WHEN SPIDERS ATTACK:
A
FILMOGRAPHY
Giant spiders often appear in films because they're relatively easy to
enlarge photographically when one is already "blowing up" iguanas and
salamanders. Despite Charlotte's Web and Grandmother Spider in
Kiowa mythology, despite the arachnids' patience and weaving skills, they
still prompt enough weirdness in people for "arachnophobia" to be a
fairly well-known neurosis. Yes, they suck blood, but from flies! The
large hairy tarantulas so often demonized in films do not kill people nor
do they spin webs. Admittedly, they do bite you and make your hand swell
up most unpleasantly, so be careful; but one usually has to go far out of
one's way to find oneself entirely dead from vicious bloodthirsty spider
bites. Yes, they are better off not showing up inside our houses, but it
is recommended that you find a way of flinging them live outside rather
than idiotically smashing them like Garfield the cat in what is supposed
to be a "comic" strip. Medieval Europe was superstitious about cats,
killed a lot of them, and was overrun with rats carrying plague. I'm
perfectly happy that spiders like to catch insects.
King Kong(1933) --
scene cut from final version.
Cat Women of the Moon (1954) (a.k.a. Rocket to the Moon)
Tarantula (1955)
World Without End (1956)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Missile to the Moon (1958)
Earth vs. The Spider (1958 &
MST3K)
The Lost World (1960)
Valley of the Dragons (1961)
Horrors of Spider Island (1962)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Kiss of the Tarantula (1972)
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) -- but just Wisconsin.
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
-- William Shatner.
Planet of Dinosaurs (1978)
Galaxy of the Dinosaurs (1978)
Arachnophobia (1990)
Spiders (2000)
Arachnid (2001)
Spiders 2: Breeding Ground (2001) -- mad doctor with human
incubators for spider colony.
Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
Webs (2003) -- spider people rule Chicago in parallel world.
SpiderBabe (2003) -- College girl bitten by spider battles evil genius
Femtilian.
Ice Spiders (2007) -- Utah, so fine.
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