Review of Tarantula (1955) by Jerker S — 09 Mar 2008
By a coincidence I got to see this old black/white horror movie that is of the classic premise of gigantic creature that wreak terror on a few people.
Of course the special effects was lacking some - but, like often said, by the standard of these movies (from the 50s) it was OK. Much was made of combining once scene of people in the setting and then placing the spider in a minature of the same scene. Quite effective, but maybe could have done more with it.
The characters and story was good and easy to follow. Not boring for one minute and likeable characters and good actors that I liked.
One "subplot" of the movie was dealing with the almost magic thing one professor was working on and I had almost wanted the movie to be all about that. The tarantula didn't make that much effect (hard to think of...) and as a character it was pretty uninteresting.
The problem with the spider is that it really doesn't do anything and doesn't have a character. One of the very special thing about King Kong (another famous "monster") is that you as audience really feel for the character and feel pain when he dies. For this spider you feel nothing and it really doesn't do that much but walk around and eat some people from time to time.
The movie is well directed and the actors do a very good job. Too bad I didn't feel the terror from the spider.
This review of Tarantula (1955) was written by Jerker S on 09 Mar 2008.
Tarantula has generally received mixed reviews.
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