Cheap Arachnid (Video) (Jack Sholder) Price

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Customer Reviews of Arachnid

Arachnid: A Twisted Web of Illogic
ARACHNID is your basic Big Bug movie that picks off its victims one by one until the very last one, usually the Handsome Young Scientist (Chris Potter) somehow saves the day. This movie's basic premise is such a mess that not even some fairly interesting special effects can compensate. A Stealth pilot chases what seems to be a semi-transparent UFO that flew inexplicably out of a waterspout. His plane crashes and he bails out to land on a tropical island. Now this is weird enough but when he explores the island, he sees what is the ET-like pilot of that UFO, who is promptly killed by a huge spider. At this point, the audience does not know, and soon will not care, whether this is a UFO or Big Bug movie. Soon an airplane crashlands on the island. The passengers are a mixed bag of native islanders, good-looking women, a geeky entomologist (who has a great scene in which he is caught in a spider's cocoon and can still take the time to pontificate on the minutiae of his predicament) and assorted gun-toting guards.
ARACHNID goes seriously astray when it hovers between one kind of film and another. Eventually, it devolves into your standard thing-versus-victims movie. The only actor of note is Chris Potter, who had a minor reputation as the son of Kwai Chang Caine in television's KUNGU FU: THE NEXT GENERATION. Apparently, the call for his modest acting talents was barely sufficient for him as the dashing lead. You can easily skip this movie since there is nothing here that you had not seen done better in dozens of Grade Z monster pics.

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COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE
Poor Jack Sholder. He directs one of the finest sci-fi films of recent years (THE HIDDEN) and now he goes straight to video in this laughably scary movie. You have to credit Chris Potter (Valentine) and Alex Reid (Mercer)--at least they spoke English. Sholder manages to stage the spider sequences effectively but everything else is derivative nonsense. For a movie of this kind, the special effects are passable, but there should have been more spider contact. And of course, the ending smells for a sequel? Didn't I read somewhere that there is an Arachnid 2? Oh, well, for a ninety minutes of frivolous popcorn fun, settle for this 50's B movie.

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Schlock fans might enjoy.
I was in a schlocky mood last night, so I decided to catch Arachnid, which had a premise that sounded like schlocky fun. Well, I was about right. The movie's never really suspenseful or exciting, but it has enough icky moments and man vs. spider action to make it a watchable timewaster.

The story is about as silly as you'd expect, with a stealth fighter crashing into a spaceship, which crashlands on a small island. We actually get a brief glimpse at an alien that flickers in and out of transparency. Then it's killed by a giant spider. What the movie never makes clear is the spider's origin. Was it mutated by the spacecraft crash somehow, or was it on board the ship and was freed by the crash? Anyway, an expedition is formed to investigate a virus that came from that island. As a precaution, lots of guns are brought along, and you can sort of guess what happens from there.

I've always had a soft spot for horror films set on desolated jungle islands (Zombie, anyone?), so it's natural my curiosity would get the best of me with this film eventually. Arachnid was about on par with my expectations; basically, the story, acting, and direction are mostly second-rate, but the movie is sometimes enjoyable if you're in the right B-movie mood. And to director Jack Sholder's credit, he does try to use the island setting to as much of his advantage as possible.

The action scenes are pretty standard, which is a little surprising considering this is helmed by the man who gave us The Hidden, which had some fine action sequences. There's a lot of running around, getting stuck in webbing, and a few gun battles, but nothing spectacular by a long shot.

The effects are surprisingly not bad for a straight-to-video release. The giant spider is somewhat convincing, even if it only makes basic movements. Most of the effects appear animatronic, and I don't really recall much in the way of the CGI, barring the opening, of course.

The performances are nothing very notable, with Alex Reid coming off extremely annoying as the cocky pilot. Looking at the way she's dressed, it's obvious the filmmakers were aiming for some Tomb Raider parallels. Personally, I would have switched lead roles between her and Neus Asensi, who delivers a much better performance, and it doesn't hurt that she's hot, as well. Probably the only other actor worthy of note is Rasil Isyanov as a spider expert.

Arachnid is pretty much by-the-book. You know what you're getting if you actually decide to watch it, so to be disappointed by anything less would be rather foolish. Hey, the movie turned out to be slightly better (or a better way to put it would be more enjoyable) than I thought it would be.