Are you afraid of spiders? Do you ever have moments where it feels like there’s something crawling on your leg and you’re afraid to find out what it is? I’m sure audiences in the ‘90s had that fear after they saw the horror-comedy flick Arachnobobia starring Jeff Daniels. Well, prepared to be scared again of creepy-crawly arthropods as Arachnobobia is getting a remake with familiar horror talent to help make it.
This underrated ‘90s favorite is about when the farm of a family physician, played by Jeff Daniels, turns into the breeding space for an aggressive and dangerous spider species that invade a small California town. Happy Death Day’s Christopher Landon is clearly not afraid of spiders as The Hollywood Reporter says that he has decided to take on directing this upcoming film. That means we should be expecting some scares and laughs to keep us entertained all the way through.
The producers of this remake are none other than James Wan and Michael Clear who have produced successful horror projects together like Malignant. Another famous talent coming back who made his directorial debut with Arachnophobia in 1990 is Jurassic World‘s Frank Marshall, one of the founders of Amblin Entertainment, as executive producer. With all of this horror talent, Arachnophobia has a real shot of keeping audiences shaking.
One of my wishes for this remake would be for Jeff Daniels to somehow make a cameo appearance. He’s clearly legendary enough to have a spider-killing worm named after him. I’d like to think they can squeeze some room for him to either reprise his character or be someone completely new to the film. Another wish would be for there to be no CGI spiders and to stick with the ‘90s tradition of animatronics or real spiders to give the film the realism it needs to scare audiences as it did me. It’s definitely worth noting how Jurassic World uses so much CGI compared to animatronic dinosaurs. Despite the advancing technology we have today, it’s sometimes best to just use what worked in the past to get a rise out of audiences. But in this techno-centric world we live in, we should probably be expecting some CGI spiders.
Considering Arachnophobia was a blend of comedy and horror, Christopher Landon seems to be the right man for the job. He directed the gender-bending horror-comedy flick Freaky about a teenage girl switching bodies with a murderer as well as Happy Death Day which was a clever homage to Groundhog Day. Being able to mix the two genres of horror and comedy can be very useful in leaving audiences scared but generating enough of a laugh to avoid experiencing night terrors. So before you watch the remake of Arachnobobia, you can always use virtual reality to conquer your fear of spiders.
To get a good sense of Christopher Landon’s style before you see Arachnophobia, you can watch Freaky on your HBO Max subscription.