Just what the world needs: more bugs! Better bugs, besides: a lethal prehistoric spider from Venezuela, imported in a coffin and mated with the common American house spider. Frank Marshall, who had often enough served in the Producer role for Director Steven Spielberg, reverses the arrangement here, but has prudently kept to the same game-plan: a grade-B creepshow on an A-plus budget, a Norman Rockwell setting, a sprinkle of myth, a dash of psychology. There are even some monster's-eye views reminiscent of Jaws, and some of the near-misses of these octopeds are shudderingly fun. In fact, the near-misses are more fun than the non-misses are scary; and the frantic finale, after the arachnoid army starts "swarming," offers a lot of near-misses. Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Julian Sands. (1990) — Duncan Shepherd
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