A selection of scary, psychological, and even dramatic films where the main character is a spider.
The theme of spiders appearing near humans (regardless of intentions) often stirs the minds of creators of both straightforward horrors and psychological dramas. After all, the spider is a mysterious insect, possessing not only a terrifying appearance but also a wide range of metaphors and allegories. Therefore, fear-inducing spiders appear on big screens with enviable regularity.
This week, for example, you can catch the French horror "Spider Web of Fear" about an attack of arthropods on an ordinary city apartment building. And in May, an Australian version on the same theme — "Black Widow: Bite of Death" — will be in theaters. On the occasion of these releases, we decided to recall five different films where the encounter between a human and a spider bodes no good (though not always).
"Spaceman" (2024)
Czech cosmonaut Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) is on an important mission to study a mysterious purple nebula floating above planet Earth. At some point, a cosmic spider (voiced by Paul Dano) joins the deadly tired cosmonaut, curious about what a human is doing so far from home.
In the film by Johan Renck ("Breaking Bad," "Chernobyl"), the spider, though impressive in size, is not scary at all, but rather a curious and slightly melancholic galactic traveler, reminiscent of Eeyore. He loves chocolate spread and helps Jakub sort out his family problems.
We wrote a bit more about the film "Spaceman" in our .
In the new film from "Chernobyl" director Johan Renck, Adam Sandler plays a deadly tired cosmonaut who, together with an alien spider, tries to comprehend the mysteries of the universe.
Open material"Enemy" (2013)
The hero drowning in an abyss of madness sees spiders everywhere. Even his own wife he sometimes mistakes for a huge predator.
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Open materialmade, perhaps, one of his most mysterious films, projecting onto spiders the entire collected works of Sigmund Freud. Nothing is clear, but it's terribly interesting.
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Open material"The Spider" (2019)
A single mother with two children moves from a big city to a small backwater. Next door lives a collector of archaeological rarities (a bright but short role by Bruce Davison), who receives an ancient vessel containing a preserved terrifying spider. The vessel, of course, will break, and a little girl will have to confront the predator, whose house becomes the spider's first target.
A simple, genre thriller with cheap practical effects, which by the end is more amusing than frightening. But you can spend an evening with it.
"Eight Legged Freaks" (2002)
A classic in its own right. Again a small town, where they plan to place a nuclear waste dump. One of the barrels accidentally ends up in a local reservoir, from which an entomology professor gets food for his spiders. Radiation-infected crickets become a real steroid for the mass of spiders, and they begin to grow like yeast, sowing panic among the local population.
A nostalgia film with an accurate capture of the 2000s: with a mandatory Linkin Park poster on the wall, funny teenage fashion, cell phones, silly spider voice acting in the style of "Gremlins", and a very young Scarlett Johansson in a supporting role.
"Arachnophobia" (1990)
Also a classic. To date, perhaps one of the few representatives of the genre that managed to look beyond B-movies. Here the director is quite eminent (Frank Marshall, who worked closely with Spielberg), the effects are decent, and Jeff Daniels in the lead role. The plot, however, differed little from its brethren, but at some moments during viewing you feel uneasy and constantly want to look back. Isn't a not-so-friendly neighbor spider creeping up on you?
"The Mist" (2007)
A successful adaptation of the cult novel by horror king Stephen King by director Frank Darabont. According to the plot, a thick fog suddenly descends on a small town, from which huge monsters emerge (and spiders too). The didactics, however, focus more on the human race trapped within the walls of a supermarket, some of whom may be scarier than the monsters outside.
"Possum" (2018)
Another psychological thriller where an arachnid creature haunts an unsuccessful puppeteer with a bunch of personal problems. British director Matthew Holness, like Denis Villeneuve, endowed the cinematic spider with the ability to embody all possible fears hidden deep in the subconscious. And there is also a truly creepy, almost Lovecraftian spider, a viscous atmosphere of personal decline, and a tragic story about a little man. A gloomy but non-trivial film.
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