In 1990, one of the freshest and most entertaining horror films in modern history hit theaters: “Arachnophobia.” Directed by Frank Marshall from a script by Dan Jakoby and Wesley Strick, the movie effortlessly blended elements of actual terror with a B-movie plot and clever humor. The use of actual spiders helped the film’s title live up to its name, and it still holds up 32 years later. But three decades later, the film is set to receive a remake from Amblin.
The news today is that horror creator Christopher Landon has been set to write and direct the remake. Earlier reports (like, back in 2018) indicated James Wan and Atomic Monster would be producing.
Landon’s star has risen considerably over the last several years. Since writing the film “Disturbia,” he’s penned five”Paranormal Activity” films, and eventually graduated to writing and directing “Happy Death Day” and it’s sequel.
In 2020, he wrote and directed “Freaky” which scored him some of his best reviews to date. The “Death Day” films alongside “Freaky” also pegged Landon as a talented creator in the horror/comedy drama. In short, he certainly has the credentials to head-up this remake and hopefully give it the appropriate touch of both genres.
“Arachnophobia” was a wonderfully clever film, but a larger part of its charm also came from the performances of its cast. Jeff Daniels and John Goodman both turned in some career highlight performances. Daniels plays a family doctor who moves from San Francisco to a small backwoods town in California. Unfortunately his arrival is also coincidentally met with that of a rare Venezuelan spider that hitched a ride with a nature photographer to the same California town. After the spider cross breeds with a local house spider, havoc and death ensues.
And, what a perfect score for the film, too. Check out “Delbert’s Theme” from composer Trevor Jones that alternates between a plucking string arrangement and a harmonica and saxophone combination. The strings represent a spider’s delicate movements with the sax representing Delbert’s (played by Goodman) casual, almost comical approach to insect extermination.
And in case you needed evidence of “Arachnophobia” being a memorable film, some scientists named a spider-killing nematode after Jeff Daniels. Maybe this is one of those movies that just shouldn’t be remade, but if anyone’s got a shot at doing it, it’s Christopher Landon.
There’s no further information on who will be cast, or when it’s going to start production. We’ll let you know what we hear about this and other news.
