down.
So if you're thinking about Universal's Mummy, respective franchises, it was complete success.
But they have a ton of Mummy movies.
They don't have...
No other Universal monster from Universal Studios has anywhere close to the amount of
material and content that the Mummy does.
Especially not in a modern era.
No, exactly.
Right.
And that's so interesting to me.
Like Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolfman were like the money makers.
There's tons of sequels, like five each probably.
And then The Invisible Man has a couple.
This is funny that we bring it up.
So the Mummy doesn't have that many from then, right?
There are five entries in the original Mummy cycle.
I was thinking like three.
No, so I just watched them all this past weekend.
Just like doing some homework.
I was like, you know what, I've actually never seen most of these.
Oh, I typed in the Mummy and Brendan Fraser comes up.
You know what I found at a used bookstore was the Mummy edition of that old Universal
DVD collection, the green one.
Oh, I have that, I think.
I think so too, right?
Yeah, I think I do have that.
Yeah, well, they're all on there.
Yeah, I watched the original one and then I'm pretty sure I saw the second one, which
is the better of the two.
I would agree with that.
That's called the Mummy's Hand.
We watched that together years ago.
Yeah, I remember.
Yeah, that one's fun.
So then, and I may get this order wrong because the cinematic experiences of the subsequent
sequels are pretty forgettable and the titles are very interchangeable, but you have the
Mummy's Tomb, the Mummy's Ghost and the Mummy's Curse.
Each of those three are literally 60 minutes.
Perfect.
Something happens, something contrived happens, the Mummy gets loose and there's a chase and
then the Mummy is destroyed at the end.
Well, you also failed to mention Abba and Costello meet the Mummy.
Ah, I did fail to mention that.
That's not on the DVD collection though.
I'm on the wiki page.
For that movie?
For the franchise.
Oh.
And, well, it was made 11 years after the Mummy's Curse and the Mummy's Ghost because
those are both in 44 and Abba and Costello were 55.
I've seen it.
It's Abba and Costello's last movie together.
If not, it's definitely their last monster movie together and the jokes are so tired.
They are literally just repeating jokes that they've done in Meet Frankenstein and other
movies.
I'm just like, oh my gosh.
This description's pretty funny to me.
There are moments, there are moments.
It's like Freddie Franklin and his best friend, Peter Patterson.
It's like comic book names.
But Max-
Just want to go back to the States but get caught up in the Mummy's tale when Dr. Zumer
is murdered and they find a medallion.
But just the idea of Dr. Zumer, I'm imagining like a Gen Z, like 20 year old.
So another example of how kind of lazy that movie is, they have character names but in
the movie itself, they actually only call themselves Bud and Lou.
It's so stupid.
Yeah, they're like, we're not going to memorize new material for this.
That's great.
Yeah, to those listening, we love Abba and Costello but you just have to recognize that
some of their movies aren't as good as some of their other movies.
Well, I mean, they're making probably multiple movies a year and doing shows constantly.
They're probably worn out after decades of that lifestyle.
And what happened to bring their series of movies together, their relationship imploded
and there were troubles with the studio as well.
So their contract ended, egos were hurt, their friendship ended.
Yeah, there was a whole thing.
Oh, I wasn't aware of that.
Where will we find the mummy?
Don't worry, the mummy will find you.
You'll howl as you follow Bud and Lou in a strange land where exotic dancers perform
ancient rituals.
You'll scream at this mystic world of mad magic and uproarious adventure.
Does this mean anything to you?
It means death to whoever holds it.
Starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
Imagine Lou trying to be charming to a snake.
Your nerves will jangle as they tangle with terror, middle with murder.
And try to elude a curse 4,000 years old.
A thrillomedy.