Tarantula

I’m a simple man. I see a giant spider attacking an Atomic Age desert town, I hear inconsequential human side characters spouting overly serious wooden dialogue, I detect laughably gaping holes in their surface-level discussions of science jargon, I’m happy. Now, if you…

Matt!

It delivers on the title

Chris

Tarantula is much better than a lot of the other B-movies I have seen from this era. The visual trickery they used to make the tarantula (and other animals) look massive was super impressive. There is also a lot less of that pre-1960s staleness found here than in similar…

Lou (rhymes with wow!)

There's a part in this where Mara Corday asks if they can pull over and take in the desert scenery. John Agar responds "Sure" pleasantly and then they cut to the loudest tire squeal straight out of Fast Five as he casually turns the car down a dirt path.

Branson Reese

If you’re going to create an artificial super nutrient to grow animals to massive sizes, in order to feed the growing human population, I can think of like 1000 different animals to test this on before you get to TARANTULA!! Obviously this is a b-grade science fiction film…

Jesse

You know what’s worse than a tarantula that’s two stories tall? ANY spider of any size, loose in a car while you’re driving alone. Try it sometime. The people of Desert Rock, Arizona might disagree. Terrorized by an escaped experiment that turns an ordinary spider into a…

Digital Press

"Tarantula" is simple, formulaic atomic age 50's movie fun. Brought to the screen by director Jack Arnold, who most notably delivered the infamous "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954), but also endeavors like "It Came from Outer Space" (1953) and "The Incredible…

Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti"

Three stars for the genuinely impressive visual effects and the fact that the tarantula roars.

Bryan Espitia

Note to self: do NOT test a “miracle nutrient” on a tarantula, lest it escape and grow to kaiju size. Somehow, despite viewing such 50’s sci-fi/horror like Them in the past, last night on the Universal Monsters streaming channel was my first experience w/ Tarantula. It’s a…

Blair Russell