"Arachnid" may not be a great film and in fact it starts off pretty rocky but it gets better as it progresses and what it does right makes it worth a viewing. The story follows a rescue group traveling to a remote island where the inhabitants have been dying mysteriously. Once on the island, the crew discover that it is populated by strange creatures which appear to be hybrids between spiders and other native forms of life. The creatures are not spiders at all though, the whole incident has been caused by an alien ship crashing onto the island. The accident has released a rapidly evolving strain of spider-like aliens and they are quickly picking off the human population. Before they know it, this rescue mission has become a fight for survival.When I say the movie starts off rough, I mean really rough. Most of the effects used to create the creatures are practical, which is a very good thing but at the beginning, we see the alien ship and it is created used some computer effects that are not good at all. It's unfortunate because not only does the scene where the ship crashes look amateurish but it doesn't add anything to the story. There's no real mystery about what is happening on the island, you know right from the beginning that it's alien spiders. There's a minor sub plot where the crew's pilot Mercer (Alex Reid) is looking for her brother, which we know is the pilot that first encounters the arachnid creatures but it's more of a tossup between "is he dead or mutated into a horrible spider monster" than anything. Either way you know she's not going to see her brother again. The beginning of the movie is also plagued with terrible dialog and some wooden acting. Once again, if you get past the first 30 minutes or so, it mostly goes away. Maybe I just got used to it, but either way I didn't notice it so much and the movie does get significantly better over time.The biggest strength of the movie is the variety of creatures and the special effects. Because the arachnid alien creature is trying to adapt to the environment, it's got a variety of spawns that are pretty cool to see. There are some oversized spiders, some snake-spider hybrids, creepy tick-like creatures that burrow under your skin and let's not forget the boss monster itself. These creatures are all created using stop motion, elaborate puppets or cleverly shot miniatures and they're all pretty impressive and very cool to see. You'll likely be disappointed that there isn't a sequel where we get to see additional creatures actually. That's not to say that the special effects are perfect. The budget does show, particularly during the beginning and during scenes where we can see the main arachnid alien crawling around on walls and such. It looks just fine but the speed at which its limbs move isn't quite right. If you ever look at insects move, they have a really unsettling jittery way of moving their limbs. It almost looks like your eye is too slow to capture the movements and all you see are random snippets (kind of like watching people move to a strobe light) and the movements of the main spider just doesn't look as good as it would have if these movements had been done using modern special effects.Another positive are the characters in the movie. Well, I should say select characters. Several members of the crew sent on the island consist of natives that don't speak English and are basically given no dialog or characterization whatsoever. You can bet these guys are just spider food. The main characters though, they're competent when it comes to the situations they're stuck in and interesting enough that you do want to see them make it out alive. It makes a big difference in the scary moments.I also want to discuss one bit in the movie that was really clever. So you know how in every horror movie, the group has to split up so they can cover more ground/get eaten when they become isolated? Well this movie does that but instead of the second group just getting killed off, they actually re-join the survivors of the spider attacks towards the end of the film. That means you get that tension of the group getting smaller and smaller as the bodies pile up, only to get a boost of potential victims towards the end. If you are an aspiring film-maker I strongly recommend you check this movie out to see the little touches it did well.For all the praise I'm giving the movie, I have to admit it really isn't that great overall. It feels like the film needed to go through one more proof read to tighten up some of the loose ends and move this from a "better than expected" movie to a "hidden gem". It isn't great but if you see this one at the video store for a dollar or you spot an ol' VHS copy at a garage sale, it's worth a look. Just forgive that terrible intro and you're in for some fun. (Theatrical version on DVD, October 25, 2013)

A plane driven by a pilot(Alex Reid) and transporting ex-marines(Chris Potter, Luis Lorenzo), a scientist(Ravil Isyanov) and doctors(Jose Sancho, Neus Asensi) crashes on a tropical island that contains a lethal carnivorous alien spider. The mission of the medics to find a formula to heal ills and the pilot to look for her brother disappeared when his jet was downed. They're accidentally lost and the eight-legged spider causes wreak havoc terrorizing and destroying the crew . Lethal alien spider meets up local natives and crew and spontaneously catch them and begins to consume people. The spider rapidly multiplies and the protagonists confronting with it .This chiller with middling budget packs thrills, chills, some good action and few funny moments. It's a hybrid of monster movies from the 50s such as 'Tarantula' and modern American production such as 'Depredator'. The thrilling screenplay is a bit yawn-inspiring but nifty special effects will keep you from dozing off, its author is Steve Johnson, he's a nice creature effects designer, a perfect craftsman who made effects in 'Spiderman II' , 'Species II' , ' Blade II' , and ' War of worlds ' , among others. On the whole this is a suspenseful and tense thriller especially at the amazing ending tableau when Chris Potter and Alex Reid have to tackle the gigantic spider at the lair in the final. The tale is well produced by Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernandez, owners of Fantastic Factory productions, a successful terror movies company. The motion picture is professionally directed by Jack Sholder with rather too much camera movement and there are also lots of low-angle shots of people hanging around waiting to get bitten by the carnivorous spider. Although nothing which haven't been seen before, this is not the picture to watch if you are scared of spiders , however the movie is quite entertaining. Utterly arachnophobia people must flee this film.Other movies about those bugs are the following : ¨Tarantula(1955)¨ by Jack Arnold with John Agar; ¨Tarantula: the deadly cargo(1977)¨ with Claude Akins; ¨Kingdom of spiders(77)¨ by John Budd Cardos with William Shatner and ¨Arachnophobia(1990)¨ by Frank Marshall with John Goodman.

Usually, good directors filming the horror or semi-horror/sci-fi films choose a phobia from wide range of existing phobias and play on it...That works greatly on the people who actually have such phobia or are close to it, and it also works good for people who don't have, but get to understand after film, why other people have such phobia...Situation is completely different with Arachnid!If you take this movie and make someone who struggles from arachnophobia to watch it couple of times, I am sure he will be cured.Giant spider monster is so dumb, so funny, so stupidly made... that everyone will understand for good, that there's nothing we can afraid of, even if spiders will really become that big.Recommended for psychologists, use the film, cure the people!

I don't mind admitting that spiders freak me out and the idea of flesh burrowing parasites....well, they make my skin crawl. So it's not surprising that big bug creature features are amongst my favourite horror movies; they can unsettle me without even trying.Arachnid, produced by Brian Yuzna and directed by Jack Sholder (who helmed the fun flick The Hidden and the abysmal Nightmare on Elm Street 2) is a 'by-the-numbers' effort which, despite being extremely predictable, entertains with its impressive (and often yucky) effects by Steve Johnson.When a UFO explodes over some South Pacific islands, a deadly creature is let loose which causes havoc amongst the natives. A team of scientists are sent to investigate and are soon fighting for their lives against a mutant monster that is part alien and part spider.Chock full of clichés, Sholder's low budget bug-fest isn't going to win any awards for originality and doesn't make a lot of sense, but with its attractive spunky heroine Mercer (Alex Reid), busty doctor (Neus Asensi) and its (sometimes, quite literally) eye-popping gore, I found it to be a reasonably entertaining monster movie.