History Film / Arachnophobia

* ShoutOut: Delbert's attire is largely inspired by ''{{Ghostbusters}}'' The ''MAD Magazine'' parody, ''A Knack For Phobias'', makes the connection explicit.

* EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Implied by the professor. The spiders are a hive species, giving birth to androgynous soldier drones, but after the hive gets big enough, the queen would be able to birth a young queen to make her own hive somewhere. The professor says this would happen once the town has been devoured, and more than one young queen would be produced. Take this to its logical conclusion...

* GiantSpider: Mostly averted. None of the spiders in this film are larger than your hand, but they ''are'' deadly venomous. Downplayed with the original spider (the "King" of the hive) who is the size of a baseball mitt, which is Giant enough.

-->'''[[MilesGloriosus Delbert]]:''' Don't mention it.

* CorruptHick: Doctor Medcalf and Sheriff Parsons.
** Doc Metcalfe wasn't exactly corrupt, just an asshole.

* GiantSpider: Averted. None of the spiders in this film are larger than your hand, but they ''are'' deadly venomous.
** Actually the original spider (And "King" of the hive) is the size of a baseball mitt, which is Giant enough.

* OrificeEvacuation: For no real reason, a spider crawls out of one of the victims noses when the body is discovered.
** Oh, there was [[RuleOfScary a reason]].

* Jerkass: Dr. Metcalf.

A thriller/comedy (or "thrillomedy") film released in 1990, ''Arachnophobia'' featured Jeff Daniels and John Goodman and was produced by StevenSpielberg. This was the first film directed by Frank Marshall.

* TheAmazon: The killer spiders come from an unexplored jungle in Venezuela.

** Actually the original spider (And "King" of the hive) is the size of a baseball mitt, which is Giant enough.

* SmithWillSuffice
-->'''[[BadassUnintentional Ross]]:''' (After destroying the nest with his ImprobableAimingSkills) Thank God.
-->'''[[MilesGloriosus Delbert]]:''' Don't mention it.

* EpiphanyTherapy:"Come to the barn and look at this gigantic web taking up most of it. That'll cure your arachnophobia."

-->'''[[AwesomeEgo Delbert]]:''' Don't mention it.

-->'''[[BadassUnintentional Ross]]:''' (After destroying the nest with his ImprombableAimingSkills) Thank God.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Dilbert [=McClintock=].

* YouFailBiologyForever: The movie seems to have a hard time telling the difference between tarantulas and anything else. The killer spider species is represented by several unrelated species of spider, from wandering spiders up to tarantulas.
** The novel makes it clear that it's a truly giant spider. Much bigger than any that actually exists. They likely figured that it would be easier to use real spiders than to have to make giant spider puppets and worry about them not looking realistic.
** Also, during a scene with a spider expert, he's seen feeding his pet tarantula by putting a cricket into a web hanging in the the tank.
*** Actually some male tarantulas spin webs, which serve a primarily reproductive process (being laced with sperm in which the female lays her eggs). So this may have been partially justified, but not entirely in that a spider expert would certainly know that sperm webs aren't used for feeding.
*** I'm pretty sure we were supposed to think the spider in the tank was a live sample of one of the super-deadly Venezuelan ones (based on the dialogue, etc), so it's not quite the failure it initially appears to be--it just goes back to the film using many different spiders to represent the killer breed.
** "The Venezuelan spider must have mated with an American house spider to create a deadly strain!"
*** How unlikely this is would depend on how close or distant the relationship between the two species actually was (this is, after all, how we ended up with Africanized, or killer, bees), though it's highly doubtful they'd be similar enough if the Venezuelan spider was actually isolated for thousands of years. As for the offspring to be somehow more deadly, that's most likely complete hogwash.
** The leader of the hive mind is a male. This runs counter to how bugs work. The females are always the largest and the leaders. The males are just there for reproduction and may be eaten after mating.
*** Though this could be seen as an interesting (if unlikely) nod to a phenomenon that occurs in real life, namely in that sometimes there is a species within a family that will reverse gender roles. For example, most primates use a patriarchal system, but lemurs are usually the opposite.
** Acording to the novel, the spider is sentient.
** A big deal is made of the spiders operating and hunting together, but there is one kind of spider (''Theridion nigroannulatum'') that does indeed live and work as a colony. To be fair, though, the idea of some spiders being drones without sex organs is remarkable, and thus far unheard of in real life.

*** How unlikely this is would depend on how close or distant the relationship between the two species actually was (this is, after all, how we ended up with Africanized, or killer, bees), though it's highly doubtful if the Venezuelan spider was actually isolated for thousands of years. As for the offspring to be somehow more deadly, that's most likely complete hogwash.

*** How unlikely this is would depend on how close or distant the relationship between the two species actually was (this is, after all, how we ended up with Africanized, or killer, bees). As for the offspring to be somehow more deadly, that is indeed quite unlikely.

* TheAmazon: The killer spiders come from and unexplored jungle in Venezuela.

* GiantSpider: Not too terribly giant, but deadly venomous.

This movie has examples of:

* TheAmazon: The killer spiders come from and unexplored jungle in Venezuela.
* YouFailBiologyForever: The movie seems to have a hard time telling the difference between tarantulas and anything else. The killer spider species is represented by several unrelated species of spider, from wandering spiders up to tarantulas.
** Also, during a scene with a spider expert, he's seen feeding his pet tarantula by putting a cricket into a web hanging in the the tank.
*** Actually some male tarantulas spin webs, which serve a primarily reproductive process (being laced with sperm in which the female lays her eggs). So this may have been partially justified, but not entirely in that a spider expert would certainly know that sperm webs aren't used for feeding.
*** I'm pretty sure we were supposed to think the spider in the tank was a live sample of one of the super-deadly Venezuelan ones (based on the dialogue, etc), so it's not quite the failure it initially appears to be--it just goes back to the film using many different spiders to represent the killer breed.
** "The Venezuelan spider must have mated with an American house spider to create a deadly strain!"