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That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Hmmm..... it would seem that every other reviewer rates this at 8 or 10 stars..... just what exactly am I missing here..... After looking through some of these reviews, I can quickly deduce that many of you are prone to over-rating and over-hyping this movie. Please, it's not THAT good.Released in December of 1955 "Tarantula" is a capable, though fairly modest effort in the Sci-Fi/Horror genre and though it's far from being a great film, it's still one of the better "Big Bug Movies" Hollywood's churned out over the decades. The film stars John Agar in the lead role of Dr. Matt Hastings, who has many a dilemma to solve out in the arid wastes of the Arizona desert. Along for the ride comes a young and lovely Mara Corday as well as the great British character actor and Hitchcock favorite Leo G. Carroll, as scientists who are hard at work in developing a super-growth serum. But, as always, "something went terrible wrong" and trouble brews. Tarantula is well-acted, paced, photographed and it's effects, for the time, are about as good as to be expected, and yet unfortunately this film registers at only a very marginal level of entertainment.On the plus-side many of same the people who where behind the iconic horror film "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" just the previous year, are also involved in Tarantula - only this time with far less memorable results. I might as well go ahead and say it, as if it's title isn't a total give-away in the first place, the film is centered around a massive, scientifically enhanced, Tarantula - which only gets bigger in size and ferocity as the movies goes. The last 10 to 15 minutes, when the spider attains it's maximum "house-wrecking" size of at least 100 tall, by 100 feet across, is when the movies at it's best. Also for a compliment I find that the end of Tarantula projects a similar vibe that King Kong's grand finale does (though in a much more modest way and on vastly less-inspired level), because ultimately Tarantula never really does get THAT exciting.Judging by the looks of things the monster (ie giant tarantula) was brought to life solely through the use of photographic effects, primarily from the method of super-imposing footage of the subject, over the master-shot, that establishes the setting; which in this case is the mountainous deserts of Arizona and it's endless stretches of high-way that disappear into the horizon. In another sequence, a - house-wrecking affair - the monster is thrust front and center onto the screen and beautifully rendered, in the form of an extreme close-up, that which depicts the spiders head and multiple sets of eyes with an impressive level of detail, as it peers through a window - perhaps in admiration of Mara Corday. By this time the giant, mutated Tarantula is bigger then a house and it only getting bigger and BIGGER, as it rumbles towards it's inevitable demise.As exciting as it might sound, I urge you to temper any enthusiasm and keep your expectations to a modest level, because like virtually all monster movies of the era Tarantula comes off as quite dated and modest in it's ability to entertain. Now had this been done using stop-motion photography, well then, undoubtedly, Tarantula would have been a more memorable picture; but as it stands the movies photographic effects are still vivid and feature some very effective, sharply detailed, close-ups. Musically Tarantula is impressive, featuring the dual compositional threat of both Henry Mancini and Herman Stein, their musical endeavors effectively lifts Tarantula above and beyond most of it's competition. The films striking score primarily alternates from string-filled moments of subtle serenity, to harsh, brass-driven moments of monstrous angst.In the end Tarantula does provide the audience with a very satisfying death scene, as the monster is consumed in a raging firestorm. But for me, once was enough, as I find the movie lacks the necessary verve and excitement to warrant my attention, again. There's no doubt of it that had more money/inspiration been splashed it's way, this would have been a grand classic of the genre, unfortunately that's not the case here and Tarantula is merely a good movie, rather than a great one. There's one other thing that has come to my attention, which is the fact that Mara Corday had a habit of showing up in monster movies of the 50's. But as far as Tarantula is concerned, when compared to the likes of "The Black Scorpion" or the infamously terrible (and riotously hilarious) "The Giant Claw" it's the first and easily the best of Mara's monster movies. Conclusion: Tarantula offers little in the way of replay value, but it's certainly worth watching once.On a side-note, if you further want to explore the films of director Jack Arnold, I highly recommend that you see "The Incredible Shrinking Man", it's a more entertaining movie and also a much better example of his talent as a film director.

Nothing beats the 1950's creature-feature experience especially when all those flicks starting coming out. You paid your .50 cents to go see a double feature while munching away on popcorn, snacks and tasty drinks perhaps with a date or with friends this was a good night out. Tarantula was a good effort to bring chills right to your face, make the girls scream and have you forget that you were watching a movie. Great innocent entertainment for its time and of course for any lovers of the classic Sci-fi and creature flicks. They typically start-out with a premise and lead up to the star of the movie which is the monster and then watch as the creature rules and feasts while the people in the movie haven't clue but the audience is going wild. Then, when discovered, you have different people telling others just trust me and do this or that or we are toast. No time for answers now. You will find out soon enough and they do! This movie does it quite well. Back then, they actually made the audience part of the movie and movie-goers reciprocated by going to see these flicks more than once too. One thought always crossed my mind when watching these little gems is why don't they try to capture the creature instead of killing it? The emphasis was on saving lives rather than making a buck or doing scientific experiments is what we tell ourselves. As these movies evolved, they did attempt capture and more thus bringing my current wondering to a close. Strap yourself in for an hour and half worth of movie watching here and wonder what the world would be like with Giant Tarantulas roaming around. Fun stuff. Recommend sunflower seeds to keep the tension under control and the nails from being bit...enjoy

The police chief of a tiny town in a rocky desert - Desert Rock! - is confronted with a mysterious death. The local, handsome, all-American doctor gets into a conflict over the cause of death with a professor who does research in a beautiful house, some twenty miles out of town. The viewer finds out what's going on pretty soon, but it takes a good while before everything falls into place for the doctor and the good town's people and police. In between, Matt has fun with 'Steve', something wreaks havoc among the livestock and some town folk and the professor turns into a monster...Back in the day, the scenes with the tarantula must have been quite impressive on a big screen. These days, they're good fun to watch, in combination, and the corny (dated) bio-sci-fi story with some romance and some horror does the rest. Even 'King Kong' comes to mind, especially when the spider peeks into the bedroom window of 'Steve', but it doesn't fall in love, it's hungry...A small 7 out of 10; classic in a way, but not great, to be honest.

In Desert Rock, Arizona, a disfigured man is found dead and identified by Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) as his assistant and friend Dr. Eric Jacobs, who would suffer from acromegalia. The country doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar) is puzzled with the mysterious disease and decides to investigate further about acromegalia. Professor Deemer omits that Dr. Eric Jacobs and Dr. Paul Lund were researching with him a nutrient to increase the food supply in the world and they have been affected by the experiment. Soon Paul Lund, who has also been affected and is mad, breaks and sets the laboratory on fire and a huge tarantula escapes.Meanwhile, the gorgeous Stephanie "Steve" Clayton (Mara Corday) arrives in town to work with Dr. Jacobs, and Dr. Hastings drives her to Professor Deemer's house in the desert. She is hired by Deemer and she finds that he is sick. When cattle bones are found in a farm, Hastings collects material and flies to a laboratory, where he learns that the sample is of tarantula's venom. But the scientist does not believe that one tarantula could ever produce such quantity of venom. The doctor returns to Desert Rock sure that the species is part of Prof. Deemer's experiment and the locals are threatened by the dangerous tarantula."Tarantula" is a typical sci-fi of the 50's and a surprisingly good film. The screenplay is very well written and the movie is supported by good direction, performances, cinematography and special effects. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Tarântula!" ("Tarantula!")