Arachnid opens with a giant water spout on top of which would appear to be a UFO capable of becoming invisible. This attracts the attention of a stealth fighter pilot who ejects from his plane seconds before it crashes into the UFO. Having safely parachuted onto a jungle island, the pilot confronts and shoots an alien only to find himself facing a giant spider...We are transported both forward in time and geographically to Guam where locals from the aforementioned island are dying from spider bites. In order to find a cure an expedition is raised thus giving our film makers the opportunity to introduce the usual collection of clichéd characters and gradually eliminate most of them.Our motley crew are made up of Valentine (Chris Potter) the gung-ho gun-toting hero, his sidekicks Reyes (Luis Lorenzo Crespo) and Bear (Roqueford Allen), Mercer (Alex Reid) the tough as boots charter pilot also on a mission to find out what happened to her fighter pilot brother, Dr. Samuel Leon (Jose Sancho), his glamorous but tough assistant Susana (Neus Asensi), Henry Capri (Ravil Isyanov), arachnologist and a few of the islanders.Suffice to say that they soon find themselves arguing with each other and eventually, as their numbers dwindle, bonding. In between, various members of the party come to sticky ends involving body infesting giant ticks, cocoons and the title character.This formulaic dross is only enlivened in small parts by one or two special effects moments, the giant spider being the highlight - although even this is let down by the sight of it 'running'. Most of the cast seem to be more well-known on the small screen which is quite apt as the dialogue is certainly not up to the standards of a major motion picture. The music seems to have absolutely no connection to what is happening on the screen and simply jars. Background sounds of waves breaking and jungle noises are loud enough to drown out speech which itself is often totally unintelligible. The original involvement of alien creatures is never clearly explained - unfortunately merely a prelude to various plot holes. To top all this off, we have yet another film without a proper ending. Whether this is done in the expectation of a sequel or simply because the budgetary pot ran dry is a matter of conjecture.Whilst most of this can be explained away as being caused by budgetary restraints - apparently only $570,000 dollars was wasted - blame must largely lie with screenplay writer Mark Seri and director Jack Sholder.

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!

The cover had me fooled. I saw in the library and I though, this would be a good movie but instead, it was a horrible movie that deals, yet again, about genetically enhanced giant spiders. A formula that has been overused so many times it gets sickening. The beginning was a sight to see; it was intriguing and a good cliffhanger but the rest was horrible after that. Rather than being a horror it was an action-adventure dressed up as a horror.The acting was so-so and still up for debate but overall it was pretty poor. For some reason they way they voiced the dialogue and the way they acted made it seem like they were actually reading from a script rather than trying to act like it was natural dialogue.This movie had some scares, some, and at times I jumped but the way the shots were developed and the way the previous shot was framed, it kind of foreshadowed the whole jump-out-scare thing. The special effects were effective, which is the only thing good about this movie.Overall, If you want a unoriginal formulaic plot, giant spiders and good effects, this movie if for you.

Arachnid: 7 of 10: Maybe it's the puppets that I liked. It's nice to see a movie made in the 21st century that doesn't use horrible shiny CGI for its creatures. (It does use horrible shiny CGI for it's alien spaceships.) Arachnid is all the better for it's retro monster. This is a true six-pack toke 'm if you got them B movie. A European production with decent location shooting, an international cast (half horrible and unintelligibly dubbed), and a real B movie budget unlike those $10 Z movie digital camcorder pretenders. It's all off course a bit predictable. (If you can't figure out two of the survivors at the end turn in your monster movie-watching card now.) And despite a lot of fodder (always a good sign) to many deaths seem off screen or at least over a little quickly. The movie also could have used some gratuitous nudity (If young thing Alex Reid wasn't willing at least allow Spanish star Neus Asensi to release those puppies like she has done in the past.) Those quibbles aside I couldn't help but cheer when the puppeteers took the Volkswagen sized spider out for the spin in the second half of the movie. Of course you enjoyment may depend on what you consumed during the first half.