TARANTULA

The spider plans a midnight snack at the ranch

TARANTULA (1955). Director: Jack Arnold. 

Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) is conducting experiments with a food supplement in an isolated Arizona laboratory. The food supplement makes baby animals reach adulthood much sooner, and it also increases their size. During a fire one of the lab experiments, a tarantula the size of a large dog, escapes into the desert, where it rapidly grows to tremendous proportions and begins snacking on cows, horses, and people. Dr. Hastings (John Agar of Bait), Deemer's pretty assistant, Stephanie (Mara Corday), and Sheriff Andrews (Nestor Paiva) discover this all too clearly when the spider demolishes Deemer's house then -- as big as a mountain-- advances on the town itself!

Peekaboo! The big spider looks for a meal

After the success of the giant ant movie Them, there was no doubt that more giant insect/arachnid films would be in the offing, and Tarantula was the first of them and probably the best. Although the process work is imperfect, the monster looks and acts a lot better than the giant spiders in modern low-budget CGI offerings. With a creepy, suspenseful musical score, Tarantula also manages to work up plenty of chills as the creature advances on a ranch, overturns a truck, corners two fleeing hobos who huddle together in horror as it bears down upon them, and in a bravura sequence approaches Deemer's mansion and prepares to tear it apart after first spying on Stephanie in her bedroom, its mouth parts moving back and forth expectantly in the window.

One friggin' big spider!

Tarantula is able to get across the horror of its concept without throwing one severed limb at the viewer after another or becoming too gross to be amusing, although there is some gruesome stuff involving skeletons and huge pools of spider venom. The performances are more than adequate, and the byplay between characters is often intentionally comical. The sound FX for the creature are typically disquieting. Clint Eastwood has a bit part as a pilot who drops napalm on the spider as it moves rapidly towards the town. John Agar did a number of sci fi films, and Mara Corday did a few more monster movies as well. Two years later Jack Arnold would deal with another tarantula when he helmed The Incredible Shrinking Man. 

Verdict: Entertaining semi-classic creature feature. ***.