History Main / GiantSpider

* UsefulNotes/{{Basketball}} themed RPG VideoGame/BarkleyShutUpAndJamGaiden features deadly B-Ball spiders, which have heads and bodies made out of giant basketballs. Their bites can inflict glaucoma on your characters.
* ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' features Minecraft-sized spiders with not-so-high damage. However, they are almost always encountered in pairs, have bigger tiger-coloured variation and their nests can house up to dozen of them. They drop precious silk and their glands, which act like best healing source in the game, encouraging player to scam their nests. Little catch: Overgrown nests turns into {{flunky|Boss}} Spider Queen, which is very tough boss. After her defeat, though, she drops item "Spider hat", effectively negating further spider problems by turning them neutral.

** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has the Caverns of Araneae, which as the name might suggest is utterly infested with giant spiders. They were bred by Archbishop Lazarus and let loose into some ancient ruins to protect the borders of Khanduras (and because Lazarus is kind of a dick). Giant spiders also show up in Arreat Crater/Hell, as the special minions of Azmodan and Cydaea.

Arachnophobia is probably the second-most popular phobia (after [[MonsterClown coulrophobia]]), and even non-arachnophobes have to admit that [[SpidersAreScary spiders can be pretty freaky]]. Therefore, the most popular form of BigCreepyCrawlies, and one of the most popular [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Fifty Foot Whatevers]] to attack has to be a [[http://www.livescience.com/animals/news-spider-species-100111.html big spider]]. (Don't click the link if you like to browse TV Tropes before bed.) The bigger they are, the less likely there are to be more of them, but they're almost all so big that [[SquareCubeLaw they logically shouldn't be able to move or breathe]]. They will usually have hypertoxic venom, both spin webs and hunt for prey, and spit silk out of their mouths (most spiders in real life only focus on one trait).

* The second issue of IDW's ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' comic book series features a few. They wear hats.

* * Chaosium's ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' RPG main rules, adventure "Lord of the Spiders''. The {{PC}}s must explore a forest filled with huge spiders. The spiders' venom puts the victim into suspended animation, after which [[Literature/TheHobbit the victims are webbed up and hung from trees]].

* Some seasons of ''Franchise/KamenRider'' feature a spider monster in the first episode, and more recent seasons like ''Series/KamenRiderBlade'' and ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'' have a recurring spider monster. Admittedly these are just PeopleInRubberSuits with spider heads and maybe legs sticking out the back. However, ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' and- ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'' went all the way, with proper giant spiders by way of ConspicuousCGI. ''KamenRiderZO'' had one that was made with {{Claymation}}, featuring a creepy face and unnatural movements that make it ''so much'' more scary than the better-animated versions.

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* Trauma (whose superpower is turning into people's worst fears) transforms into one during a training exercise in ''[[Comicbook/AvengersTheInitiative Avengers: The Initiative]]'' #1. This turns out to be a very bad idea; the arachnophobic Armory freaks out and accidentally kills one of her teammates.

** AtorTheInvincible has what is possibly [[SpecialEffectsFailure the saddest giant spider ever put to film]] as its "final boss" so to speak.

** ''Film/TheGiantSpiderInvasion'' made use of [[SpecialEffectsFailure laughably bad puppetry]].

* Having produced the film version of ''Film/WildWildWest'', one could think that producer Jon Peters included the giant metal spider as an interesting if entirely stupid sequence. However, the man has an apparent fascination with giant arachnids: Creator/KevinSmith's story of his time working on ''Film/SupermanReturns'' (at that point known as ''Superman Lives'') in the late '90s includes an amusing anecdote about Mr. Peters' demands on what be in the movie, which included not having Superman wear his suit or fly, and to have him fight a giant spider in the final act (Peters' justification being that "spiders are the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom").

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}: Sword of Storms'' has a woman sitting in a forest clearing covered in fallen leaves playing a stringed instrument who looks perfectly normal...until her fingers start bleeding as she plays, spiders start to swarm around, Hellboy gets caught by three spiders the size of dogs, and the woman rises up out of the leaves to reveal an enormous spider abdomen and set of legs - then she starts [[BreathWeapon to breathe fire]].

** The final form of the main antagonist of King's ''{{IT}}'' is a giant spider. Well, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm what we can comprehend of IT's true form]] anyway. The book describes it as being about 15 feet tall.

* A giant spider appears in ''Tarnsman of Literature/{{Gor}}''; partially subverted though, in that it is civilized and can speak (with the help of TranslatorMicrobes). It's not that big as giant spiders go either, although it's still pretty big for a spider. Despite averting, it plays to this trope when it assists the protagonist in a capture, pretending to want to kill the DistressedDamsel. His name is Narr and he's a relatively pleasant chap, although a bit of a fussbudget.

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series includes creatures called Acromantulas, essentially giant spiders that can get up to elephant-size. They can talk and are sentient, but [[AlwaysChaoticEvil don't think you're likely to survive a conversation with one]] (unless you're Hagrid). They are most prominently featured in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', whose film adaptation actually specifies spiders in the BBFC content notice. Aragog, the "king" Acromantula, makes a cameo (albeit posthumous) appearance in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince The Half-Blood Prince]]'' as well... both in book and film versions, surprisingly, and the spiders return in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'' when [[spoiler: the Death Eaters drive them out of the forest and force them to attack Hogwarts, which also appeared briefly in the film]].
** It should be noted that Ron is terrified of ''ordinary'' spiders, to the point that his boggart is a huge spider. Book Two wasn't very fun for him.

* The giant Trundle spider in the Pocket Books novelisation of ''The Adventures of Captain Proton'' (the [[Film/FlashGordonSerial Flash Gordon]]-homage ShowWithinAShow on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''). Proton and his companions are sacrificed to the giant spider, but it tells them it's sick of the lousy diet and helps them escape instead.

** [[spoiler: If her death does not make you cry, [[TearJerker you have no soul.]] ]]

* In ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' episode "The Night of the Raven", James West and a Native American princess are menaced by a spider while shrunk. That's right, the series did a Giant Spider scene (more or less) 33 years before TheMovie (cited elsewhere).

* Some seasons of ''Franchise/KamenRider'' feature a spider monster in the first episode, and more recent seasons like ''KamenRiderBlade'' and ''KamenRiderKiva'' have a recurring spider monster. Admittedly these are just PeopleInRubberSuits with spider heads and maybe legs sticking out the back. However, ''KamenRiderRyuki'' and- ''KamenRiderHibiki'' went all the way, with proper giant spiders by way of ConspicuousCGI. ''KamenRiderZO'' had one that was made with {{Claymation}}, featuring a creepy face and unnatural movements that make it ''so much'' more scary than the better-animated versions.

* In the ''GilligansIsland'' episode "The Pigeon," the castaways run into a Black Morning Spider, which is six feet long, red-eyed and weighs 500 lbs.

* ''RuneQuest'' supplement ''Into the Troll Realms'', adventure "Skyfall Lake". Crab City has spiders that are as large as a mammoth. They have warty gray skin and drop pools of acid.

* * ''TabletopGame/{{Rolemaster}}'' ''Shadow World'' supplement ''Jaiman: Land of Twilight''. The H'taan is a huge spider that lives in ancient ruins and other rocky, remote locations. They dig holes like a trap door spider and lie in ambush, paralyzing victims with their venom. They grow up to thirty feet or more across.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' features Phantom, a giant tarantuala made out of Lava, with a scorpion tail, as a RecurringBoss. He even showed up in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 2''.

* ''DungeonSiege'' has quite a few spidery enemies, including [[SpiderPeople Drider]]-esque humanoid-hybrid ones called mucosas (with an annoying habit of shrieking loudly when they attack) and an extra-large giant spider MiniBoss.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'' has 2 types of these: Bael and Elder Bael. They usually carry poison. Notable as they have the same Stat {{Cap}}s. Also notable, they're [[DemonicSpider Demonic]], especially the [[BossInMookClothing first one you encounter]], which must either be fought by your [[FragileSpeedster Peg Knight]] or carefully kited after rescuing the helpless civilians.

* The first boss in ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', as well as the Bonus Boss Bandit Spider.
** And the Block Spider.

** Most of the games have giant tarantulas (called "Webspinners" in the in-game media). ''Code: Veronica'' has giant Black Widows instead, while ''Darkside Chronicles'' not only has lovingly rendered and even more ghastly Webspinners and Black Widows, but a South American version, the Jumping Maneater, which is made from, you guessed it, a jumping spider. Amusingly, they're all depicted as retaining their original proportions; even though they're all {{Giant Spider}}s, the Webspinner is bigger then the Black Widow (except for the Widow Queen, who showed up in the original ''Code: Veronica'' as a boss), which are bigger then the Jumping Maneaters.

* ''Franchise/TombRaider 2'' had an area involving these.

* In [=RPG=]s, the ''FellowshipOfTheWhiteStar'' event "Web of Lies" has a creepy cat lady whose pets are cat and dog sized spiders that act like cats and dogs. Hillariously creepy.

** Thief had small white spiders, big green spiders, and red spiders in big and small sizes. System Shock had big and small deep purple spiders.

** All spiders fight melee. System Shock spiders appear to bite you, while Thief spiders seem to swipe at you with their front legs instead.
** Thief is a stealth game, and therefore the player has poor fighting capability, especially in melee where the spiders are too small and short to hit with the sword. System Shock is a combat game, but melee against spiders not recommended because System Shock spiders are highly poisonous.
** In addition to melee swiping, large red spiders in Thief can spit webbing at you to slow you down.
** When searching for you, Thief spiders point their front two legs and slowly wave them left and right as if they were antennas. System Shock spiders seem limited to a strange up-and-down bob for whenever they're not moving.

** Large Thief spiders are able to '''parry your sword with their front legs'''. Accompanied by the actual metallic sword-parrying sound effect.
** Certain Thief spiders have a curious behavior, where if you allow them to approach melee range, they will prevent you from getting a bead on them with your sword or arrows by '''jumping over your head'''.
** Late game System Shock spiders tends to show up in low-light areas. Also, they are invisible. But don't worry, if you're careful to listen over ambient environmental noises, you will still hear the hissing.
** Conversely, System Shock features a player power that turns the player invisible. A reliable panic button tactic when surrounded by enemies is to activate this Photonic Redirection power and move away from the current position, which stops the enemy from attacking and sends them searching. Spiders do not play this game. They will continue to track and attack you.
** If by fortune you are spotted by Thief spiders and manage to run to a position where the spiders cannot reach, they will orient in your direction, rear up their front legs, freeze in place, and stare at you. Forever. If you shift your position, they turn to track you. If after working up the nerve, you come down from the table or ledge, they will drop their stance and sprint-lurch toward you. After scrambling back onto the safe spot while manically soiling yourself, they will again rear up and stare at you. Forever.
** System Shock's spiders were so bad that a patch was created to remove them from the game so arachnophobes can play the game. Also, one Thief fan mission, called the Inverted Manse, features a large, gray, and--given the theme of the mission--presumably undead spider the size of a small shack.

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}: The Video Game''. "Return to the Sedgewick".
** The boss of that level is a figurative ''and'' literal BlackWidow.
* The most powerful creature that Nero Chaos in''{{Tsukihime}}'' has inside him is some sort of unnamed spider that is slightly larger than a large elephant. It's not pictured or named because Shiki just kills it in one blow like everything else.
* In ''OverlordII'', you fight spiders the size of your minions after being shipwrecked on Everlight. Deeper into the jungle you fight their queen, who dwarfs your Overlord and minions and spits out egg clusters that hatch into smaller, minion-sized spiders. After finishing this PuzzleBoss fight, the smaller spiders do a HeelFaceTurn and allow themselves to be used as mounts by your Greens.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Bomberman}} Bomberman 64]]'' has Mantis, a giant ice spider, for a boss that proves to be [[ThatOneBoss quite a handful]].

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' had Bospider in the first game and Web Spider in the fourth.
* The old MacVenture game ''{{Uninvited}}'' has a giant spider underneath the house. [[spoiler: If the player tries to jump down a hole, they end up right in front of said monster and killed, while if they come across it later they can get rid of it and move on.]]

* VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2017 has giant spiders aplenty, usually paired with giant ants.

* You have to fight a few {{Giant Spider}}s in ''VideoGame/{{Rayman 2}}: The Great Escape''. They're very tough opponents. Also, in the original concept of ''[[VideoGame/RavingRabbids Rayman Raving Rabbids]]'', Rayman would have been able to ride a Giant Spider. WhatCouldHaveBeen...

* These are regular enemies in ''TheHauntedMansion'' video game. They're still preferable to the small spiders, which are GoddamnBats.
* [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIIIII!!]]
** The music that plays while she chases you is ''terrifying''. You can outrun her and spend a couple of minutes in a room, feeling fairly safe then "DUNNNN, DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!"

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry 3'' has Arich the Arachnid. Being the second boss (third in Donkey Kong Land 3), he shoots green orbs and hops around the boss arena.
** There's also a friendly giant spider named Squitter, who appears in both that game and it's predecessor. He sometimes lets the kongs ride on his back and can create web projectiles that can either form platforms or attack enemies.

* VideoGame/WorldOfIllusion has a very comical FunnyAnimal Giant Spider as the first boss.

** There are also the rarer cave spiders, which are less than half the size of regular spiders. Still, at twenty-eight inches wide, they're unrealistically large, yet small enough to fit through a one-block gap. Unlike their larger counterparts, these ones are poisonous.
* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' has several types of large spiders, most of them which are about a size of a dog. Larger ones are also present.
* Giant Spiders are Very dangerous in ''{{Tibia}}'' and are credited for a good number of newbies deaths, even well leveled and experienced players avoid them if they dont have the proper gear to fight or just cant run from those monsters. However, once hasted they are faster than a level fifty player and will kill the player.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bugdom}}'': A machintosh computer game has spiders in levels four and five, they may not be giant ones but they look as ugly and scary as hell, thankfully they only attack Rollie McFly (the pill bug you conrtol) by trapping him in a balled web and jumping up and down on him rather than seeing him horrifically torn to shreds and eaten, still doesn't make the spiders any less scary and ugly the way they look in the game especially since Bugdom excells in having great graphics.

* The second episode of ''{{Blood}}'' ends with an encounter with a giant spider named Shial, who is the mother of all the smaller, more annoying spiders that show up in the rest of the episode.
* Their hissing may not be as tongue tearingly-frightening as you know who's, but these meter and a half blocky menaces from {{Minecraft}} can still ruin your day. By pushing you off a cliff.

* BasketBall themed RPG BarkleyShutUpAndJamGaiden features deadly B-Ball spiders, which have heads and bodies made out of giant basketballs. Their bites can inflict glaucoma on your characters.
* ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' features Minecraft-sized spiders with not-so-high damage. However, they are almost always encountered in pairs, have bigger tiger-coloured variation and their nests can house up to dozen of them. They drop precious silk and their glands, which act like best healing source in the game, encouraging player to scam their nests. Little catch: Overgrown nests turns into [[FlunkyBoss flunky]] Spider Queen, which is very tough boss. After her defeat, though, she drops item "Spider hat", effectively negating further spider problems by turning them neutral.

* Lots of large spiders appear in the first chapter of the WebSerialNovel ''{{Tasakeru}}''. [[spoiler:Also applies to their sentient and very hostile mother.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' episode "Terror Island", a MadScientist turns several animals (including a spider) into giant monsters.

* On his way to ditch work, Homer of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is confronted by a giant spider in the bowels of the nuclear plant. According to his map, said spider can be bypassed by [[AsTheGoodBookSays quoting a Bible verse]]. After a failed attempt, Homer kills it by beaning it with a rock.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has minor villain Fang, a punkish teen thug who has a giant spider for a head. No, that's ''not'' a type; he's basically a giant spider with a fully functional human body growing underneath his head.

* The biggest spider known is the South American goliath birdeater tarantula, growing to roughly 9-10" (22-25 cm) in size, this creature's relatively harmless (to humans) venom is made up for by its increased aggression compared to most tarantulæ and tendency to fling clouds of irritating spines into the eyes of larger enemies. While they usually only eat the externally digested liquid remains of amphibians, lizards and rodents they paralyze with their venom, they do occasionally manage to catch a bird (and no, they do not build giant webs to catch them with.)
*** To quote Cracked [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16054_6-endangered-species-that-arent-endangered-enough.html "It's frequently described as 'larger than a dinner plate,' presumably because spider-scientists don't want to freak people out with the significantly more relevant 'big enough to fit over your face.'"]]

* There is an extinct species of spider that grew to ''eight feet'' in length! Granted, the body was only about a foot long and it was mostly leg, but ''still!'' Freaky! Of course, these lived in a time period long before dinosaurs, when the oxygen in the atmosphere was ''much'' more concentrated, and bugs could grow to gigantic sizes. After a while, the atmosphere started shifting to what it is today, and the giant spiders - as stated above - were unable to survive at that size due to inability to breathe.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megarachne Scientists are still arguing about that one.]]

* Australia is particularly infamous for its thick concentration of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider huntsman spiders]], which can grow to be the size of one's face. According to native Aussies, the first time you see one you scream and run away, the second you try to get rid of it, the third you just ignore it.

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* The seven-legged Mr. 7 of the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]/[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/27874 Xenophilia]] fanfic, [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/98472/divided-rainbow Divided Rainbow.]] He first appears in the third chapter

* Trauma (whose superpower is turning into people's worse fears) transforms into one during a training exercise in ''[[Comicbook/AvengersTheInitiative Avengers: The Initiative]]'' #1. This turns out to be a very bad idea; the arachnophobic Armory freaks out and accidentally kills one of her teammates.

* [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]] has the frostbite spiders, which can be anything from wolf-sized to almost elephant-sized. They also spit venom, and [[ParanoiaFuel tend to drop from the ceiling on top of your head if you're not careful]]

** The music that plays while she chases you is ''terrifying''. You can out run her a spend a couple of minutes in a room, feeling fairly safe then "DUNNNN, DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!"

** Planechase gave us [[http://magiccards.info/cma/en/6.html Dragonlair Spider]], which spawns insects. Normally this would be a case of DidNotDoTheResearch (as spiders are technically not insects) but then you read the flavour text. Those insects are not spawns of the spider; they're scavengers eating the bits of ''dragons'' that the spider discards. That thing eats ''dragons''.

* Matarael from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.

* ''TabletopGames/LejendaryAdventures''. Jumping spiders are about twice as large as a human being and web spiders can be as much as 40 inches wide. They both inject a dangerous venom

* The [[EvilSorceror Evil Wizard]], final boss of CastleCrashers, turns into a giant spidery abomination as his fourth phase [[MarathonBoss (of six)]]. He gets some additional creepy points for fooling you into thinking he's dead right before this phase: a huge chest falls down on him and seems to squish him, like most bosses in this game when they die. So you walk up to the chest, it opens and the giant spidery abomination pops out... Rather eerie if you're seeing it for the first time.

* ''TheBindingOfIsaac'' has numerous giant spiders, mostly added on in the Wrath of the Lamb DLC. Widow, a fleshy spidery mass that has human toes at the end of her legs, is [[ThatOneBoss a frequent bane of early games]]. An upgraded, undead version named The Wretched can be encountered further down. Also, Daddy Long Legs and the Triarachnid fit the description nicely.

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