Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

utgard14 A giant tarantula is terrorizing Arizona. It's not radiation causing it this time; it's scientist Leo G. Carroll experimenting with nutrients that help growth. Local doctor John Agar teams up with gorgeous Mara Corday to try and stop the gigantic spider. Effectively directed by the great Jack Arnold. OK special effects. Nice script gives Agar some good dialogue. Veteran Carroll is solid as the scientist who caused all the trouble and gruesomely pays for it. Corday, who would be a Playboy Playmate a few years after this, was a pretty good actress despite always being cast in roles that required her to be nothing more than pretty ("Science or no science, a girl's got to get her hair done"). It's a classic giant bug movie from a time when that concept could still be done seriously. Fans of '50s sci-fi and horror should like it.

cokezero99 This is one of those films which you see the poster, hear the gist of it and think, "yeeeeahhh!" because you already have an idea of what enjoyment you'll find in the film. The plot of the film is pretty predictable: science + nature = disaster. That's a somewhat common theme in other films too. A real tarantula is used to portray the monster (with occasional use of animatronics). Using trick photography and miniature sets at times this is achieved. This works well as tarantulas are creepy and unnerving even as nature intended so seeing one portrayed so massively really works. Even by today's CGI standards it looks unnerving.The characters aren't really important here but they fill their roles satisfactorily. The story could do with a little more and the writing too. Just a touch more to flesh out the story and such.I recommend this mainly to those who like spider-based films (e.g. Eight Legged Freaks, Arachnophobia, etc) and fans of "big creatures vs. man" films.

sddavis63 My only real criticism of this movie (just to get it out of the way) is that it seemed to try to hold together two plot elements rather than one - and the two didn't fit together all that well (and one wasn't really necessary and I was less than clear on why it was included.) Let's talk about that first.It was a little disconcerting to watch a movie called "Tarantula" and yet in the opening scene to see what looked at first glance to be a primitive cave-man type of creature come stumbling across the desert in his pajamas! It got my attention, yes, but it also made me start out confused by what was going on here. Wasn't this supposed to be about spiders? The man, as it turns out, was stricken with a mysterious condition that caused his face and hands to enlarge and mutate, but the town's doctor (John Agar) was baffled, because this condition is usually a chronic one lasting for years before it kills, whereas the man who died had been perfectly normal just a few days before. This leads Agar's Dr. Hastings to the laboratory of Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), for whom the man had worked and who was experimenting with a new type of nutrient that caused rapid and abnormal growth in animals. That, of course, ties the spider part of the story in, as a tarantula was one of the animals being injected with the nutrient. The movie becomes basically the fight against this behemoth of a spider that's wreaking death and destruction across this part of Arizona.Having a person (and eventually Prof. Deemer) injected with the nutrient and become deformed wasn't really necessary. But if you set that aside, you have a better than average film - actually pretty good for this genre. The special effects were quite well done for the era. The gigantic spider was well photographed, and even though it was clearly a normal spider superimposed on a background landscape, it actually worked pretty well. Agar was a busy enough actor in his day, and you can see why. His performance was really quite decent, Carroll's makeup - once his deformity began - was startling without being as hideous as the man in the opening scene, and the final battle against the giant tarantula as it approached the town was pretty well portrayed. It's a fun 50's creature feature. (7/10)

evening1 This tacky film attempts to exploit mankind's fear of large, hairy spiders but only succeeds in boring us with a hackneyed plot line, wooden dialogue, and way too much filler between appearances of the arachnoid.John Agar and Mara Corday make a fashionable couple but you never sense anyone's home in either one of them. Corday's got the curves and the clothes but never rises above being cardboard. And Agar? All suave superficiality. The giantism angle showed promise. But the movie is opaque as to why two people's faces get so distorted. How's that related?Run, if you see this one crawling toward your cable channel. Eeeewww!