Tarantula(1955)

Can all mankind escape the terror of its dread embrace... Professor Gerald Deemer has been working on a special nutrient that will help offset a predicted food shortage, the serum he has created escalates growth in his lab animals at an alarmingly quick rate. Deemer quickly loses control of the experiment and during a fight at his lab a fire breaks out and a Tarantula that is already 50 sizes bigger than it should…

Reviewed on September 6, 2014

Boy, does this show its age!* But, you know what, I really enjoyed it. <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/eight-legged-freaks/">Eight Legged Freaks</a>'</em>, eat your heart out! I seem to have found a new go-to Spider Rampage Flick™. To be serious, <em>'Tarantula'</em> achieves what it intends to - it is relatively creepy in parts. The special effects, as alluded to, have aged averagely, but there are still…

Reviewed on January 6, 2022

Allowing for the fact that the special effects are getting on for 65 years old, this is a cracking little sci-fi/horror feature. John Agar is the scientist on the trail of an industrial-sized spider that is wreaking havoc on a local Arizona community. Leo G. Carroll (in increasingly "Elephant Man" style make up) and Mara Corday help keep this Jack Arnold film moving along well. Herman Stein's music is a little…

Reviewed on November 14, 2022

**_A big axx spider threatens a desert town in the Southwest_** This debuted almost three years before the similar “Earth vs the Spider.” It’s adult-oriented and scientifically based compared to the later flick, which involves teens and 50s’ rock ‘n’ roll waking the (supposedly) dead spider. It’s worth watching just to go back in time to the mid-50s and observe how life was back then, including the styles and…

Reviewed on March 12, 2026