I’ve been reviewing since 2012 and until now I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed any of the “Big Bug” movies from the 50s. These movies were the first genre flicks I became a fan of when I was a child. Me and my brother were also fascinated by insects and spiders when were we small (and into our teens), so it makes a lot of sense I would gravitate to these movies. My favorite two were always Tarantula and Earth Vs. The Spider (1958) with the latter being my favorite of those two giant spider films. And I still own the double feature DVD of The Spider, with War Of The Colossal Beast (19??), which means at some point I’m going to need to review that one too.
Before I ended up catching this movie on TV one afternoon there was a show that used to air back in the 70s, narrated by Happy Days Tom Bosley, called That’s Hollywood (1976-1982), and each show covered a genre or some aspect of Hollywood. I don’t remember the one episode that featured Tarantula, but a scene popped up showing the giant spider in the distance on this hill, just waiting, and then it starts stalking towards this pasture of cows. That scene seared itself into my mind! It was creepy and cool at the same time.
The marauding tarantula in this movie is a product of science run amok thanks to a Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) who believes in the far flung future there won’t be enough food to feed mankind, but if one could enlarge flora and fauna there just might be enough, and he’s devised a serum that does just that.
As the old saying goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so thanks to a couple of assistants Deemer has who’ve experimented with the serum on themselves, one of them deformed all to hell returns in a psychotic mood one day and attacks the good doctor, busting the lab up and unintentionally smashing the enclosure holding a tarantula that’s grown to the size of a man. As they fight the tarantula makes its way out to the Arizona desert to grow and grow and GROOOOOW!
People disappear, cows disappear, skeletons are found, and huge clumps of venom are discovered at the scene of these crimes befuddling town doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar). He takes a sample and learns it belongs to a spider, a tarantula to be exact, but to get such large quantities there’d have to be an assload of spiders leaving this shit around, or, just hear me out, one massive spider! And, yes, it turns out to be one massive spider.
Deemer’s new assistant Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday) suspects something amiss with Deemer, not to mention his looks are starting to decline real fast. That assistant that busted up his lab, also knocked the doc out and injected him with the serum as some sort of revenge. Now Deemer is turning freakish. As the bodies mount and his face gets more stretched out, he finally comes clean one day about what he thinks is roaming the desert! Sad to say, or not, the tarantula eventually comes back to the house, and ends up killing malformed Deemer one night.
The townsfolk try to blow it up on the highway, hoping to kill it before it reaches town, but dynamite does no good with a spider a hundred feet high, so they call in an airstrike by an uncredited Clint Eastwood flying one of the jets. He bombs the spider with napalm killing it on the spot.
Tarantula has had a few DVD releases stateside, but as of this review none of have been in blu-ray. You’ll have to go to the UK to get it on blu, and until Umbrella Entertainment remasters it themselves they have for the time being given it a DVD debut Down Under! Order it here on Amazon US or on Umbrella’s site! You can also buy Scream’s new blu (streeting April 30) on Amazon too, as well as on their site!
Video/Audio/Subtitles: 1.77:1 anamoprhic widescreen—2.0 English Dolby Digital (mono)—No subs
I had no complaints about the transfer, for a DVD it looked pretty good. There’s no main menu, so when you put the disc in the movie just plays.
Extras Included . . .
- None
(NOTE: Umbrella’s DVD is region free, which means you’ll be able to play it on U.S. players).
Video/Audio/Subtitles: 1.85:1 high definition widescreen—2.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio (mono)—English SDH subs
Scream’s 2K version looks terrific!
Extras Included . . .
- Audio Commentary With Film Historians Tom Weaver, Dr. Robert J. Kiss and David Schecter
- Still Gallery (4:15)
- Poster & Lobby Card Gallery (4:55)
- Theatrical Trailer
Still, poster and lobby card galleries are always a given for being cool extras, and so is any commentary involving Tom Weaver and/or David Schecter. The new guy on this track is Dr. Kiss and his and Schecter’s “cameos”involve very specific contributions. The former charts Universal’s publicity for the movie as well as the film’s theatrical bookings and debut on television, with the former doing what he did on The Deadly Mantis commentary talking briefly about the soundtrack. Had no idea there was only a small amount of original material created for it, with the remainder being stolen from other films. Weaver as usual gives the general lowdown on the film’s inception, actor biographies and factoids I’ve always found interesting.
PHYSICAL MEDIA LIVES AT . . . 