A tarantula injected with a synthetic super food nutrient breaks loose from the lab and continues to grow wreaking havoc on a small desert community.
Like Empire of the Ants (see previous entry), Tarantula (1955) mainly relies on combining photography of an actual tarantula with live action plates (and the occasional close up of a full size mock-up spider), but the effects in Tarantula still look amazing. It doesn't hurt that the story is better and the characters, while being a bit thinner as dimensional characters, are more engaging and likable. John Agar, as is often the case, plays the earnest young scientist. Model/actress Mara Corday is the love interest and scientific assistant to the man behind the synthetic super food nutrient (Leo G. Carroll), who in a b plot is also breeding monsters of the human variety in a series of disfiguring side effects when the nutrient is injected into humans. This fun monster movie is one of the last classics to come out of Universal Studios, and one of my favorites. The score by Ronald Stein is also top notch.
Have you heard of Christopher R Mihm? He has a bunch of throwback movies that he's done that are fun. He has one called The Giant Spider that's very much in the same spirit.
ReplyDelete