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Earth vs. the Spider

Earth vs. the Spider

List Price: $14.94
Your Price: $13.45
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Old-Fashioned Styling Worthy of a Good Horror Collection
Review: The B-horror movie seems to be in vogue. For a long time we were inundated with huge, expensive blockbusters, of which I need provide no examples as there are so many. However, a number of recent releases proves that the B-movie, the staple of the drive-in theater, is not dead.

In a variation on the "Spiderman" theme, nerdy Quentin Kemmer (David Summersall) dreams of being a superhero. Working at a biotech facility, Quentin has an opportunity to inject himself with a serum that gives Quentin the powers of a spider. Quentin almost immediately saves Stephanie Lewis (Amelia Heinle) from a rapist/murderer. As the movie progresses, it turns out that beautiful Stephanie likes Quentin, and may even be interested in him.

Unfortunately for Quentin, his new spider powers come with the terrible side effect of turning him into a real spider, with the hunger of a real spider. Soon Quentin has all sorts of interesting physical changes that make him unsuitable for lovely Stephanie. In the best tradition of the B-movie, Stephanie doesn't give up on Quentin even when he's threatening to make her his next meal.

Dan Ackroyd also has a lead role in this movie as the appropriately named Detective Jack Grillo. Dan never quite puts his finger on the situation until near the end of the movie, when he realizes that just maybe a really big spider is killing everyone. Unfortunately, he also loses his lovely, but unfaithful and apparently alcoholic, wife Trixie (Theresa Russell). In one of those wonderful coincidences so common to the B-movie, Trixie's lover Officer Williams (Christopher Cousins) also meets his fate at the fangs of the spider. Interestingly, the normally humorous Dan Ackroyd plays a serious character, but is just over the top enough to be a caricature of an old-style gumshoe.

The special effects of Sam Winston are good and valuable in this movie, yet the success of the movie hinges not on the special effects, but on the plot. The characters provide a nearly believable innocence found in the monster movies of yore. We want Quentin to be good and to recover. We fall in love with the innocent, naïve Stephanie, and want Quentin and her to be together. We feel sorry for hard-working Detective Grillo, whose wife does not understand his commitment to his job. An old-fashioned monster movie pulls us in and allows us to relive the days of "I Was a Teenage Werewolf."

This movie is worthy of a horror fan's collection, and certainly worth at least one watch. This movie is most particularly worthy of a Saturday night in the fall, with someone by your side to pull in close when the spider strikes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic horror
Review: The CREATURE FEATURES series created for Cinemax was originated to remake classic films of the 50s. This one is based on a little known 1957 film, and director Scott Ziehl leads his cast though the motions quite convincingly.
We meet Quentin (Devon Gummersall), a timid security clerk at a chemical laboratory, whose dream is to be a "superhero." He is falling for his next door neighbor, the glamorous nursing student, Stephanie (Amelia Heinle), but he doesn't have the confidence to ask her out. Meanwhile, back at the lab, someone breaks in and tries to steal something, which results in the death of Quentin's buddy, and he loses his job. Before he goes, however, he injects himself with spider DNA because his dead friend said that the serum would make spiders invincible. Of course, the serum does that---and more.
The movie has some funny scenes (a cop steps on an escaped spider and it bounces right back), and it also has some gruesome ones involving the metamorphosis of Quentin into a disgusting spider man.
The effects are well done, and the pacing of the movie is good. Gummersall and Heinle are excellent; Theresa Russell as Dan Ackyroyd's cheating wife is sleazy. I think Dan Ackroyd, however, was seriously miscast. Granted, the actor is talented, but it's hard to see him as a tough NY Detective, and the poor guy is ballooning out, too---which adds to the improper casting. But, it's a decent remake, better than the original, and let's hope Creature Features continues to redo some of those great b movies of our time! How about TARANTULA guys?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: WHACKED OUT SPIDER MAN
Review: The CREATURE FEATURES series created for Cinemax was originated to remake classic films of the 50s. This one is based on a little known 1957 film, and director Scott Ziehl leads his cast though the motions quite convincingly.
We meet Quentin (Devon Gummersall), a timid security clerk at a chemical laboratory, whose dream is to be a "superhero." He is falling for his next door neighbor, the glamorous nursing student, Stephanie (Amelia Heinle), but he doesn't have the confidence to ask her out. Meanwhile, back at the lab, someone breaks in and tries to steal something, which results in the death of Quentin's buddy, and he loses his job. Before he goes, however, he injects himself with spider DNA because his dead friend said that the serum would make spiders invincible. Of course, the serum does that---and more.
The movie has some funny scenes (a cop steps on an escaped spider and it bounces right back), and it also has some gruesome ones involving the metamorphosis of Quentin into a disgusting spider man.
The effects are well done, and the pacing of the movie is good. Gummersall and Heinle are excellent; Theresa Russell as Dan Ackyroyd's cheating wife is sleazy. I think Dan Ackroyd, however, was seriously miscast. Granted, the actor is talented, but it's hard to see him as a tough NY Detective, and the poor guy is ballooning out, too---which adds to the improper casting. But, it's a decent remake, better than the original, and let's hope Creature Features continues to redo some of those great b movies of our time! How about TARANTULA guys?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bet on the Spider
Review: This has great specil FX, but that's it.

Avoid this like you would a tarantula

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: the best spider man rip off of all time
Review: this is a spider man rip off but with a far darker tone.dan akroyd plays a serious cop whose trying to get his man.he doesnt do very well and should stick to comedy.kids will get scared.all the money was devoted to the monster in this one and not anything else.the monster is a geek who is enduring a really slow metamorphisis into a man sized spider.its the best spider man rip offive ever seen.there are some parts with nasty spider stuff,so the queasy should look away.there are no hot chicks just some priss the geek pines over all the time.it will probably get a bad rap,but its good.this is the best dan akroyd film but thats because all hisfilms suck.the man spider guy is really neat.id even watch a sequel.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Campy creature B movie
Review: With respect to other reviews it should be noted that this film is very cheesy. It bills itself as a Terrifying Thriller Horror but I can only think of one shot in the film intended to scare. It plays more like a long episode of the Monsters! television show. The plot is a mix of the Jeff Goldblum "The Fly" and the spiderman comic books.

There were parts where the execution was fun and interesting but more often than not I felt I had seen it all before ... in better movies. I had hopes for Akroyd due to his work in previous Horror/Comedies and even a few dramatic performances. Unfortunately, he and all the other actors play it for high drama. Also, the title "Earth vs. the Spider" is a misnomer as Earth for the most part never knows there even is a spider. The film focuses on four or five people and all the rest are just bit parts.


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