SparkVlog

Compared with such loathsome horrors, "Arachnophobia" is a relatively benign thriller, in which spiders kill a few people and scare a lot more, but never get really disgusting the way cockroaches would.

The movie begins in the mysterious rain forests of South America, where a new species of spider is discovered. It's a formidable beast, about the size of a baseball mitt, and it has a deadly bite. It kills one of the expedition members and then hitches a ride back to California inside his coffin. Once it arrives in a bucolic rural town, it crossbreeds with a domestic spider and starts lurking in the shoes and toilet bowls of the locals.

The movie's plot includes the elements common to all titles in this genre: (a) the old-fuddy doctor, who refuses to accept the alarming evidence; (b) the narrow-minded local policeman, who resents outsiders; (c) the bright young doctor, whose warnings are ignored; (d) the loyal wife and kids; (e) the plain-spoken local woman, who sticks up for the new doc, and of course (e) the scientist, called in at the crisis to shake his head gravely and announce that a deadly infestation seems to be at hand.

There are also the usual cats and dogs, necessary for the obligatory scene in which they can sense something even when the humans can't.

The bright young doctor, hero of "Arachnophobia," is played by Jeff Daniels as a man who literally has a paralyzing fear of spiders.

He moves with his wife (Harley Jane Kozak) and their kids into one of those charming little Victorians you find only on the back lots of movie studios. It has a barn, suitable for spider's nests, and a cellar filled with places where you wouldn't want to stick your hand into a dark corner if you thought there might be a deadly arachnid the size of a coffee cake in there.

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