Very soon, moviegoers will be checking twice when they feel something moving on their shoulders. An Arachnophobia reboot is in the works.
Few little critters can elicit such strong feelings of fear and repulsion as spiders do. Arachnophobia has always been one of the most prevalent phobias, with nearly 24% of Americans claiming to be afraid of spiders. Still, that number pales in comparison to how many people confessed their fear of spiders in the early 90s, right when the original Arachnophobia was released – but don’t worry: moviegoers are about to rediscover their fear of the eight-legged critters.
It has been recently announced that the 1990 horror-comedy flick would be getting the reboot treatment, directed by none other than Christopher Landon. You may recognize his name for his directorial work on the Happy Death Day series, as well as with the dark humour flick, Freaky, starring Vince Vaughn.
This news certainly lends the Arachnophobia reboot a heightened sense of legitimacy, thanks to Landon’s trademark use of comedy to spice up his horror flicks. At the very least, we know for sure that the director will be more than capable of capturing the original film’s approach to horror and comedy – a feat that, as easy as it might sound, might prove too tricky even for the most gifted horror filmmakers.
Seeing Landon has also worked as a director and a screenwriter for the Paranormal Activity saga, we can only hope that the filmmaker taps into his more recent projects rather than using the found-footage format of those films.
Additionally, there’s even more good news surrounding the Arachnophobia reboot, and they have to do with who is producing the film. These days, for a horror flick to be successful, it needs to be, at least, tangentially tied with a certain producer – and that producer is James Wan, who has worked on pretty much every major horror release of the past decade.
Wan has confirmed his involvement with the Arachnophobia reboot, serving as the film’s producer. His colleague and fellow horror fan, Michael Clear – who did an outstanding job with Malignant – is also set to produce. The real cherry on top comes with the announcement of one of the reboot’s executive producers: Frank Marshall, also known as the filmmaker responsible for directing the original Arachnophobia film.
Seeing as this film is a reboot and not a sequel – or even a “requel,” as so many rebooted horror franchises like to do – we can surmise that the plot will follow a similar path to that of the original film.
The original Arachnophobia starred Jeff Daniels as a small-time doctor – this was a few years before he played Harry in Dumb & Dumber, so it was more believable – who deals with an infestation of deadly Venezuelan spiders. The movie also has Julian Sands from the Warlock franchise, and John Goodman, who plays one of the most memorable characters in the film.
Arachnophobia was produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, which might explain the original’s “thriller” vibes: a genre that Spielberg himself practically redefined with Jaws and Jurassic Park.
Now that this sort of “thriller comedy” movie is back in vogue thanks to films like Jordan Peele’s Nope, it’s safe to say that Spielberg’s trademark is back in business, which also means that now would definitely be the right time to bring back an underrated classic like Arachnophobia. While some fans of the original might have hoped for a sequel rather than a reboot, we’re sure that the franchise is in the right hands at the moment.
Even though there’s still no release date for the Arachnophobia reboot, one thing is for sure: people are going to fear spiders again.
