Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

gridoon2018 "Tarantula" is a combination of a science-experiment-gone-wrong movie with a monster movie. Though tame by today's standards (it shies away from any graphic violence), it still boasts nearly-excellent optical effects, nearly-seamless trick photography, and creepy "deformative" makeup. A talkative first half gives way to an eventful second. **1/2 out of 4.

Rainey Dawn It's another one of those super fun large creature films from the 1950s. The movie is kinda a "mad scientist/doctor" movie where the Prof. Gerald Deemer has been working on nutrients to help mankind from starvation due to the world population increasing and using animals to experiment on to test his formula. The experiment gets out of hand, a fight breaks out in the laboratory and the tarantula escapes. The tarantula keeps growing in size as the film progresses with out another injection of the formula. In the end, we have one massive spider crawling around killing and devouring animals as well as the people! I really enjoy these all in fun large creature popcorn movies - makes for a fun evening. They really don't make sense but they are extremely enjoyable to watch! 8/10

tomgillespie2002 One of countless 'big bug' features to come out of the U.S. during the 1950s, Jack Arnold's Tarantula is one of the most enjoyable of its kind. After Gordon Douglas' Them! really kicked off the fad in the previous year, Tarantula has everything audiences came to love about the genre; a dusty, middle-of-nowhere Arizona setting, the handsome yet charisma-free hero, the screeching love interest, the shady doctor who certainly knows far more than he is letting on, and, of course, the giant, 'terrifying' monster. What makes this film slightly more interesting than others of its ilk is the fact that it doesn't blame radiation on the deformed beast, but actually attempts to tell a story.After renowned biological research scientist Eric Jacobs (Eddie Parker) is found dead in the desert, apparently suffering from a rapid form of acromegaly, Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar) is called in from a nearby town to investigate. When Hastings suggests an autopsy to figure out what brought on such a rare disease and how it killed Jacobs so quickly, Dr. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), one of Jacobs' colleagues, refuses his request and signs the death certificate himself. Back at Deemer's isolated desert research lab, it is revealed that the doctor has been experimenting on animals in a bid to save the future planet's food shortage, and has increased the size of a number of his subjects, including a tarantula. After a fire destroys Deemer's lab, the Arizona landscape is soon overshadowed by the giant, hungry arachnid. While a radioactive isotope does crop up at one point, the 50 foot spider is purely the handiwork of a scientist with good intentions rather than government nuclear tests, and therefore Tarantula creates an interesting and conflicted character in Caroll's Deemer. Caroll certainly chews every scene, but proves a far more appealing male lead than the bland Agar. Yet the real star of Tarantula is the creature itself. The combination of matte effects and the use of a real spider, which would later be used on The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) have aged spectacularly well, only failing to convince during the brief close-up shots of the last thing a few poor (and seemingly blind) souls see before they're gobbled up. While the climax is over before you know it, there's fun to be had in trying to spot a young and uncredited Clint Eastwood as a fighter pilot. It's no longer scary (was it ever?), but it has charm by the bucket load.

ctomvelu1 Better than average giant creepy crawly monster movie from the 1950s. Instead of radioactivity from an atomic bomb, this nasty creature grows due to a serum invented by a nutty scientist (Carroll). Things start happening when the scientist's lab is trashed and his rapidly growing tarantula escapes. Pretty soon, it's eating cattle and horses and then humans. A young medical doctor (Agar) and the mad scientist's new assistant (Corday) struggle to find a way to deal with this hairy killer, which eventually is the size of a small mountain, with fangs to match. The story is well played, the desert photography terrific, and the special effects not bad for the period. And no endless stock footage of tanks or artillery! There are some shots of jet fighters, but they are not over-used. The lovely Miss Corday is the biggest reason for watching this.