Tarantula (1955)

A spider escapes from an isolated desert laboratory experimenting in giantism and grows to tremendous size as it wreaks havoc on the local inhabitants.

Firstly....I'm not scared of Spiders.  I smash them with my shoe.  You can't do that with this big ass spider. Secondly....Not many women from the 50's can make my jaw drop.  This Mara Corday did just that. She's a fetching woman to say the least.  Now being the perverted male that I am, I will probably try and hunt down her Playboy from October of 1958.  On to the review.....

Mara Corday.....fuck yeah.

 Tarantula is a 1955 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Leo G. Carroll, John Agar, and Mara Corday and it's damn good.  Dr. Gerald Deemer is experimenting with growth hormones to help with the storage of food that's sure to come with the growing population. He's testing on animals and things get out of hand when a tarantula escapes after having been injected with the serum.  There were quite a few giant insect movies in the 50's and this is probably the best of them.  The special effects were actually quite good for their day as a live tarantula was used and air jets did the trick to get him to move in whatever direction they needed.  There's also a scene that occurs in the lab and the enlarged animals look natural and normal.  You actually find yourself saying, "Fuck, that's a big ass guinea pig."

Run....that's not Charlotte. 

The Tarantula does terrorize everybody but let's be realistic...it has no shot living in a movie in which Clint Eastwood is leading the jet fighters into battle.  Clint begins his early movie career kicking ass right away.  "Dump em' all", says Clint.  Make my day punk ass spider.

You feel lucky punk....well, do you?

If you're a fan of 50's movies and classic sci-fi then this is right up your alley.  This is no "so-bad-its-good" movie here.  This is a legit decent popcorn fun film for a rainy afternoon.  If you have kids it's a great way to introduce them to giant monster movies.

Kevin Booker

Trivia:
Prof Deemer predicts that by the year 2000 the human population will be 3.6 billion in fact it was almost double that.

Quotes:

Dr. Matt Hastings: But what if circumstances magnified one of them in size and strength, took it out of its primitive world, and turned it loose in ours?
Prof. Townsend: Then expect something that's fiercer, more cruel and deadly than anything that ever walked on earth!

Dr. Matt Hastings: I may be just a country doctor, but I know what I know. 

Stephanie 'Steve' Clayton: Science or no science, a girl's got to get her hair done.