Spider-Man in Cinemas: Top 3 Movies by Audience!

The first French film with spiders, Vermines, is now in your cinemas. Filmed with real arthropods, Sébastien Vanicek’s feature film takes place in a building in Noisy-le-Grand. Caleb, a lover of exotic animals, comes home one day with a poisonous spider and accidentally lets it escape. After that, the population will have to fight for survival.

There are many feature films with the participation of spiders: are they giants, as in Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, King Kong or even in Shrinking Man, are they (very) numerous, as in Invasion of Horrors (1978), Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999) Or both at once, as in Attack of the Araki, Octopus Monsters, or even Jumanji, spiders have a bad reputation, and that’s largely thanks to the movies. Like the shark movies, many movies featuring spiders have seen the light of day with more or less successful effects.

Here, we invite you to discover the 3 best spider-themed movies according to AlloCiné’s audience ratings. Note that films in which spiders appear in only one scene were not included. Only feature films with more than 100 ratings have been selected, the main theme of which is a famous creature.

Starship Troopers (1998) – Rated 3.7 out of 5 stars

With over 24,000 ratings and 741 reviews, Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is number one with an average viewer rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars.

Directed by Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown, this sci-fi film is set in the 24th century, when Earth is ruled by the muscular Federation. An extraordinary army is rising against humanity at the edge of the galaxy. These giant spiders destroyed the city of Buenos Aires in just a few seconds. Five volunteers from high school go on a mission to fight invaders in space.

Robert A. Loosely adapted from Heinlein’s novel, Starship Troopers is an anti-militaristic satire. While promoting the film, Paul Verhoeven explained that Edward Neumeier’s screenplay played with “fascist imagery to highlight certain aspects of American society”. Thus, the feature film takes the opposite view of the novel, which was much more patriotic. Paul Verhoeven admitted that he had not finished reading it.

“One of the most amazing films of the late 90s”

According to internet user Dougray, it is “one of the most surprising films of the late 90s and above all a work that is unfairly shunned and misunderstood by the public. (Editor’s note: On a $105 million budget, the film grossed only $121 million worldwide.) because under the false air of pro-American military propaganda with a “GI Joe” trend, “Starship Troopers” is primarily a violent anti-militaristic indictment and a scathing critique of American interventionism in the world. Paul Verhoeven, who makes his best film here.”

For Frogman, Starship Troopers is “viral in its first half, but the film has some flaws in its second half. Some will criticize this film for not emphasizing the satirical aspect too much, I’ve criticized it more that it. runs out of steam too quickly to leave room for a long overarching For the battles. A film that is therefore uneven, but nevertheless provocative and daring.”

As for the giant spiders, most of the unusual creatures are created in post-production using digital effects. During the filming of the fight scenes, the actors had a visual cue from director Paul Verhoeven, who moved in front of them to get adequate reactions during the screaming.

Note that several sequels have seen the light of day and that a reboot is currently in the works.

Tarantula (1955) – Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

With 112 ratings and 21 reviews, Jake Arnold’s Tarantula is second on this list with an average viewer rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Back in 1955, the cinema turned spiders into terrifying bloodthirsty monsters. In this feature film from one of Hollywood’s most important B-movie directors of the 50s, a giant tarantula of experimental origin wreaks havoc on the American countryside.

Tarantula is also included in the top 3 movies of Jake Arnold A shrinking man in which a miniature man also encounters a spider) and the iconic The Strange Creature from the Black Lake.

Clint Eastwood vs. The Giant Tarantula

Even the most observant viewer will notice that Clint Eastwood appears in the film. At the film’s climax, when a squadron of jets attack the Tarantula, a young Clint Eastwood (required) appears as the squadron leader, the one piloting the jet and bombing the spider.

According to internet user chrischambers86, Tarantula is one of Jack Arnold’s best movies. (…) A very honest film from a conscientious craftsman who is sure of his work, Jack Arnold signs a very good classic that breathes the 50s with some anthology scenes.” ER9395 gives it a rating of 3.5 and writes “A good 50s B-series . Always with the same script and nuclear paranoia.”

For Eselce, the film has aged quite well. “Despite the special effects of the time, it remains a good horror film with a scientific tarantula. I appreciate Clint Eastwood’s small role in the finale and the believable way in which the story ends. A story with an effective and beautiful screenplay. A credible investigation and, above all, good intelligence, which today It’s more noticeable than the movies.”

A member of the AlloCiné Club Fêtons le cinéma evokes the film’s political subtext and metaphor. “Tarantula! weaves a great metaphorical web, where the excess of science and the thirst for evolution are successively presented, the fierce fear of the invader, experienced by the patriotic American who will destroy the threat thanks to military intervention, the ever-growing, increasingly monstrous monster, which, however, finds – and this is the most interesting – his counterpart in the person of the professor.

The two scales are in constant tension, on the one hand, the scale of planetary danger, which ultimately has a monster in its image of greatness, on the other, the strictly human scale, where men and women are active in fulfilling their destructive potential. It is in the opposition of these two scales that the tarantula! takes on the greatest significance and offers an interesting reflection on the scale of evil, reminding us that the greatest disasters can be caused by a person, no matter how small.”

Arachnophobia (1991) – Rated 2.7 out of 5 stars

With 1,225 ratings and 91 reviews, Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia closes the podium with an average viewer rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars.

Directed by Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Julian Sands and Harley Jane Kozak, the feature film opens in the jungles of Venezuela. During the expedition, the photographer is killed by a monstrous spider, which then descends into his coffin. Thus, he was repatriated to California. Soon, several suspicious deaths are reported in the small village of Kanaima, where only Dr. Jennings (Jeff Daniels) has any doubts about their origin…

The first feature film as a director, producer Frank Marshall (Poltergeist, Back to the Future, Gremlins, Indiana Jones, the Goonies…) was offered the position of film director on arachnophobia by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was still at Disney during this era.

“I liked this idea of ​​Spider-Man coming back from South America to the coffin. It was kind of a horror movie, but there was a lot of humor in it,” says Frank Marshall.

A movie with real spiders

Fear, humor and special effects are present in this film, which traumatized many viewers. And for good reason, because real spiders were used in the filming. The film crew chose a species native to New Zealand and Australia: the Delena crab. These arachnids are practically stalking hunting very fast prey; Hence its English nickname Huntsman Spiders.

Netizen FeetLover writes: “This movie is amazing. Creepy, good atmosphere, effective production, what more could you ask for? The best spider movie ever.” According to one visitor, it is “the best horror movie with spiders ever made. A great scary, suspenseful and original thriller: it’s a change from stories about giant spiders born from failed science experiments!”

A member of the AlloCiné Club Le Rabzz still warns arachnophobes… “I do not recommend this film to anyone who is afraid of spiders. Everything about this feature film is good, the casting acting, the direction, the constant tension, the music and the 80/90 vibe. We’re having a great time, but we won’t stop watching at home after watching it.”

For ER 9395 – a netizen who is clearly a fan of this genre – it’s “a bad ‘monster’ movie that never scares (but laughs), with only John Goodman (as usual) managing to get a few smiles out of us.”

Arachnophobia Really often leans towards comedy. It is also worth noting that it is with the scene JumanjiFrom one of my favorite Spider-Man movies Sebastian VanicekDirector pest. The latter told us during our meeting:Unfortunately, the Spider-Man films suffer from a side of narcissism. We have a really good arachnophobia, which is more of a comedy to me, and which I haven’t necessarily used as a reference. But it’s true, with the Spider-Man movies, we realized very quickly that they weren’t going to have the best role. They make a spider that is gnawing and hairy and 8 meters tall. It quickly becomes a bit silly.“